Getting my chemo - Round 3

Getting my chemo - Round 3, originally uploaded by DPC Tutt.

Things are going well so far this round. I have managed to go without taking any of the anti-nausea steroid besides what I took at the hospital before my chemo hook up. I made it out of the house today on two occasions; one to see Carly's dance class (parents were invited to watch today) and two, to watch the kids play hockey with the neighbors outside. It feels really good to be able to get out and walk around. I still feel pretty crappy though. The taste, the fatigue, the nausea, the numb hands and feet and the inability to drink cold liquids are all still there. Penny has been waiting on me and is quite the soldier, looking after the kids 24/7, cooking, shopping and chauffeuring are all in a days work for her. She makes a killer coffee too!

That's all for now I guess. Just wanted to let you all know I'm hanging in.

Abstract Face Painting

Charlie had Carly over to play this afternoon while Andrew was asleep. I guess they went downstairs and got into the face paints. When they came upstairs Leah was quite surprised. I think it was very artistic of them, especially since none of the paint ended up on the walls. Pictures by Leah/Kent.

Lemons

This is hilarious. Andrew's first experiment with lemons. Carly is in this video too but she actually loves lemons and her reaction is somewhat embelished. Enjoy.

This week's update

UPDATE: After reading this post through today I realized I didn't accurately portray the entire story of Penny's new glasses. In actual fact they were much cheaper than the figure I originally mentioned below. As for their selection, I was the one that actually picked them out and made Penny get them (she was quite uncomfortable with the price). I assured her that it's important to get your first glasses from a store where you can return them if they don't work out or if there are adjustments to be made to the frames or lenses. Subsequent pairs of glasses for Penny will come from clearlycontacts.ca I'm sure.

Sorry for the delay in getting the updates out there. I haven't been feeling like sitting in front of the computer much lately.

This round of chemo went marginally better than the first one. I took WAY less of the steroid anti-nausea drug Zofran and it improved my mood, mental health, rash and didn't make me feel any more nauseous than when I was taking it. I still felt like crap in a cup but having a clear mind helped me get through the physical annoyances that chemo causes. My next round will start Tuesday as long as I make the hurdles on my neutrophils, platelets and hemoglobin on Monday. I can't say I'm looking forward to it but after this next round I will be 1/4 of the way through this treatment program.

One of the weirdest symptoms of this chemo is the numbness that you get in your hands, mouth and throat when you either hold something cold, breathe cold air or ingest something icy. The hand thing is just annoying but the throat thing is quite scary. I forgot a few times to only drink warm fluids and on a couple of occasions have given myself a good scare. If feels like you're choking and you can't breathe. It passes quickly but for a few seconds it feels like the beginning of the end. Holding cold objects is interesting too. Retrieving a full gallon of milk from the fridge downstairs can be a challenging task. Carly must think I'm crazy wearing gloves to carry cold things around.

In other news, Andrew staged a coup this week. He hasn't been fond of his high chair for some time now but on Monday he wouldn't get in it at all and refused to wear a bib. From that time hence he has been sitting at the table in a big person chair just like the rest of us. There have been a few messes, I won't lie, but most of the time he does a pretty good job of getting the food from his plate into his mouth without making too big a mess. The lack of physical restraints does result in a little bit of eating while walking but he's learned quickly that the food gets taken away if he leaves the table.

The other thing Andrew has learned to do lately is to relocate movable objects (like chairs, stools, empty boxes) to strategic locations throughout the house, where with Navy-Seal-like speed and cunning he uses said object to obtains contraband. This contraband is often electronic in nature. His favourite things are phones, PDAs and ipods but if he finds knives, scissors, pens (especially markers) or liquids of any kind he will settle for those. It has limited our list of Andrew proof hiding spots on the main floor to the liquor cabinet above the fridge. Most of the time we even have to keep our phones and ipods on the fridge. It's most annoying to walk into the kitchen after the briefest of absences to find Andrew standing upright on the counter riffling through a cupboard full of decidedly unsafe implements. He hasn't found the switches for the fireplace or garborator yet but its only a matter of time.

Carly and Penny went to the optometrist today. It was Carly's first checkup. Things went well for her and she caused quite a bit of laughter in the office. Whenever she couldn't read a letter on the wall she said "something". As in "What are the letters in the first line Carly?" her reply would be "A, E, uh something, F". She did it the entire way through the exam. It was pretty funny. Penny got glasses for the first time in her life. Her prescription isn't that bad but hopefully she will be able to take some of the strain off her eyes. I wonder what she'll think of me the first time she sees me with her new glasses? Hmmm. I'll let you know. The glasses that fit her best cost ~$600. Having had glasses myself since grade 8 I was stunned at the price, especially having just ordered new glasses myself online for only $95 including lenses and shipping. After we got home we had a little buyers remorse and called to see if we could cancel the order but they had already started to work on the lenses. So we're stuck with them now but if you or anyone you know needs glasses or contacts be sure to check out ClearlyContacts.ca. They sell glasses online from $38 (including lenses!) and contacts at about half the price you would pay at an optometrist.

I promise to try and update more frequently. Have a great weekend all.

Never Underestimate the Power of a Detemined Wife

In University our friends used to joke that when there was a tough discussion to have or a disagreement with a prof or anyone, it would be nice to have a "Pocket Penny" to pull out and take over the tough conversation for you. Penny was always passionate and relentless when she believed in something. It's one of her many great attributes. So when I told her that I was booked in for chemo on Thursday instead of Tuesday she got on the horn with the Tom Baker day care chemo people and started politely inquiring about why I had been bumped to Thursday. In the course of her discussions she got offered times on Wednesday but held her ground and said that today was really the only time it would work. As a result we got a call half an hour ago from my chemo nurse saying that they would be ready for me at 3:15 today. As we've learned time and time again in this process it pays to be the polite squeaky wheel.

