Close One Chapter, Start a New One...

So Saturday ended my last treatment cycle! Melissa came down to the hospital and watched the Michigan game with me (another pitiful performance, even in a victory), and I got done about 2:00 or so. The nursing staff threw me a little "graduation party", with cake and balloons and bubbling cider. It was quite nice. I'm counting on this being the last of these parties - I'm kinda sick of them. :-P In the evening, Melly and I went to Olive Garden for dinner, and basically just chilled at home. We watched a little football, and some of "My Best Friend's Wedding", and overall hung out.

Around 8:30 or so, Melissa went in to take a bubble bath, and I told her I was going to curl into bed and watch SportsCenter. Well, instead I threw a blanket in the backyard, and then left a note for her to come outside after her bath. When she came out, I actually proposed to her! And she said yes! So we are officially engaged! We've been talking about it for a few weeks, and I finally "manned up" and popped the question. More details to follow :-)

dpbuck = Bad Blogger

Okay, so today is day four of my fifth treatment cycle. I have been a combination of 50% busy and 50% lazy over the last month in not updating my blog. Once again, I apologize to all, and will attempt to catch everyone up. Last time we left our erstwhile hero, he had escaped the dungeon of The Garden, and defeated the PET Scan dragon, and was now set for another journey into the depths of the third floor of Kadlec Medical Center…

On Monday August 11, I checked back into the hospital for my fourth cycle. Everything got started as normal (read: as screwed up as usual). I was put into a room with a non-functional shower, and then didn’t have my chemotherapy orders in the system yet. So, despite arriving at 10:00 AM, I didn’t get started until after 3:00 PM, and then had to change rooms in the middle of the evening. Total pain in the butt…

On Tuesday Morning, Dr. Weeks stopped by, and he was just BEAMING. He said that the results of my PET Scan were OUTSTANDING. Because they looked so good, Dr. Weeks expects that I will only need two more cycles instead of three. Needless to say, that is fantastic news. It is still expected that I will have to do radiation afterwards, but if I can only go through five cycles instead of six, I’ll take it!

Despite the good news, I had a pretty rough treatment week. I was nauseous and tired the entire cycle, and had some major homesickness. Friends and family stopped by to cheer me up – my parents, Kim and Gary, Suzi, Amy – and Melissa came back down on Friday night. All the friendly faces lifted my spirits, though I looked and felt like crap.

My recovery period after the cycle wasn’t too bad, though. Melissa was here the entire weekend to keep me company, and by Monday afternoon (discharged on Saturday) I was feeling pretty good. I still decided to take it easy and not return to work until Wednesday August 20, especially since I was traveling up to Vancouver for Melissa’s family’s golf tournament this weekend. I felt I should save up my energy so I could suck less. The tournament was a good time (minus the first three holes), and I actually played halfway decent. It was a little hotter than I expected, which took its toll on me, but overall I had a fantastic time.

I put in a full week of work August 25-29, and actually felt great all week long. I felt really back to normal – work every day, dinner at my parents’ house, poker. I even got out on my rollerblades and got a little exercise in (hockey season’s coming!). Melissa came down on Thursday night, and we had a nice weekend. We had dinner with Michell and Herb on Thursday, and dinner and a movie with Ryan and Sarah on Saturday. Very, very good weekend.

(Please note that this will be the only mention of Michigan and Rich Rodriguez’ “high-powered” spread offense. I mean, 36 yards rushing?! Are you kidding me?!?!?!)

Monday September 1 (Labor Day), I checked back into the hospital for my fifth (and final!) cycle. Melissa was here until Tuesday, and then she had to head back home for the first day of school. (She teaches preschool, remember?) Dr. Weeks discontinued one of my drugs (the Doxorubicin), as he felt I no longer needed that drug. I still had all of my other drugs, and that didn’t really affect my cycle. I felt pretty good through Monday and Tuesday, but Wednesday was not so good, especially in the evening. I was tired and nauseous for most of the day, and just didn’t have the energy to do anything.

Wednesday, Dr. Weeks stopped by, and I asked him some more questions about the radiation treatments I have coming. He expects that I won’t start radiation for a month or so after my final cycle, and he will be referring me to a radiologist to get that rolling. That month delay works well for me, since I have work trips to Florida and Ohio this month. Overall, though, Dr. Weeks is thrilled with the way everything has gone.

And that catches us back up to today, Thursday September 4. The NFL Season starts tonight, so I am looking forward to Giants/Redskins tonight. I have TWO MORE NIGHTS in the hellhole, and then I (hopefully!) never have to come back. Melissa will be coming back down tomorrow night as well, which of course will lift my spirits.

Thanks for being patient with me as I finally get caught up. I hope to hear from everyone soon!

Full Speed Ahead

Yesterday I had my PET Scan. I've been through this process a dozen times before, so this is old hat for me. The technician (not trained to analyze the data, but can certainly look at it and see differences) told me that the scan looked "a million times better than last time". I guess that's good news, though I will save judgment until talking to Dr. Weeks next week. Today I talked to Scott at Dr. Weeks office, and he told me that everything looks good on the scan, and we are set to go at 10:00 AM on Monday.

