Hardware Downgrade

Got my port removed today. It was an outpatient procedure at Miami Valley Hospital. Everything was great until the pain meds wore off, but that's always how it is I suppose. The real significance here is that my oncologist ordered the procedure, because he doesn't think I'll need it anymore. Woo freakin hoo!

Coming down the home stretch

Had an appointment with my oncologist today (Dr. Sabiers). Nothing major to report. I'll be (finally) getting my port taken out soon. That's just an outpatient procedure.

Got a prescription for neurontin (gabapentin) to help with the tingly feet. Hopefully that will allow me to take a walk, exercise on the elliptical, etc. Interesting side effects: The most commonly observed adverse events associated with the use of Neurontin in adults, not seen at an equivalent frequency among placebo-treated patients, were dizziness, somnolence, and peripheral edema.

Anyway, all is well.

Test Results

Got the biopsy results today. All tests came back negative. No problems, no worries. I guess the only thing now is to wait until all these chemo side effects go away. It's been 3 months now, and my feet are still numb, as are my fingers. My bowels are still in an uproar (but manageable). All in all, life is good, no more cancer, no more cold sensitivity, nausea, etc. It could be a lot worse :)

First Followup

Yesterday I had a follow-up colonoscopy. It was performed by my surgeon, Dr. Conover. Everything looks good with the exception of some excessive scar tissue. He said that will improve over time, we'll check again in a year and see. In the meanwhile it just means that things don't pass as easily as they should, no big deal. He also took some tissue samples from the colon lining to test for different kinds of colitis. I'll get those results in the next week or so.

Another Hospital Visit

Julie and I were out on Sunday Christmas shopping. We stopped to have lunch. About an hour later I started to get the familiar sharp pain in pit of my stomach. I took some Malox Ultra, which usually does the trick, but the pain kept getting worse. We went to Toys-R-Us, I stayed in the van while Julie went in to shop. The pain got worse, so we decided to head home. About half way I had Julie pull of to the side of the highway so I could throw up. That seemed to help the pain a little bit. We continued home. After being home about an hour or so, I finally had Julie take me to the hospital. Sure enough my intestines had decided to stop functioning again. This time was easier though because it was "just" constipation. It was wierd though because I hadn't had any indication there was a problem. No bloating, no cramps, no discomfort at all that would lead me to believe I was constipated. Anyway, they gave me morphine and a laxative, let me stay overnight for "observation", and everything cleared up. I was back home by noon on Monday.

On the chemo side effects front, the neuropathy continues as before. My feet are still as numb as they were two months ago when I had my last treatment. It feels like the balls of my feet and my heels are swollen. They tingle with everystep. My hands if anything are worse than they were. My typing is a lot more error-prone, I hit multiple keys a lot. My fingertips down to about the second knuckle are numb/tingly. The other side effects (random pains, insomnia, nausea, cold sensitivity, etc) have all improved a lot.

All in all, things are going pretty well.

Merry Christmas to all...

Update

It's been around 3 weeks since my hospital stay, and over a month since my last chemo treatment. My feet and fingertips are still numb, and my bowels are still inflamed/irritated, but all other side effects have pretty much faded. I'm feeling pretty good these days, my strength is coming back little by little.

My doctor thinks I've developed lactose intolerance, which is causing my bowel issues. I think that's definitely possible, as both my brother and my dad are lactose intolerant. So, I've cut out milk and milk products. I'm going to go pick up some Lactaid pills today. We'll see.

On the weight front, I know weigh 162 pounds. I started out a year ago at 233. I hit my all time low a couple days after my last hospital stay at 158. I'm hoping the holidays will bump me up to around 170, which is where I'd like to stay.

Home Again

Got released from the hospital yesterday morning. 8 days in the hospital for a bowel obstruction. All they really did was pump me full of pain killers and wait. I guess that's better than an actual operation. All I know is that it was a really boring week, daytime TV sucks. I'll be back to work on Monday.

Still in the Hospital

It's day 4 of my hospital stay. As fun as it's been, I'm ready to go home. Took a small step towards that goal about an hour ago. Had a small bowel movement, which means the Ileus is (healing?). In any case, doc said today that once things are moving, it'll still be 48 hours before I could go home. So I'm looking at heading home on Wednesday, providing everything progresses well.

Back in the Hospital

On Thursday night around 9:00, I started to get what I thought was bad case of gas. You know, that sharp pain in your gut and bloating. So I took some Gas-X, which usually does the case. It didn't. The pain kept getting worse regardless of what I tried: milk, Malox, Tums, toast, more Gas-X. I was up all night pretty much writhing in pain and feeling sorry for myself. It was the worst case of gas I'd ever had. It even made me throw up a couple times. Odd thing was, throwing up didn't help the pain.

Julie got up at 4:00 to get ready for work but instead wound up taking me to the emergency room. They pumped me full of pain killers, which helped a BUNCH. I could actually breathe normally. They then did a CAT scan on my abdomen and sent it to Australia for a doctor to read there (due to time difference). The results came back that I had a bowel obstruction, a collection of fluid outside intestines, and an abscess near my large intestine. They contacted my surgeon and arranged for me to take a ride to Miami Valley Hospital.