So Sandi is here to look after the kids and Penny and I are off to the hospital in the snow to watch a movie and get juiced up with round two of chemo. Good times...

Turkey Time!

I'm pretty excited about this weekend's turkey feasts. We managed to score two turkey dinners this weekend, one with Nancy and Art next door and one with Penny's family. It's going to be AWESOME!

I met with my oncologist Dr Lupichuck yesterday to discuss the goings on of my first round of chemo. It went pretty well all things considered but I had a few concerns. I got a nasty rash on my neck, chest and shoulders, was a bit depressed and had heard that sometimes this type of chemo can cause seizures! It turns out that all three problems are likely caused by the anti-nausea steroid I take for the first three days of chemo. It helps with the nausea but along with that one benefit, there are several unwanted side-effects. Her suggestion was to cut down on the steroid by half for the next round and see if things improve. I hope she's right and that helps out with some of my problems but hopefully not at the expense of vomiting my guts out.

Because of the long weekend there was trouble booking all the chemo patients in for Tuesday treatment. As a result I likely won't begin my next round of chemo until next Thursday. It's really too bad since I am feeling good and ready to get on with it. I asked her to book all my future chemo appointments right away so that this doesn't happen again. So as a result I am booked for all my treatments up until Christmas, including doctor visits and one chest-abdomen-pelvis CT scan on November 30th. It feels good to have that all sorted out but I still need to book an appointment with Dr Gelfand (thoracic guy) and figure out if I need to have a head CT and another PET scan before surgery as well. Hopefully the doctors can talk amongst themselves and figure it out.

I need to rest up for the feast tonight. Happy turkey time all!

Bet you didn't know this:

I forgot to mention one thing we learned in Vegas about colon cancer. After we saw the bodies exhibit at the Luxor, they had a gift shop where you could buy little souvenir accouterments, t-shirts and books. One of the things they were offering for sale was a textbook on different diseases. It was a one stop shop for all you ever wanted to know about things you never want to get. One of the diseases covered in the book was colon cancer. After reading a little through the one page summary I discovered an interesting fact: Colon cancer tends to occur at one end or the other of the colon, generally not in the middle. It occurs either at the start of the ascending colon or at the end of the descending colon (rectum). The place where cancer occurs in the colon is roughly correlatable to sex. Women tend to get colon cancer at the beginning of the colon while men tend to get it at the end. Who would have know?

Out from the fog

I'm finally out from the fog of my first round of chemo. The whole body experience that is chemo a hard thing to describe. So I won't. I'll just say that it sucks. Besides all of the physical side effects, there is an overwhelming depression that sets in for a few days after getting dosed up. I think it comes from not having the desire to do anything except lay in bed. For me that's the hardest thing to deal with. At least I have a week or so of feeling good before I have to repeat the whole thing again. And again.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank Astrid for her generosity in setting up a Norwex fundraiser for my family. It was a tremendous success and a really fun night. The proceeds will be used as needed for future medical related expenses. Thanks to all of you who came out and participated. If you didn't get in on the initial party and would like some Norwex stuff, feel free to contact Astrid (NorwexAstrid@telus.net).

An Observers Point of View

There seems to be a lot of hits on the blog lately. I'm sure everyone is wondering how Dan has been doing with the chemo. I thought I could share a few words. Dan's much better at this than me and should this blog ever become a book deal we'll be sure to leave my posts out of it.

Dan's been doing remarkably well. This session so far has been a lot better than I remember last September. While at the Tom Baker day care unit Dan and I watched "Wedding Crashers". Hard not to laugh at that movie. The whole process took about 3.5 hours. Dan leaves with his famous baby bottle of 5fu which slowly runs in over 46 hours. For nausea Dan takes 2 different drugs, and one is a steroid. I swear it was this drug which had him vacuuming off the atrium and cleaning light bulbs on Wednesday. He'd also been for a walk and this was all before noon! The drugs seems to be doing their job, Dan's only had a few moments of nausea and usually in the morning before he has a chance to take his meds.

Thursday morning we headed back to the Day Care Unit for a disconnect. The protocol there is for the first time you watch the nurse do the disconnect. The following time you go back and perform the disconnect in front of the nurse. By the third time you can stay at home and disconnect yourself (saves a trip to the hospital). I managed to convince the nurse not make me watch this week but rather perform the disconnect myself. She was great about it.

Dan's been tired and has the terrible taste in his mouth (imagine a handful of pennies in your mouth at all times) but he manages well, taking naps and eating frequently just for a taste change. He even took in the Hockey game last night. Sorry to say his favorite Canucks got some heat from the Flames!! Kevin and Dan each sporting a Canucks jersey. Of course they were heckled. GO Flames GO!!! (Hey it's not my blog but it's my post).

The treatment may be peaking today. Shortly after waking up and having Reiki he fell asleep on the couch. He's been there all afternoon despite the kids running through the room several times and lunch occurring right under his nose. I'm shocked he wasn't startled awake several times, but he's obviously in a deep sleep. Reiki is always good for that.

The outlook for the weekend looks much like everyone elses I bet. Hibernating from the white stuff that's suppose to fly and maybe some good naps and movies.