Video for the weekend: Last Lecture

This youtube clip is long but worth watching. It's a clip of a professor (Randy Paush) that was diagnosed with terminal liver cancer. This is his last lecture. It's moving and heartwarming and well worth watching. Thanks Brett for pointing this out. Have a great weekend.

Maui here we come!

Penny and I have never been to Maui and have always wanted to go. So when my surgeon said "now is the time" we took him seriously and went that afternoon to book a trip. We go on the 6th of December and come back on the 18th for a total of twelve hot, sunny, fun Maui days. This coming week will be crazy packing and organizing but it will be worth it. Hopefully Dr Buie can schedule my CT scan, MRI, blood work and meet and greet with my liver surgeon either before or after we go. Fingers crossed!

Trouble

Trouble, originally uploaded by DPC Tutt.

Andrew started crawling this week. This could be trouble...

No surgery date yet...

Today I met with my colorectal surgeon Dr. Buie to discuss the details of my upcoming surgery. We didn't book a date for the surgery yet but I did get lots of useful information about what's going to happen. I should also say it is a great relief that Penny and I both really like Dr Buie. He's polite, calm, knowledgeable and most importantly he made us feel like he had all the time in the world to discuss surgery plans with us and answer all of our questions. I hope I run into more doctors like him on this adventure.

Today's discussion focused on the details of the surgery. Pre-surgery I will need to have an MRI and a CT to see what damage, if any, the radiation and chemo did to the tumor. I will also have to have a consultation with Dr. Sutherland (my liver surgeon) to discuss the options and timing of my liver surgery. Depending on what Dr Sutherland decides, I might have liver surgery at the same time as my colorectal surgery, or it may be after. He may also decide to do some exploratory or partial surgery on the liver. Once all the tests are done and my consultation with Dr Sutherland is complete I will meet with Dr Buie again to arrange a date for surgery. He did say that surgery will be some time in January.

Dr Buie also discussed a number of other interesting pieces of surgical information:

• I will not need an NG tube before surgery and probably not after either.
• Recovery from surgery will take about a week in the hospital (at the Foothills in unit 102 or 71) and then a month at home.
• I will likely need a temporary ileostomy that would be reversed ~3 months after the initial surgery.
• There is a chance I will need a permanent colostomy.
• He also said if you want to travel, now is the time. He said if we booked a trip he would try and work the tests and Dr appointments around it. Maui anyone?

I'm feeling much better this week with most of my bodily systems functioning normally again. I have a few outstanding complaints but they are minor compared to the discomfort I was in 3 weeks ago. I will update some more as the tests and appointments get checked off the list.

If you haven't seen the latest BOND show you should go and see it. It's a lot of fun.

At high risk? Get screened

I wanted to bring everyone's attention to the November 17th issue of McLeans which had a number of interesting articles about digestive health including a discussion on colonoscopies by the Canadian digestive health foundation which is well worth a read. It underlines a number of important points with regard to colon cancer and the importance of colonoscopies that I have discussed here before but I figured it might be worth talking about again.

The most important point that the article makes is that "people at high risk should be more afraid of not having a colonoscopy than of having one". People at high risk include everyone over 50 and anyone over 40 with a family history of CRC. One rough statistic provided by the CDHF suggests that only about 20% of eligible high risk candidates take advantage of the screening. That is particularly worrisome given the fact that in its early stages when it is most curable, CRC has no real symptoms. Regular screening using a colonoscopy can catch CRC at an early stage when it is 90+% curable.

So why doesn't everyone who can get screened? I think the answer to that question is two-fold. Firstly, no-one like to discuss those parts of their body with anyone, even their doctor. And secondly, it is human nature to do everything in our power to prevent a stranger from cramming 5 feet of fiber optic cable in our "out" door. My rebuttal to both points is simple: Get over yourself. If you are in the high risk category its much more scary not to talk about it and not get screened.

