After a 5 week hiatus from Chemo, I started back Monday (including an iron infusion).

My week has not gone as good as I’d hoped.  It started with a 104 degree fever Tuesday.  No other symptoms of any sort.  Just fever that Tylenol took down to 100 for a few days.  Add to that a uncomfortable abdominal feeling when I went to bed.

Here’s a story of me back in October when I was first introduced to this disease.  My abdomen hurt because of tumors.  I even had “tumor fevers”.  Of course taking 5 weeks off and experiencing discomfort and fever will make a Cancer Patient’s mind wander.

It’s been bit of a rough week.  I wasn’t feeling my best and I was worried my tumors were back to being the buttholes they were when we were first introduced.

I knew I would find answers Friday when I had my regular Doctor’s appointment.  Doctor Yunus wasn’t really concerned.  He mentioned that the Iron could have caused my fever.

Well according to Google (which I had soon turned to), an Iron Infusion can cause fevers and also gastritis.

Yay!  I have to say I don’t mind feeling bad as long as it’s the Iron Infusion.  Funny how the same “bad feelings” can either be good or bad.  It’s all about perspective 🙂

It is always like getting ready for work.  You shower, you eat, you apply Lidocaine to your Chemo port and you drive “to work”.  Today was a big day for me.  My blood work would tell the tale.  Either I’d get to stay and play some more, or they would send me home.   Sort of like a game show 🙂

Waiting on the Lab results.

These chairs would eventually fill up.

It wasn’t long before I got some good news.  My blood work was good and I was going to get my Treatment today.  One caveat though…. my iron game was weak and I was set up to receive an iron infusion.  I also had a visitor 🙂

Alicia came over to spend the day with me 🙂

A bag of iron.  Three bags of meds.  I also got a benadryl shot.  Now I was down to my last bag…. The neuropathy bag!

Here comes trouble!

Aaaah, the neuropathy killing ice bath.  By the time I finished the 2 hour bag, I was soaking for 5 minutes and out for 5 minutes.

No April Fools for me!

It was a long day, but it was a good day.  No new issues arose and the sun was shining when I left.  Now it’s the pump until Wednesday and a Doctor Appointment Friday.  My 8:00 – 4:30 shift was over.  Funny that I’m glad I’m back 🙂

It’s the end of March.  It was a bad month.  It was a good month.  March was a lion and a lamb.  I basically started out the month trying to bleed to death, but thankfully had a successful surgery that corrected that issue.  Because of the blood I was given and my low blood counts, I have been unable to continue my Chemotherapy.   March was a month where I haven’t been purposefully poisoned. 

The bad part of March was over quickly and the rest of the month has been filled with things that “normal” people do.  I’ve had ice in my drinks and sooo much ice cream.  I have walked around feeling like there is nothing wrong with me.  I actually could get used to not having Chemo 🙂

What’s ironic is that I miss Chemo.  In the back of my mind, I feel like I’m losing ground when I don’t have it.  I do not want to lose ground!

Here are a few pictures from the “good” part of my March.

I’m scheduled to start Treatments again tomorrow on April 1st.   I’ll go in ready and the first thing they’ll do is take blood work.  Then I’ll wait.  Stay tuned 🙂

Since my last entry

Waking up hoping it was my last day in ICU.  I loved the staff there, but no privacy and constant attention were for sick people and I wasn’t sick (well, you know)

Bad exposure, but I still got the sun rising 🙂

Here’s me in my own room.  It was so nice to be out of ICU 🙂

and after 3 days, I got to eat.  Try not eating for 3 days and see if Jello isn’t a great meal 🙂

My sweet daughter and her husband came to visit

My lunch was even better.  Broth, Tea, and two Jello’s 🙂

A happy Dad 🙂

Happy?  Michelle brought my robe in Thursday morning and some slippers.  I felt like a king 🙂

My friend Pat stopped in to visit

My childhood friend June came by to see me

And her nephew Austin dropped by

My friend Kendra popped in to see me 🙂

And my wonderful friends Peggy and Tamra came by to see me

And look who’s back from Costa Rica, Panama, and Mexico City?  It was so nice seeing Alicia

Clewis has dropped in to check on me both days.  It’s great to see so many of my friends working here at the Infirmary

Here’s a medical description of my problem.  It was rare and it was dangerous.  More later

This afternoon, I finally got unhooked from all drip medicines.  What a glorious feeling to be free of drip bags and pumps.  I went for a walk.

