Back on the chemo

I started my 7th round of chemo on Tuesday. We added in the drug Bevaciszumab (Avastin) for this round. I'll probably get it for the next 5 rounds as well. As I've mentioned before on the blog, this drug works by stopping the growth of new blood vessels. Since tumors are constantly growing new blood vessels this drug effectively stops the tumors from growing. There has been tremendous success with this drug so far but it's only available (ie covered by Health Care) for colon cancer patients, so I consider myself very lucky. Only a few months ago it was not covered for use on any cancers and if you wanted it you had to pay thousands per dose to get it. There are some patients at the Tom Baker centre that have other cancers (not colon) that pay for the drug out of their own pocket. One guy with a brain tumor was given six months to live, elected to pay for the Avastin out of his own pocket and is still alive today, 3 years later. I hope I have the same type of success.

I'm feeling pretty crappy now but I know it will only last a few more days. I slept most of the day today so that's good. We have friends the Louis Family from Lumby (Vernon) here visiting now. I think we will take them out to Mallzac tomorrow to see the big Bass Pro Shop and get out of the house. Good times.

Congratulations to Dave and Katy on their engagement! Can't wait for the wedding. Will it be on a boat?

Passing on

The world lost a great woman this week. My granny (Janet - my mum's mum in New Zealand) passed away peacefully on December 29th. She died during her evening snooze with her husband Hugh at her side holding her hand. She was 92.

Jan's eyesight had diminished over that past decade making it hard to for her to sew or knit (her favourite pass-times of late). Over the past year things got steadily worse: She suffered a series of mini strokes that took away her ability to speak which drastically decreased her quality of life. It was her time to go and I'm glad it was peaceful.

Our thoughts are with Hugh and their kids Andrew, Jeremy, Tim and Nicky as they prepare for the funeral on January 6th.

The obituary from the NZ Herald:

Janet Henderson (nee Steele) . On December 29, 2009, at Rangiora, aged 92 years, dearly beloved wife of Hugh, loved mother of Tim, Jeremy, Nicky, and Andrew, loved motherinlaw of Carol, Amanda, Bruce, and Julia, loved and missed by her ten grandchildren and six greatgrandchildren. Messages to the family may be addressed to c/- Holmwood, 114 King Street, Rangiora. A Celebration of Jan's Life will be held at our Westpark Chapel, 467 Wairakei Road, Christchurch, on Wednesday, January 6, at 2.00pm;

Thank you just doesn't seem to be enough

This will be my second Christmas as a cancer survivor. The year has been filled with ups and downs but I have to say that overall it's been a great year. Having the chance to spend an entire year at home with my family has been a treat. Watching the kids grow up on a daily basis is an experience that not many fathers get to have these days. Although I was sick or recovering from surgery for part of the year, I have to say that my memories are mostly positive.

Over the past year I have gleaned a load of positive energy from my family but I have definitely enjoyed more than my fair share of support from friends, acquaintances and even people I've never met. Friends sent food, arranged for a maid service and even sent $ to help out with extraneous medical costs and bills. People from all over Canada and the world have sent emails, commented on the blog, sent $, gift cards and encouraging notes. Family has been generous with their time and money. Other cancer survivors have heard about my struggle and have cheered me along. In short, this battle with cancer has given me the opportunity to realize how much people care about my life, my family and my battle.

So what can I say to all those who have been there for me over the past 16 months? Somehow "thanks" just doesn't seem to cut it, but it is indeed a heartfelt "thanks". I have one other thing to say: If you're over 50, have a family history of colon cancer or are experiencing symptoms, ask your doctor about being screened for colon cancer. As I've said before, it could save your life.

Our deepest thanks to all,

Dan, Penny, Carly and Andrew

Poker and Victoria

I just got schooled by my mother-in-law at texas hold'em. She's a crafty one.

We're headed to Victoria tomorrow evening. Can't wait for all the packing/cleaning to be done. It could be a long night...

