Half Way Home

Sorry I didn't write after the third treatment, but better late than never. There's not really much news to report, which is good. This time there were no Woogie like reactions and the whole treatment only took around 5 hours, which is about 3-4 hours less than usual. My oncologist says that I'm still on the path I'm supposed to be as far as the treatment working. The tumors on the left side of my neck are gone and there are a couple sticking around on the right side, and I'm hoping they get down to Wolffia Augusta size as my friend Todd mentioned in his comments to my last post. I have to get a PET and CT Scan after this next treatment to see how well the treatment has worked. While the allergic reactions have pretty much disappeared, I've had a trade off with feeling pretty lousy right after treatment. It kind of feels like being injected with the flu and a really bad hangover at the same time. That's pretty much it for now, but I guess it's good not to have to much to write about. Outside of fatigue, I'm very lucky to have been dealing with limited side effects. Well, after this Thursday I'll be 2/3 of the way there. Thanks again for all the emails, letters, and visits!!!

2 Down 4 To Go

Sorry that I haven't updated the Blog since my last treatment. I was on so much Benadryl during the treatment that I couldn't write and was pretty groggy during the week, so now that I've got my second treatment under my belt I feel a little more comfortable with the side effects. The two weeks following the first treatment were pretty boring. I didn't have much nausea, the only real side effects were jaw pain and lots of fatigue/dizziness. I started this second visit with a MUGA test to see exactly how much blood my heart was pumping out. I'd describe what that test is like, but it's pretty boring. All that really matters is that the test came back showing that my heart is fine. After the heart check-up we met with my oncologist again. That meeting went real well and they were even surprised by how quickly and dramatically my tumors have shrunk. The only thing I can personally use as a reference is the one lymph node (tumor) that was on the right side of my neck where it meets my jaw. It had been the size of a peach pit for years, after the first treatment it went down to the size of a grape, and now only 1 day after my second treatment it's about the size of a blueberry. I'm hoping for an even smaller fruit simile to use on my next post. They were most surprised over the decrease is size of some of the tumors in my groin and even more so about my spleen. So, things are going along as we were hoping so far. They are still obsessed with with my having bowel movements, it's amazing. I forgot to ask why, but I'm going to on the next visit. Luckily for me, along with macrame and interpretive dance, bowel moving is something I excel in. I had two pretty bad allergic reactions during the first treatment. I'd be swamped in sweat and then would break out in hives. I pretty much looked exactly like Woogie from There's Something About Mary. A Benadryl/Steroid combo took care of that, but it ended up taking about 9 hours for the first treatment. This second treatment went much quicker, but I still had one Woogie reaction. The only difference was that instead of profusely sweating before my Woogiemorphesus, I got the worlds worst cold symptoms all in two minutes. i couldn't stop sneezing, my nose was running and then became so stuffed that I sounded like Henry Kissinger (without the accent and sexy, come hither look). I think this second treatment has taken a little more out of me so far than the first one did, but I think this coming week will be better since I'll know what to expect. Finally, I'd like to send a note to my new friend and fellow cancer fighter Anna: I was so happy to hear your great news! Hang in there, you're an inspiration, and since today is the 69th Anniversary of Lou Gherig's farewell speech, it seems only right to quote him, "I may have been given a bad brake, but I've got an awful lot to live for." To everyone else, thank you so much for the constant calls, texts, emails, and visits. It's impossible to let you know how much easier this all is because of all of the things you guys do.