Just out the door of the Hospital

In another spot

Michelle even pulled up with Bruno in the truck.  It was sooooo good to see my little man.

I have missed him so much!

Me and my lovely wife 🙂

Quick update:  One of my doctors told me today how close I came to dying.  I guess I never realized how lucky I was.  I got about 7 units of blood over the course of the first 3 days.  Having said that, blood bags won’t help you if you keep hemorrhaging.  Thank goodness I had a great team of doctors on my side.

Thank you all for the comments, messages, and visits.

I’m feeling great today and having so many friends who care about me makes me feel like a million bucks.  I’m crossing my fingers that tomorrow I’ll get to go home.  How sweet it will be to be back in my house with my loves…. and my bed 🙂

Joe Cain Sunday started out just like any other.  We went to the Joe Cain Classic and I took my cameras and my drone.  Right before the race, I found that I was getting dizzy when I stood up.  My blood sugar was high when I woke up, but I felt like it was low when I was dizzy.  Michelle ran and got me a banana and I ate it.

The morning was fun and I did get my pictures, but I knew something was wrong with me.  By the afternoon, I was still dizzy and my stomach was upset.  My blood pressure was fine and my blood sugar was fine.  But my watery discharge was black and red.  Like I had poured a bucket of bloody water into the toilet.  I knew then that I was bleeding.

While the Joe Cain Parade was going on, I was headed to the ER.  I was bleeding badly internally.

The ER gave me a mask when I checked in.

They also quickly got me back to a room

Finally I was admitted into the Intensive Care Unit.  This smile is NOT because they were making me do a colonoscopy prep that night.  The plan was a GI Scope and a Colonoscopy Monday morning to find out where I was bleeding.

After a rough night, I went in for my GI Scope.  That was early Monday morning.

This is me waking up to a ventilator.  I wasn’t aware of how much time had passed and I didn’t realize I was going out again. I also didn’t know that I had been through some surgery.  What I did know was that a ventilator will make you miserable.

A sunrise picture 🙂

This is my happy face from being freed from that awful ventilator.   I was soooo glad to be rid of that thing

And here’s a happier face.

My Cancer Scans have been great and I have felt so good.   That’s not to say that evil disease isn’t doing bad things behind the scenes.  My blood vessels near my spleen were being cut off and finally rerouted my blood into my stomach.  I’ve heard the doctors told Michelle that the GI scope showed blood spurting into my stomach.

Mardi Gras Day has come and gone and I’m still in ICU.  I’ll be in the hospital for a while under observation.  The staff here at the Infirmary is amazing and I’m finding out from them that I was a superstar “vent” patient.   In the meantime, I’ve received quite a few units of blood and we still don’t know if the bleeding is stopped.

Having said all of that and …. I’m ready to go home 😦

If you read my last entry, you know that I got a week off because my Platelets were low.  I was feeling great (after a full week of every day ice cream) and I was ready to get this 8th Treatment finally behind me.

I arrived at the hospital around 7:40 a.m. and they took me back quickly to get my bloodwork off to the lab.  It wasn’t long before I found out my platelets had went up from 69 (fail) to 92 (pass).  I was good to go and started my Infusion.  One small bag, then two large bags.  All was going well.

I say “well” meaning I was feeling good.  Pam (my nurse) told me she’s going to order a shot of Neulasta to help raise my White Blood Cells.  Michelle and I are going on a late Honeymoon soon and I will be skipping another treatment, so I’ll have another 3 weeks of bodily recovery.  I’m looking forward to that!!!!

