Well, I am still doing good, had my first full day back to work and all went well. Noticed that it seemed close up things were fuzzy, but seemed to go away as the day went on. Don't know, maybe cause I have cut out a lot of caffeine out of my system, but all seems okay and still going strong. The day definitely went by fast. I have been off pain pills for two days and tonight appears to be a third, thats a huge thing, I just hope the shoulder pain stays away :)
Moving along full steam ahead!
iBelieve!
Monday, February 28, 2011
Saturday, February 26, 2011
Treatment 1 complete, doing great!
So I had my shot of Neulasta today, which is a drug that helps your body make more of its own natural white blood cells to help protect you against chemotherapy-related infection, which could put things on hold. So far, I have not seen any side effects at all, so today has been a great day. I got out a bit for lunch with a good friend, and then met two other friends to chit chat. This first treatment has gone so well, I hope that all the energy I have to kick this keeps things the same way for the next two treatments. I have zero pains or sickness, and have been doing very good. It's been great to spend a little time catching up editing some photo projects that have been put on hold because of the pain in my right shoulder. I will be cruising through to the 23rd of March hopefully with all good reports. Thanks again for everyone's support/prayers.
:) Rob
iBelieve
:) Rob
iBelieve
Friday, February 25, 2011
Treatment #1c
So today was the final bag for my first treatment, leaving only the shot tomorrow morning. It has been quite an easy couple days. I have to say not getting stuck in the hand or arm has been quite nice. The needle going into the port is just a minor stick, and pretty quick. I chose to do a new needle each day instead of leaving it in for 3 days, mostly because I don't want to bump it when I roll around at night by accident, plus I cannot get it wet. But we'll see how it goes next time. So today, got my bag finished and asked a little about some of the meds to make sure I am taking them as needed, and then I was done. I was a little tired today since last night I was up a lot, mostly going to the bathroom. But just laid down to get a little nap. All the additional IV fluids plus me drinking more water, have kept the trips to the bathroom quite active let me tell you. But as of right now, I haven't really felt any issues due to the first treatments, and am glad to be resting and taking it easy. I think that helps more than anything. My shoulder pain has gone away which is allowing me to get a few projects worked on and seem like I might be back to normal. We'll see if it comes back in a week or so like it usually did.
So for now, I have nothing to report. No sickness from the first treatment, no use of the meds standing by, just relaxing, taking it easy, and having tons of support to keep me motivated. The next couple weeks will be harder on me than I think, because I have to be careful who I am around as far as sickness and things go. Gotta wash my hands a lot, carry the hand sanitizer, all that stuff to stay healthy has my immune system catches back up. So, we'll see how that works, and hopefully going back to work will keep my mind busy so time passes quickly to get to the next round of treatment. Which is Mar 23rd, 24th, and 25th. I may post a few posts as I go, but it will be smooth sailing I hope till the next treatment.
Signing off with a big smile for this week!
So for now, I have nothing to report. No sickness from the first treatment, no use of the meds standing by, just relaxing, taking it easy, and having tons of support to keep me motivated. The next couple weeks will be harder on me than I think, because I have to be careful who I am around as far as sickness and things go. Gotta wash my hands a lot, carry the hand sanitizer, all that stuff to stay healthy has my immune system catches back up. So, we'll see how that works, and hopefully going back to work will keep my mind busy so time passes quickly to get to the next round of treatment. Which is Mar 23rd, 24th, and 25th. I may post a few posts as I go, but it will be smooth sailing I hope till the next treatment.
Signing off with a big smile for this week!
Thursday, February 24, 2011
Treatment #1b
So today was a very short day, only took about an hour to get the fludara in me. This one did not give me any feeling yesterday and the same happened today. Didn't feel anything. I don't know if I felt nausea or just hunger for lunch today, but all is going well. So just being productive and making sure something doesn't happen, plus staying away from others that might be sick. Gonna be doing that a lot the next two weeks. The nurse told me today that with the shot I have to get on Saturday to boost my bone marrow activity, I might not crash as bad. Still gotta see what happens. But doing good for now. Quite happy. And I am still motivated to get this done!
I have said it several times, but the support/prayers from friends and family has been a huge boost to my motivation and energy, I can't thank you enough! For now, I'm just taking it easy.
iBelieve!
I have said it several times, but the support/prayers from friends and family has been a huge boost to my motivation and energy, I can't thank you enough! For now, I'm just taking it easy.
iBelieve!
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
Treatment #1a
Wow, I don't know what to say about my experience today. It was long, but only 6 hours long. I guess they factor in possible complications and wags of time that could take longer. Basically I feel fine. Maybe a little tired.
The day started with some nausea and antibiotic iv drugs. The first bag of chemo was fludarabine (Fludara), which was a clear solution and went in without any feeling. I will say the stick to connect to the port was very easy, and I like it better than the iv's in the hand.
Second bag, which I call Mr. Smurf, was the Mitoxantrone (Novantrone) and it's a dark blue. I will add a photo of that one. This to went in very fast and I did not see any after affects of the blue solution, yet. :)
Angie, this does not mean I bleed blue now. But that made me laugh!