Once at Miami Valley, they took some X-rays of my abdomen, started me on a pain regimen of Palladone (a morphine derivative) and Toradol. I checked in at about 10:30 am on Friday. I didn't see my doctor until about 6:00pm. I was getting pretty pissed about that until I talked to him. He was busy in surgery. Plus, it turns out the Australian radiologist didn't have it quite right.

What I actually have is an Ileus. Basically part of my intestines have shut down, causing a "blockage". There isn't anything physically blocking the intestines at all. The accepted treatment is Tincture of Time (my surgeon's term). Basically wait for things to start back up.

So here I am, sitting in a hospital room watching football. It's Sunday afternoon. I haven't had anything to eat or drink since Thursday. I'm only allowed ice chips to keep my mouth moist. They have an IV keeping my fluid levels up. The doctors won't give me an estimate of how long it will take to get "right" again. I'm getting the distinct impression it could be awhile.

As it so happens, my doctor stopped by while I was writing this. He wants to wait until Wednesday to do anything more than just wait. Then we could start talking about surgery. Problem is, by disturbing the intestines with surgery you increase the chance this could happen again.

On the upside:

• It's not life threatening
• I'm fairly comfortable, just bored
• The hospital has 30" flat screen TVs with HD

Last Treatment

Yesterday I got my last dose of Oxaliplatin and hooked up the pump for the 5-FU infusion. I'll get that removed tomorrow at 11:00am and I will be done with the post-surgery chemo treatments. Yesterday was about the worst I've felt on treatment day. Today is better, though. And tomorrow will be better yet. By the end of next week I'll start to feel a little normal. By Thanksgiving I hope the side effects will be just about gone.

On another note, I've managed to get a handle on my bowel issues. Through a combination of high fiber diet, fiber supplements, and immodium I'm able to maintain an almost normal schedule. Hopefully I won't need the immodium after the chemo effects go away. It's not good to be on a regular schedule of opiates (yes immodium is an opioid).

There will be a "Not Dead Yet" party, looks like somewhere around the 5th or 6th of November. Far enough out from today that I can eat/drink what I want :). If "Not Dead Yet" is too morbid, maybe we can call it a "Survival" party. I don't know. Everybody said I should have a part, so we're having a party.

11 down, 1 to go

Got my 11th treatment yesterday. Nothing different to report, it's typical day 2; working from home, hands and feet numb to varying degrees, nausea. I just have to do this one more time and I'm done!

Thinking of having a party sometime around Halloween to celebrate the end of the misery and the start of my post-cancer life.

Muddling Along

This is a good week (no treatment). However, it seems the side effects are getting stronger and lasting longer. A few months ago the cold sensitivity would wane pretty quickly. By the weekend it would almost be gone. Well, it's Monday and it's just as strong as ever. I can't grab stuff out of the fridge without it hurting like hell. My feet started getting "tingly" with treatment about 6 weeks ago. Now it's to the point I have to wear socks to bed because I can't stand anything touching the bottoms of my feet. It's like they're asleep, except highly sensitive, very annoying. And I get the feeling they are going to be like that the rest of the way, it doesn't get better with time.

My last treatment is on October 12, just 5 short weeks away. By Halloween I should be feeling OK. I'm hoping that by ThanksGiving I'll be 100%. If not, it'll still be a great Christmas, compared to last year when I was pretty much laid out by radiation and chemo.

Flying Sucks

Let me just say, flying when you have digestive issues is a huge hassle. I took the 6:50am flight from Dayton to Philly this morning. However, ever since the operation that removed 2/3 of my rectum, I've had a constant problem with regularity. The last time I was "regular" was after the chemo/radiation ending in January, and the surgery was done in March. Since then I cycle through constant bouts of diahrea followed by constipation. Travelling would be ok in a constipation phase, but I nearly missed my plane this morning due to a very necessary bathroom stop.

Here's another very annoying thing: I've been telling my doctor about the whole diahrea thing for months. On Friday, he said, "oh that's normal for people who have a portion of their colon removed. Try this...". He could've let me in on the little secret 4 months ago. Basically, it looks like I'll be taking Metamucil twice a day for the rest of my life. If it stops the insanity, I'm all for it, it could be worse.

Another very annoying thing: Apparently they've been testing my "cancer markers" every time they draw blood, which is with every treatment. Nobody has bothered to tell me the results or that they were even doing it. My nurse happened to mention it at my last treatment, so of course I got all worked up about it. I'm thinking "what if there's more cancer?", "what do they do if the markers are high? Do I have to do a lot of testing?". So at my doctor's appointment on Friday, he says, "Oh yeah, the markers are at 0.6, we don't worry about it unless it's over 2.5. We test them every time". It would have been good if he'd have let me in on that little bit of information. By the way, 0.6 is considered "normal". People who've never had cancer will register some level of markers.

75% DONE

Okay, so it's been over a month since my last blog. Shoot me. Please.