Although getting a colonoscopy is right up there with a root canal on the "Least fun thing to do ever" list, it's actually not that bad. In fact I would rather have a colonoscopy than a root canal. The worst part of the entire operation is the "clean out". This is where you don't eat for a day or so before the test and must consume 4 litres of fruity tasting salty water that acts as a flush to clean the pipes. Once you're in the procedure room the doctor explains what he's going to do and the nurses get you lined up lying on your left side. At that point they give you a short acting amnesia-inducing drug. This practice is called conscious sedation. It is a low risk way to minimize your discomfort during the procedure by making you more relaxed and causing you to not remember what has happened. It's pretty fun. The next thing you know you're lying in the recovery room. They say I was awake the whole time but I don't remember a thing.

My challenge to all of you for next week is this: We all know people in a high risk category. It could be your mother, brother, friend, daughter or spouse. Talk to them about the screening process and encourage them to discuss it with their doctor. A simple discussion could save a life.

Stick a fork in me...

...I'm done!

Today was my final day of radiation. I'm pretty excited to start feeling normal again soon. It may take as long as 2 weeks to get there but at least this marks the end of the damage-causing portion of the treatment. Now I just need my body to repair itself. To celebrate the end of the treatment, Penny and Carly have gone to the movie store to pick out a movie for tonight. I'm sure we'll end up with My Little Ponies or something similar but that's fine.

Got Imodium?

Got Imodium?, originally uploaded by DPC Tutt.

I'm almost done my radiation/chemo double bill. Tomorrow I go in to have my empty chemo bottle disconnected and Tuesday I will have my last radiation treatment. Yahoo! It feels like its been so long living tethered to a bottle and charting my every bowel movement.

My radiation tech Shannon made me this t-shirt. She and all the radiation people have been helpful and encouraging during these past few very challenging weeks. They always have good advice and something new to try if you're unhappy with how things are going. Imodium and Advil turned out to be the two key ingredients for management of the radiation side-effects but I tried a bazillion other things too.

Right now I'm looking forward to the upcoming month or so with no planned treatments. Upcoming non-hospital related events include the James Blunt concert this week and a trip to Victoria in December. Dave and Dave are planning a visit from the island in 2 weeks and my brother Matt is also threatening to come for a visit. It's shaping up to be a very busy month off!

The rest of treatment plan (following this round of chemo and radiation) is up in the air until I meet with my colorectal surgeon a week from tomorrow. At that time I expect to get a surgery date (sometime in mid January?) as well as a rough plan for future treatment/surgery. I will also likely find out I have to go for more tests (CT scans and ultrasound) before my surgery. I hope we also get to discuss the details/plans for the surgery including recovery time, pre-surgery prep (NG tube?, fasting?), pain management and the dreaded stoma (temporary or permanent?). Some of these questions he won't have answers to until closer to the surgery or even after the surgery but I have my list ready!

Thanks again to all of you who have sent food, helped out with the kids, or contributed to the parking at the hospital and the house cleaning during the past few weeks. It has all been very much appreciated and needed.

Look out Bob Dylan

Look out Bob Dylan, originally uploaded by DPC Tutt.

This is hilarious. Neither Penny or I can play the guitar but I have one lying around that I got from my mum. We got it out the other night as a distraction and it was a big hit. Carly loved it. She made up some songs and sung some old classics (think "ABC" and "Old MacDonald"). I was lucky enough to get this clip on the camera.

Carly's Third Birthday

It was Carly's third birthday on the weekend. Penny planned and executed an awesome party with none of my help (see "bad week" post below). She had some awesome help from her mum (food prep, balloons and cleaning), Gill and James (craft planning) and Jim (toy repairs, beer shopping). An honourable mention goes out to James and Rod who moved our deceased fridge out of the basement while they were here.