Michelle was a sweetheart to walk in at lunchtime with a Whopper Junior and Fries for me.  I had just finished my two big bags and hadn’t started my last big bag.  The Infusion Room was overflowing so she didn’t stay, but I did gobble my lunch down and was thankful for her being so good to me.

Trouble Brewing

I had watched Netflix all morning and 25 minutes into the last bag, my lower back started hurting.  I got up and rolled my Medicine Cart into the bathroom and remember Pam asking me if I felt okay.  I told her I did and went to the bathroom to pee.  Peeing is a common occurrence on Infusion day simply because of the fluids.  Fluids going out because fluids going in 🙂

As I was coming out of the bathroom I started feeling awful.  It was like my head was going to explode.  Was it super-high blood sugar (no, I checked and it was 193 because I taken insulin with my lunch).  Was it high blood pressure?  I passed my chair as I made my way to Pam’s station to ask her if I shouldn’t have taken insulin.  She said she had noticed how red my face was when I came out of the bathroom.  I was having a full blown allergic reaction to the Oxaliplatin.  It was bad enough I was soaking my fingers in ice water, but now this!  She immediately stopped the infusion and got the okay to give me a big shot of Benadryl.

That’s me laying down while waiting on the Benadryl to kick in.  I was feeling my heartbeat in the blood vessels in my head and I was a little nervous about the next few minutes.  Thankfully, the Benadryl worked quickly and I started feeling better.  I’m VERY THANKFUL Pam knew it was a platinum drug reaction and has seen it enough times to know what steps to take.  Thank you Pam!!!!

She kept checking on me and I kept getting better.  It wasn’t long before I sat up and finished my movie while she restarted the rest of the bag.

This me after getting home.  I have the pump for 48 hours administering the final drug Fluororacil.   I don’t think I’ve ever had a problem with that drug.

Speaking of problems.  My first 7 treatments were a piece of cake.  I had even got the great advice to soak my hands in ice water to cut down on the neuropathy in my fingers.  I was all set.  But bumps do happen.  The build up of poison is getting evident.  It’s nice to know that there are medicines to help.  I swear I want to continue this Chemo Cocktail as long as I can.  My scans have proved its effectiveness.  I guess I should be glad that we’ll know next time to add Benadryl before the last bag.  Oh, and there’s no place better than a hospital to have an allergic reaction!!!

I’m proud to say I made it all the way through the 8th treatment and I’m home resting from it.  It took some doing, but that’s behind me and while it was difficult, I’m thinking it’s more difficult on my cancer.  If my tumors were blogging, they would have been bitching since the first treatment.  So far, I’ve kept it to a minimum because I know Chemo is like a big brother.  He might hit you from time to time, but he’s going to protect you when you’re in trouble.

Thanks my ugly big brother:)

Today was to be my 8th Treatment.

I went to the hospital early as usual and soon was in my favorite Infusion Chair.  My nurse quickly had a needle in my port and blood was drawn for the normal test to see if you’re able to take Chemo.

I am feeling great these days and thought that the people who I had seen sent away were just too frail to continue.  Turns out that’s not always the case.  I honestly feel great, but my bloodwork came back with low platelets.

Chemo destroys cells that grow rapidly.  It’s great for Tumors, but not so much for bone marrow (which produces the platelets).  I went back and looked and my platelets have been coming down with each treatment.  The concern with low platelets is that your blood won’t clot.  If you were in an accident, you could easily bleed to death.

All of this sounds bad, but the solution is just to give my body another week to recover.  The nurse felt assured my platelets would rise in a weeks time.

What that means for me?  For months, I couldn’t enjoy a cold drink or ice cream until my second weekend after Chemo.  I ate ice cream last night in anticipation of losing that ability the next day.  So it means I can enjoy cold stuff for another week!

