Out With The Bad, and Out With The Good....Wait, What?

Hello everyone, thank you for reading. Well, it's been a good week, no bad news, no real pain, if anything just exhaustion. My first Chemo session has come and gone and I feel good. I wasn't nervous or scared leading up to it, more anxious if anything. I just wanted to get the ball rolling. I wanted to see how the drugs would affect me and my daily lifestyle. I've got an active two year old, a daughter arriving in 7 days, plus it's very important to us that I work as much as possible. Being in a commission position, continuing to work is critical, for money, for momentum, and for sanity). If I was in a salary position, I would've probably taken the easy road and would've checked out last week, "saying, it's been real, see you in six month." Anyway, so far so good....

We met with Dr. Yee and it was a good conversation. It was the first time we had chatted since he left the results of the PET/CT Scan and the Bone Marrow Biopsy on my voice message. He was happy that we were going away from the aggressive Chemo treatment regimen. He confirmed that even though my two test results were good, I'm still in Stage 2. Stage 2 simply because the cancer is in at least two lymph nodes. He felt around and may have felt a small one on the other side of my neck that we hadn't discussed yet. He didn't seem concerned.

The regimen that I'm on is called ABVD: Adriamycin, Bleomycin, Vinblastine, and Dacarbazine. All of these are severely toxic and could destroy many parts of my body including my liver, lungs, and heart if not administered correctly. But that's why Dr. Yee gets paid the big bucks....he figures out the levels of which I can handle and then toes the line (uhhh hello, scary). This way the drugs do their job without killing me. These drugs will kill both cancer cells and good cells. Think of it as just zapping my system of everything....pushing the reset button, so to speak :) For those interested, here's a better description of the ABVD: http://www.lymphomainfo.net/therapy/chemotherapy/abvd.html

Thursday (7/29/10) was my first Chemo session. They weighed me again, 200.5 lbs. To use an Ultimate Fighting Championship term (UFC), I usually walk around between 207 and 215, so I've obviously lost weight. Moving on to the treatment room, there were about 10 comfortable reclining chairs for patients. Surprisingly their were 6 patients receiving some form of treatment at the same time. I seem to be the only one under 70....Pinochle anyone? Meg and I found a spot where we could each get an adjoining comfy chair and they began to hook me up. They first hooked me up to saline that would run constantly throughout the process. Then they pumped two different bags of anti-nausea medicine in me. Then, over the next two hours, they put the ABVD in me. Two by hand, pumping them into the IV for safety reasons. The final two were administered by regular IV drip. The doctor also gave me two different prescriptions for anti-nausea and anxiety (drowsiness as well). Man, they don't mess around with this nausea stuff.....

Earlier in the day, Meg had severely thrown out her back. This was the second time she's done it this pregnancy, but it's been a while. This one was way worse. She was in so much pain.....it was so hard to watch. I tried to tell her not to come to the treatment, but she wouldn't have any of it. She could barely walk, but wanted to be right by my side. No one could ask for a greater more loving wife, I consider myself lucky. Later that night, Meg's back got worse and we had to shut down her participation in Kenzie's shower that she was planning on going to.....She was crushed. I'm not sure if she was more upset at the back pain or the late cancellation to the shower with her family.

My parents came over along with my brother. My mom continued on to the shower like a trooper, while my dad took Riley head on. My brother just kept me company. Overall I felt good. At one point, I started to feel a little uneasy, but quickly took one of my pills and it worked perfectly and quickly. It was great having my family there.

The next day, Friday, I felt good enough to go into work for 5 hours and it worked out well. By the time I got home, I was pretty tired and took my first nap in 10 years. Hey, the doc said I'd be tired.....