Happy holidays

I don't have much to report today but I figured a short post couldn't hurt. I'm feeling much better now that I'm through the worst days of my 6th treatment. 6 down and 6 more to go starting December 29th. I opted to take an extra week off between sessions so that I can feel good for our trip to Victoria for Christmas. This week will be spent doing the rest of our Christmas shopping, packing, and just generally enjoying the good days. The weather is supposed to get better so some much needed playtime outside will be in order as well. Oh yeah, and a drain service/replacement will happen Thrursday, just for fun. That's all for now...

Friday

Feeling the worst of my bad-taste-in-the-mouth side effects today. Been sleeping a lot too which is one way to get past the bad times. By tomorrow night I'll hopefully be through the worst of this round which means I'm half way through my six months of chemo. I've been neglecting my emails of late so please don't be offended if I haven't replied to you. I'll get there, I promise.

What’s the difference between a car and a golf ball? Tiger can drive a ball 400 yards.

No surgery, more chemo - updated

Updated: At my chemo appointment yesterday Dr Lupickuck (chemo doc) stopped by to see how things were going. We had a good discussion about the options and I'm pretty happy about the way things are going. Carrying on with a full 6 month course of chemo will hopefully wipe out any existing microscopic disease floating around my body looking for a place to happen. Knowing now that the lung nodules are unlikely to spread it means that surgery can happen months or years down the road once (or if) they grow to a size that Dr. Gelfand can feel with his hand. In my discussion with Dr. Lupichuck we also decided to add the chemo drug Bevacizumab which acts to slow the growth of new blood vessels. Since in most metastatic cancers blood vessels grow quickly, using this drug can slow (but not stop, alas) the growth of existing tumors. I think its a good move. It doesn't have any minor side effects, only major ones like the possibility of a pulmonary embolism or deep vein thrombosis. Good times. It feels good knowing that if I'm hurting, the cancer must be hurting even worse. It also feels good to be doing something about it. Sitting around in denial or just waiting things out is not fun. You can't sit in bed with your eyes closed if the house is on fire and just hope it goes away, you gotta save what you can and run.

It turns out Dr Gelfand isn't confident in the ability of interventional radiology to accurately place coils in my lung at the site of the tumors. That means 3 more months of chemo then monitoring my CEA levels (a tumor marker in my blood) and CT scans every 3 months knowing the tumors in my lung will probably grow back. Its not ideal to say the least. Lupichuck had a bit of good news though. She said that the cancer is highly unlikely to spread from the tumors in my lung. Any new spots that show up will likely be due to spread of microscopic disease from the primary tumor.

I can't say I'm looking forward to doing more chemo tomorrow. It sucks. Big time.

Good news

I just got back from my meeting with Dr. Gelfand. It went as well as possible. He said there was no evidence of new tumors on the CT scan from Monday (yahoo!) and that the existing spots in my lung had shrunk. In fact he said they may be too small to feel during surgery. It's a bit of a conundrum. If you do chemo you shrink the tumors to the point they are so small that surgery may not be possible but a cure is not usually possible without removing all the visible tumors. So here we sit. In the end we decided to go for the surgery but it depends on interventional radiology being able to place a needle in the tumors before surgery (that doesn't sound fun). So Dr Gelfand will talk to the interventional radiology team and make sure they can do it, then he will book my surgery for sometime in January. He also said that with Alberta making cuts left right and centre to health care because of running 1.3 billion dollar deficit, the scheduling of surgery may be delayed a bit. He was still confident that a January date was feasible. Another thing he said was that he didn't really want me to do any more chemo for fear that we may shrink the tumors further making them even harder for him to feel and remove. I can't say I'm sad about that. So we left the meeting feeling pretty good. We will wait for his phone call on Monday to tell us a) if the interventional radiologists think this thing is possible and b) if I have to do chemo on Tuesday. Obviously I'm hoping for a) hell ya and b) no chemo. Tutt out.