Hey my poison friend, see you next week.  And here’s to the Bluebell I bought on the way home 🙂

I had my second Pet Scan yesterday.  My first one was at the last part of October and I’d forgotten the details.   You have to get your blood sugar drawn.  It must be under 200 to continue.  Then you sit in a small room and wait on the radioactive medicine to come in.  When it comes in, it’s in a compact metal container and it’s pushed into your vein.  Once it’s in, you have to sit quietly for an hour in a darkened room to relax.  The scan itself is 20 minutes and is not bad.

Today I went to see my Oncologist and went over some things.  The first thing was my Cancer Blood Markers (CA 19-9).  I started this journey out with a huge CA 19-9 of over 64,000.   By mid December, it had come down to 19,800.  We were all happy about that.  I had another one pulled 2 days ago and my results were astonishing!  My CA 19-9 number is now 2,200!!!!  My doctor seemed amazed at how great my body was responding to the treatments.  That’s wonderful because I found out the other day that only about 30% of patients even respond to the treatments I’m on. I’m so glad to be in that 30% 🙂

The other part of the good news was my Pet Scan went from showing a Liver full of tumors to showing some small remains.

Michelle was with me and we were smiling and happy and my Doctor seemed very happy too.

I can’t thank you enough for the prayers and positive thoughts.  I am by no means out of the woods, but I can only be happy at this point.  I feel good and the science backs it up…. and Spring is right around the corner 🙂

I just got home from my 6th Chemo Treatment.  It was a pretty quick day.  My labs came back quickly.  My medicines came in on time and I got in and out in 6 1/2 hours!  Michelle brought me a two piece Popeye’s Fried Chicken dinner for Lunch. And my childhood friend June (who works at the Hospital) stopped by to see me a couple of times.

Me in my chair.  There is something that’s promising.  Three people told me to soak my hands in ice water to help prevent more Neuropathy damage.  Two of them actually did it during Chemo.  I took a small ice chest in and a large bowl and during my last bag, I painfully soaked them as much as I could.  My nurse hadn’t heard of the practice.  Another nurse told me it probably was not going to work and I was just punishing myself.  I’m crossing my fingers when I tell you that I walked out of that clinic with no neuropathy pain in my fingers.  I even put my hand on something in the refrigerator when I got home and no pain.  Whoop!!!!  If this holds up, I will be reporting it back to the nurses and maybe it will help others.  (Thanks Jodi, Lane, and Alicia)

To top the good day off, I stopped by my Doctors Building after getting my pump installed and ran into Trey (another friend).  I went to see Ellen and she gave me a wonderful care package.  Thanks so much Ellen!

And look who I came home to

Bruno was so glad to see me!

Now to spend the next 48 hours with more Chemo being slowly pumped into me…

Bad?  Nope.  Good?  Nope.  Tolerable.  Yes!!!!  Funny how life throws the curves.  There are usually many things you don’t like.  Then you get hit with something HUGE that you don’t like.  Now all the things you have a right to “not like” (like Chemo), but you like it because it’s the enemy of your enemy.  I’ll take living to fight any day over not living and not fighting.  Here’s to my 6th treatment!

Jan 14, 2019

It is cold today and supposed to be much colder next Monday.  Today is the start of my “really good week”.  That means it is the week after my last treatment and the week before the next treatment.

Last week I got some Fast Acting Insulin (Novolog) and it is finally bringing my blood sugar down.  I have to take a reading before my meals and then pretty much guess at how much to take depending on what I am about to eat.

I also take 40 units of Tresiba nightly.  That is a slow acting insulin and it was not cutting it.  The fast-acting Novolog has really helped.  Seems like my pancreas isn’t producing any insulin these days.

For anyone that doesn’t know, the shots I take are easy.  You have a pen that you dial in the dose, then screw on a plastic cap that contains a needle.  You pull the cap off and stick the tiny needle in and press the button to release the Insulin.  Nothing like I imagined.  No syringes.  No vials and air pockets.  Just modern technology.

And…

To all of you who decided to donate, THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!!  I want to say that things aren’t bad in the financial area, but with this disease hitting me late last year, I had to pay all my deductibles then and now again.  That and copays (and drugs) just keeps my credit cards going the wrong way.  You guys are wonderful!!!!