Round 4

The past weekend was my wife's birthday, and thankfully I was feeling great. We all had a blast.

This past Monday was the fourth and last round of my chemo regiment, which is awesome. I'm determined to make this one a smooth ride out, and stay on top. Coming out of ER my doctor prescribed this anti-nausea patch that I'll wear on my arm. Apparently it's some wonderful new thing, and it's OUTRAGEOUSLY expensive. Fortunately my health insurance covers practically all of it, but $3k for four stickers? You could practically sell these things on the street and take the profits and buy a Vespa-like contraption.

Ironically, when I was feeling nauseas, I couldn't really eat anything, but if I was watching TV and came across the Travel Channel's food programming, "Man Vs Food", my gut was iron. Seriously. Didn't bother me at all. That's just weird.

Once this final round is done I'll be doing visits and scans in preparation for surgery. There's no definite date set yet, although from my perspective the sooner the better. I'd be happy with end of September, but it'll likely be in October.

I'm looking forward to getting some tumor markers, as well! I'm willing the chemo to scorch the earth for Toomie, so I have nice markers, and additional shrinkage of the mass.

 

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The Second Coming

I thought I was over the hump this past Friday, as Saturday was a good day. The wife and I had some QT, and I ate some heavier food that in retrospect I shouldn't have consumed, but when your neighbor rolls through with fresh lumpia, it's hard to say no.

Come Sunday, and I'm starting to feel like I've just put all of Chernobyl in my abdomen. I ended up having horrible GI issues, and went to the ER on Sunday. They watched me for 5-6 hours, put some fluids in me, gave me more drugs to counteract the nausea, and sent me home. I had a triple threat nurse on Sunday - she is an ER nurse/Oncology nurse/and healer, so I felt like I was getting the crazy advanced 360 degrees of treatment. Unfortunately, as soon as I got home and out of the car I threw up (nothing quite like barfing in your own back yard), then spent the next 12 hours trying to get over the continued GI havoc being wreaked in my guts. Sadly, there was no respite, so back we went to ER on Monday. I ended up being admitted so they could keep fluids in me, run tests, and try to get a hold on the nausea. I think I had just about every anti-nausea drugs known to western science.

Several IV bags later, some skin patches, an MRI, and a couple patchy nights of sleep I finally started to turn around and was discharged on Wednesday. We all think it was a case of the effects of the chemo I'm on, eating not so healthy food the day before, and catching a viral bug that apparently has been going round. For the time being, I'll unfortunately need to keep the kisses separated via dental dams. This was not fun at all. I still don't feel 100%, although I am definitely on the mend.

It's amazing to think that I'll have another round of this coming up this Monday, I'll certainly need to stay on top of nausea, as I don't want to have to spend more time in the hospital after round 4.

I want to thank my wonderful family for helping to take care of my children, while I was down and out, and for all the supportive messages from everyone. One more chemo-related obstacle successfully negotiated. Let's keep the progress moving!

What a week

It's been quite a week. Monday I did my third round (of four) of chemo, and for some reason it really took it out of me. I feel like I slept or wanted to sleep this entire week. I kept picturing Homer Simpson, when Doctor Hibbert says that he's going to be weak as kitten after his triple bypass. Here's the episode hosted on this smashing Russian site in case you're curious.

The steam was totally taken out of my sails. Seriously. I don't really remember doing anything noteworthy aside from planning where to take my next nap. I napped at home, at my sister in laws, at my in laws. I was trying to squeeze in a nap at the store, but I couldn't stay awake long enough to drive a car let alone push a cart.

Suffice it to say, Friday came along, and we're celebrating my wife's birthday! I had nothing but amazing, sweet, and heartstring-tugging things to say to this wonderful woman who has turned into my personal patient advocate, chemo treatment study buddy, calm in the storm, best friend ever. I mean, I knew she was awesome when I married her, but anyone who is going to get your back during times like this is worth more than a guaranteed ticket into Heaven AND Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory. Happy Birthday to wonderful wife. I'm looking forward to 50 more years with you.

I thankfully possessed enough juice to walk my oldest son to his first day of 2nd Grade. Man, he is getting big. Daddy is proud.

Additionally, my Askers shot me some SWEET Fickstrong shirt shots, as well as some from a recent event I was able to make. Thank you guys!! I'm feeling all the awesome good vibes. Erik planking no doubt was the nail in the coffin for Toomie.

 

Good times everyone. Next week I have off from therapy, so I can spend it rebuilding before the following Monday, and my last (?) round of chemo before the scans and eventually surgery. We're over the hump.