I got my 9th treatment yesterday and things are going about normal. Can't touch anything cool or my hands go all tingly. Same with my lips and tongue. Kinda funny, really. If I take a drink of something cold, my tongue goes numb and I sound drunk.

All in all things are going fine. They took a blood sample yesterday to check for cancer markers. I should have the results when I visit my oncologist on Friday.

Oh, and did you hear the latest on our wonderful new administration? They are going to cut Medicair payments to oncologists and cardiologists by some $1.4 billion. I'm so thankful I'm going through all this while I'm still allowed by Big Brother to have private insurance.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/bloomberg/20090828/pl_bloomberg/arqnpw9zinj4_1

7 down, 5 to go

This may be my first post on the same day as treatment. I just wanted to document the details of how it feels, should anyone be interested.

• I'm very light-headed, similar to what you feel when you have the flu, or a really bad hangover.
• My stomach just feels wierd. I'm pretty sure it's nausea dulled by the massive amounts of anti-nausea meds in my system. It's that "I think I may have to puke later" feeling.
• Eating does not seem to affect my stomach. I had a salad for lunch, and just ate a couple pieces of fruit, the stomach is no better, no worse.
• The palms of my hands are numb off and on.
• I'm getting random shooting pains in my torso, mostly in the rib cage, sometimes the groin, which is a load of fun.
• Cold sensitivity is here, but not as severe as it has been in the past. Hurts a bit to grab anything in the refrigerator, but room temperature stuff doesn't seem to bother me. At it's worst, I couldn't even touch a doorknob in an air conditioned room without my fingers tingling.

Looks like I may be getting a treatment off. There is a 50/50 shot that I'll be spending a couple weeks on a business trip in August. I could use the break; four weeks without feeling like this.

New Suit

Had to buy a new suit today. My old suit is way too big, even across the shoulders. I never knew you lost weight in your shoulders. Oh well. Maybe Anthem will cover part of the cost? I seriously doubt it. I have to fly to Phoenix on the 26th for big meeting, pitching our services to a very large company, thus the new suit. I'm going to have to delay my next chemo treatment to go, but this is a meeting I can't miss.

It's Saturday and I'm feeling better, pretty typical of the treatment cycles. The one thing that keeps getting worse is my energy level, though. I can't seem to get motivated to do much of anything. I'm just tired all the time, and I seem to be moving pretty slowly these days. I feel OLD. After all this crap is done, I'm going to get in decent shape and stay there.

Half Way

Had the 6th of 12 treatments on Monday. As usual it made me sick for 3 days. I wound up having to leave work early on Wednesday. I slept all afternoon and most of the evening, but feel much better now. Nothing new or interesting to report, just muddling through. I haven't lost any more weight, so I think I've pretty much bottomed out at around 175 pounds. That's about 55 pounds less than when all this started. Weight I should have lost a long time ago.

5 down 7 to go

Had chemo again on Monday. This week has been rough. VERY nauseous every day. Even today, on Thursday, I'm a bit queezy. I've never had it last this long after treatment, but at least I haven't actually thrown up. Just feel like it most of the time. I also have "chemo brain" pretty strong, too. This is that balloon headed feeling you get when you've got the flu. Standing up or moving suddenly makes you dizzy.

On the up side, I'm almost half way through. I've stopped losing weight, hovering around 175-180, which is a good weight for me. The cold sensitivity hasn't been too bad this time.

Still hanging in there...

Another Lovely Monday

Got treatment today. I ran into a bit of a complication, about 80% of the way through the chemo IV, I experienced pretty severe kidney pain. We had to stop treatment, give me a steroid IV and a Benedryl IV. The pain went away eventually and they finished the chemo. It's almost 8pm now and the pain hasn't returned, so hopefully it was just a one-time thing.

I'm able to function a little bit tonight, maybe I'm getting used to this stuff. Or maybe the extra steroid and Benedryl are helping still. I don't really care, honestly, as long as I'm not lying on the couch bitching and moaning.

We'll see how tomorrow goes, I'll work from home just in case there are issues, but based on how I fee now, I should be ok.

Looking up

I know it's been awhile, sorry.

I had my 3rd treatement last Monday, with the new anti-nausea meds. It went much better, no vomiting. I was still out for two days, but it was much easier. I also bounced back much faster than the previous treatment. So, spirits are much better, I can deal with this stuff.

This treatment went sort of like this:
Monday: Hell. Chemo all morning, lying on the couch trying (successfully) not to throw up all afternoon/evening. Cold sensitivity, peripheral neuropathy side effects hit full force. Drinking a room temperature glass of water makes my mouth numb, I sound drunk.
Tuesday: Yuck. Work a little from home, but mostly still lying on the couch. Feel much better by evening. Side effects still in full effect.
Wednesday: Back at work, actually productive and able to focus. Still a little sick. Can drink room temperature water and only my tongue goes numb. An improvement.
Thursday/Friday: Side effects continue to wane, able to work and function just fine.
Saturday: Slept all afternoon, like 4 hours. Guess it must have been catch-up sleep.
Sunday: Today, I'm fine. Just being lazy this morning working on the computer.

Looking forward to a symptom-free week :)