Halftime?

During my last treatment cycle, Dr. Weeks told me that he wanted me to have another PET Scan to see how we're doing. Well, that is a very expensive procedure, and must be run through my insurance company before they actually do the process. So, Dr. Weeks submits the paperwork requesting the test to the company, and once it is approved, the hospital calls me to set up this test. Well, on Wednesday they called me to try and set up the test for Tuesday August 5. Well, That is supposed to be the second day of my next treatment, so I instead scheduled it for Tuesday August 12. No problem, right?

Today I saw Dr. Weeks again (I have an appointment with him every time between cycles), and I told him about all this. He decided he wanted to have the PET Scan done BEFORE my next cycle, not after. So I called the hospital back to try and move the appointment back to the 5th. Well, they had no slots left for me on the 5th, or on the 7th. (They only do this test on Tuesdays and Thursdays.) I pleaded and begged and told them I HAD to have this test next week. The girl on the phone I talked to said she would see what she could do and would call me back. Well, she called me back like twenty minutes later, and was able to squeeze me in on the 7th.

So what this effectively does is give me an extra week off before my next treatment starts. Almost like a "halftime". I will have the PET Scan on Thursday August 7, then check into the hospital to start the next cycle on Monday August 11.

Boat Races

I had a very solid recovery this week, and was actually able to get back to work on Tuesday and Wednesday for half-days, and back working full days on Thursday and Friday. I still struggled a bit to get out of bed in the mornings, but once I got going, I felt fine, and even got out and exercised a little the second half of the week.

Melissa and her parents came down for the weekend, as this was the big tourist weekend in the Tri-Cities. We had the annual hydroplane races on the Columbia River. My company put together a little potluck/picnic in a private beach area on the course, and we basically went out there and hung out in the sun and ate and overall enjoyed the races. Normally this time of year the temperature is well past 100, but the weather was absolutely perfect: low-90's with a breeze. By the end of the weekend I was definitely out of gas, but this served as a nice distraction to my treatments.

Locked Out

I was discharged from the hospital this afternoon after completing my infusion of Cytuxin. Amy, my nurse, did a great job of getting me out of there as soon as possible, and my mom took me home around 2:30. I actually felt better than I did at the end of my last treatment, which was good. I spent the evening playing poker (took down a $3/90 donkament), and rewatching Game One of the Wings/Penguins Cup Finals Series from last month. Overall, I just vegged.

Funny story from last night (Friday). So, at Kadlec Hospital, they have this area called "The Garden", which is this little fenced-in, outdoors area with flowers and trees, a fountain, and some benches. It can't be more than 25' x 25', but is definitely a nice place to go to get some fresh air after being cooped up in my hospital room all day. Well, The Garden closes at 9:00 PM, but the way the door to The Garden had previously worked is that it was locked going into it starting at 9:00 PM, but you could always get back into the hospital. Well, after I finished my infusion on Friday, I went down there at like 8:57 PM and went in there. I sat on one of the benches and called Melissa and chatted with her until 9:15 or so. Well, I went back to the door, and wouldn't you know that it wouldn't open! I was locked in The Garden!

Well, after about 90 seconds of being confused, and another phone call to Melissa to share my "situation", and another 2 minutes of pulling on the door, I decided that I would have to hop the fence to get out. Well, luckily there's an area where the fence is only 3 or 4 feet high, so it wasn't too difficult. Anyway, following hopping the fence, walking around to the emergency room entrance, through registration, back through the maze to the B Elevators, up to the third floor, and back down the hallway, I finally got back to my room with a story to share...

Round Three

Once again, I should apologize for falling a little bit behind in my blogging. Spending 6 out of every 21 days in the hospital puts me way behind on getting everything done that I need to, and unfortunately this gets pushed to the back.

I am currently sitting in the hospital on day three of cycle three. The last couple days have been pretty much the same at the start of each of the last two cycles. I came in on Monday morning and had the Rituxan, then started on continuous infusion of Etoposide and Doxorubicin. Overall I've felt pretty good, though today (Wednesday) was quite up and down. I've kinda gone back and forth between sleepy and wide awake, and I've battled some nausea today. This evening, during the half-hour "break" I get, I was able to take a shower and walk around "The Garden" for a bit, though it was quite warm and I couldn't stay out there very long. On the way back up to the room I did stop by the chapel and said a couple of prayers. It is quite peaceful in there.

Overall, the last couple of weeks have gone pretty much as expected. I have my six days of treatment, leaving the hospital on Saturday, then I return to work on Wednesday, where I put in a few hours each day to finish the week, and the following week I'm back to 40+ hours. Compared to last summer, I don't get as sick as last time, but I am feeling crappier for longer.

I am pretty much ready to head home, though. Even though it has only been three days and two nights, I am majorly homesick right now, and am missing being snuggled in my own bed. That being said, I really don't have too much to complain about (except for the fact that there is ABSOLUTELY NOTHING on TV right now), and am actually doing better at this point than I thought I would.