Magic shot

I was tucking in my oldest, and we were doing his daily journal. One of the items was "What are you looking forward to tomorrow?" Since I am going into do round 3 of my chemo tomorrow, I told him that he'd be going over to his aunt and uncle's house while mommy and I went to the doctor, and that he would likely get some Mario time in on the Wii. Mario always brings a smile.

My son says, "Dad, I wish you could hang out with me tomorrow."

I respond, "Me, too. I need to go to the doctor tomorrow. I have to take some medicine that'll help me get healthy."

"I wish I could make a super shot that I could give you that would make you all better, and the shot wouldn't even hurt!" He replies.

My eyes teared up like I was watching Old Yeller, and I tell him in an even voice, "Man, that would be awesome, buddy. Thanks for thinking of me. Maybe when you're older you can invent a shot like that."

"Yeah." He says.

"Goodnight, son."

"Goodnight, dad."

"I love you."

"I love you, too."

What an awesome little man.

Friday best good times ever

Friday I had the fortune to catch up with the entire Ask.com workforce during their summer party. I'd worked there for about 4 years, and stayed in touch with a bunch of friends. It's an awesome group of people. I've really not experienced a workplace like it since. Thanks for the invite guys!

The same day I also was able to squeeze in a visit to my UCD roommate's parents house, as the entire family was over for a dinner while they prepped for their annual harvest festival. If you like vino, are in the Bay Area, and don't want to trek too far, it's still going on tomorrow!

Lastly, I finally received the iPad case I'd gushed about previously. I immediately filmed a sub-optimal unboxing.

Note that my smart-ass remark about the instruction manual culminated in a less than exuberant reaction to the renowned sound channel because I ironically and incorrectly inserted the iPad into the case. Once I reoriented the device in the case a near celestial auditory experience was beholden to me. I recommend the Pad and Quill Contego. It says: I am into China Miéville, and based on my Bob Cratchet-like ledger looking exterior I can do Captain Nemo's books.

This coming Monday is my third (of four) cycles of the chemo I'm doing. Based on the most recent bloodwork I am doing great. I don't always feel so good, but my body seems to be holding up very well. I'm eager to get through these last two rounds, scanned, lined up for surgery, and back on track with (relative) normal life.

Variety and the silver linings

I'm about to go on a bike ride, and don't feel good, but dammit I'm going out.

I was talking with my wife about the variety of side effects I'm feeling, and none of them are particularly awesome. The positive aspect I am realizing is this: at least all of these crappy feelings aren't consistent throughout the entire cycle and are varied and spread out during the course of the treatment. By this I mean that at least the nausea isn't horrible all the time, and the fatigue gradually tapers off, and so on.

Thankfully, some of these side effects don't have me totally laid up, as it has other people, and I can get in a bike ride. It's the little things. You gotta rock the little things and find the silver lining.

For example, I started losing hair on my head, but I shave my head, so no big whoop. I'm also shedding body hair, but that just means that I'm now more aerodynamic on my bike rides.

Affirmations of the day: Hair grows back. I kill cancer.

iSteambook

I couldn't sleep and was not feeling so great, so ended up trolling around for reviews and unboxings of various iPad cases, and I finally decided on one. Depending on how I feel and how creative I can rig a camera to capture the process I might end up making a video unboxing of my own because...well...I've never done one, and I think I could do a decent job. Besides, it would likely benefit 4-7 detail and borderline obsessive bound gadget-dorks when considering the few stand-out design features why I ended up selecting this particular model. Without spoiling the surprise, it's one of those [waving Jedi fingers] "this isn't an iPad case" type of cases, while also exemplifying a comfortable midground for metrosexuals, steampunks, and papyrus-philes.

The real deal clincher was finding a valid online discount code, which knocked $15 off the price. When I went to order it on my iPad, however, I noticed that their site doesn't handle secure transactions on the iOS system. I do have my iPad browser settings to not accept cookies, and after testing the same experience on a Windows 7 box (and "Private Browsing" in Firefox) and verifying my hypothesis I thought it a bit ironic given that the site seems to have their core product line supporting iOS devices.

Anyways, I'll share more detail when it arrives.

Now, for a moment of reflection: so this is what a dude does who is on the tail end of the second cycle of a brutal chemo regiment - look online for iPad case video reviews late at night when he can't sleep, finds a model he likes, buys one, then attempts a perspicacious and QA cream-filled centered blog post about the sequence of events with a half-promise to YouTube it for posterity once said case arrives. BTW, speaking of posterity: note that these days I have to remember to shave my head more frequently because I'm starting to lose head hair and look like one of those cancer patients. Oh! Right! Never mind. That's alright. My hair will grow back. Toomie won't. I'm killing you Toomie. Killing you right this very second. I love killing you.

Good times, people. Good times. Here's a great Stevie Wonder song for you.

 

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