Carly had a great time, although she seemed overwhelmed by all the people and gifts. Thanks to all for coming and for the generous gifts.
Princess Carly wearing her Crown

The kid committee scrutinizing Carly's latest gift

The chaos of gift opening

It's been a rough week

This week has been the hardest yet. I've been battling with chemo and radiation induced diarrhea and constipation using a colon that has been battered and can't cope with either. I won't go into gory details but I will say that it has been the worst week of my life as far as trips to the bathroom are concerned. In other news, I got an awesome mouthwash prescription from my doctor that seems to have taken care of the mouth sores. But, I have a new symptom this week: Pain in my hands and feet. Its not terrible, it just gets bad when I stand for too long or hold something heavy in my hands. Apparently this is one of the many fun side effects of this particular chemo.

One of the secret weapons of this cancer battle has been a weekly reiki treatment (thanks Vicky!). Its not a medically proven healing technique but it sure makes me feel better and is one of the highlights of my week.

Also this week I attended my first group session for people with G.I. cancer. I was the youngest in the class by half (remember 9/10 colorectal cancer cases occur in people over 50). There were 5 of us at the session (2 no-shows) and it was a great time. We are all in various stages of treatment so it was a good opportunity to trade stories/notes on treatments, surgeries, side effects and remedies. I am looking forward to my next session on Thursday.

Here are some interesting statistics from the week:

• radiation treatments done: 19
• radiation treatments left: 6
• final radiation treatment date: November 18
• prescriptions filled this week: 3
• doctors seen this week: 2
• pounds lost to date: ~15
• pounds lost this week: ~4
• favourite piece of cancer fighting gear: sitz bath (if you really want to know click here)

Q: What do Barak Obama, mouth sores and diarrhea have in common?

A: I'm following all 3 very closely tonight.

At about 8:45 November 4 it looks like CNN is about ready to call Obama the winner. I don't know what that means to us here in Canada but I know I'm happy that it's the end of what feels like the longest campaign EVER.

My side effects from treatment have become markedly worse over the past few days. I have a couple of nagging sores in my mouth that won't go away and the diarrhea has been terrible. The 2 weeks of treatment that I have left will go by slowly I'm sure but now I'm taking it one day at a time.

Penny has been a real trooper over the past few days. For her I'm sure its like having 3 kids at home to look after. I hope she doesn't get too worn out over these next 2 weeks.

Lots of thanks to all of you that have sent food, emails, called or helped out in other ways over the past few months. Its been very much appreciated!

Best T-shirt EVER

Foxtrot Uniform Charlie Kilo CANCER, originally uploaded by DPC Tutt.

Penny ordered this T-shirt for her and an "ichemo" one for me (check out the flickr site for that one). See the 'got cancer?' store link in the sidebar for other great cancer t-shirt ideas. An honourable mention should go to the one that says: "colorectal cancer is a real pain in the ass".

Halloween at the Hospital

Penny the witch, Carly the witch, Andrew the pumpkin and Dr. Chan, originally uploaded by DPC Tutt.

For Halloween we all got dressed up and went to the hospital for my treatment. It was a lot of fun. All the different units had candy out and some people dressed up. Penny and Carly dressed up like witches, Andrew was a pumpkin and I dressed up like my radiation oncologist, Dr. Chan. All the nurses and technicians had a good laugh at the costumes. Dr Chan liked mine although he said I didn't put enough gray in my hair (He has almost white hair and says thats how his kids spot him in a crowd).

Carly got help with my treatment. She got to press the buttons to get my bed into the right position and supervised the treatment from outside the room on closed circuit tv.

On Halloween night Carly and Andrew and I went to about 8 or 10 houses in our neighborhood and then Penny took them to Sandi and Jim's, Uncle Rod's and Tracy's. Overall it was a lot of fun and Carly enjoyed the candy, especially when she got to eat it.

We also got a look at what happens when Carly is on a huge sugar high. Its like someone turned up the volume and ripped off the knob. Luckily it only lasts about 20 minutes or half an hour and then she returns to normal. As a result we've had to strictly limit the amount of candy she can have and the time of day she can have it (not after supper - the best time appears to be about 3 minutes before grandma come to pick her up!).

Hope everyone had a happy halloween!

Carly at (almost) three

In this one she speaks a little more clearly. It doesn't quite have the emphasis on "Uncle Matt" that the previous one does...