The last bag which was Rituximab (Rituxan) and was the hardest. I didn't take another photo of that, it was clear. I felt my scalp tingle and itch a little, but that was a possible side effect to watch for. Nothing to be concerned over. I did notice a bump on my head, that seemed to get bigger as the meds went in. It's gone now, so I am going to be watching that one. They increased the drip like every 20 minutes, and I did feel my chest get a little tight, but all in all, it wasn't bad. 4pm and I went home. That was fast.
I feel pretty full, due to drinking water and all the fluids going in me. I am feeling a little tired right now. But not really any pain. I have a little ways to go but so far, all is good. Now what happens as time goes forward I don't know. But I truly feel really good. And yes I drove home as I felt fine.
When I explained my chemo the other day I was not clear. My treatments consist of an 8 hour day like today, then two one hour days. So the first day is approx 8 hours, then the next two are only 1 hour. So each treatment is 3 days total. So my first day of treatment 1 went very well. Probably gonna take a nap and relax, but feel really good. :)
Thanks for all the texts and comments today during my long day, it kept me busy. Today, my buddy Chris brought me lunch, and had a great visit. My dad came by after work to visit till the end of the day. What a fun day.
iBelieve!
The day started with some nausea and antibiotic iv drugs. The first bag of chemo was fludarabine (Fludara), which was a clear solution and went in without any feeling. I will say the stick to connect to the port was very easy, and I like it better than the iv's in the hand.
Second bag, which I call Mr. Smurf, was the Mitoxantrone (Novantrone) and it's a dark blue. I will add a photo of that one. This to went in very fast and I did not see any after affects of the blue solution, yet. :)
Angie, this does not mean I bleed blue now. But that made me laugh!
The last bag which was Rituximab (Rituxan) and was the hardest. I didn't take another photo of that, it was clear. I felt my scalp tingle and itch a little, but that was a possible side effect to watch for. Nothing to be concerned over. I did notice a bump on my head, that seemed to get bigger as the meds went in. It's gone now, so I am going to be watching that one. They increased the drip like every 20 minutes, and I did feel my chest get a little tight, but all in all, it wasn't bad. 4pm and I went home. That was fast.
I feel pretty full, due to drinking water and all the fluids going in me. I am feeling a little tired right now. But not really any pain. I have a little ways to go but so far, all is good. Now what happens as time goes forward I don't know. But I truly feel really good. And yes I drove home as I felt fine.
When I explained my chemo the other day I was not clear. My treatments consist of an 8 hour day like today, then two one hour days. So the first day is approx 8 hours, then the next two are only 1 hour. So each treatment is 3 days total. So my first day of treatment 1 went very well. Probably gonna take a nap and relax, but feel really good. :)
Thanks for all the texts and comments today during my long day, it kept me busy. Today, my buddy Chris brought me lunch, and had a great visit. My dad came by after work to visit till the end of the day. What a fun day.
iBelieve!
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
Port or Starboard?
So today I got the port put in. Took about an hour, and I was out, so I don't remember much of anything. Had an absolutely hilarious team of techs for my install, and that made it go that much easier. So now I have this little mouse looking thing inside my body, that will make it easier to get me my treatment, so now comes the fun part. Of course, no showers to the insertion area, but at least I can bathe so I feel like I haven't been on Survivor. Gotta get over a little discomfort from today's surgery, but all is well.
So that leaves me with one wake-up till chemo starts. The wait has seemed to take forever, but truly I don't know where this month has gone. But tomorrow begins my days of healing, and I am very excited for that. I have no idea what to expect, but I think I have enough planned to occupy my time. Now I don't know if installing the Angry Birds app on my iPad was a good or bad thing, but it will surely keep me on my toes during treatment. So that is it, ready or not, here I come!
iBelieve
While this isn't the greatest of photos, this gives you and idea of the bump I now have from my port going in. Chemo is from 9:30-5:30, so expect a later post tomorrow :) My Dad pointed out I had an incorrectly oriented photo, so now I show the port on my right side, which is where it is inserted.
So that leaves me with one wake-up till chemo starts. The wait has seemed to take forever, but truly I don't know where this month has gone. But tomorrow begins my days of healing, and I am very excited for that. I have no idea what to expect, but I think I have enough planned to occupy my time. Now I don't know if installing the Angry Birds app on my iPad was a good or bad thing, but it will surely keep me on my toes during treatment. So that is it, ready or not, here I come!
iBelieve
While this isn't the greatest of photos, this gives you and idea of the bump I now have from my port going in. Chemo is from 9:30-5:30, so expect a later post tomorrow :) My Dad pointed out I had an incorrectly oriented photo, so now I show the port on my right side, which is where it is inserted.
Friday, February 18, 2011
I have made my decision
iBelieve2011
So today was the second most important doctors appointment for me. In the past 3 weeks I have done more tests than I care to, but it has all built on how I made my decision today. As you know, picking the right doctor is a hard choice. You do your fact finding, weigh the good and the bad, and decide what is best for you. This has not been easy, and well I can't have every BEST doctor there is to cure me. So today, it was clear to me, and I chose to steer my boat full steam ahead. I knew that if it was time, we would schedule chemo, and get the port installed. Unfortunately, they couldn't work me in today to do the port install, so my chemo won't start on Monday, but Wednesday. Yep, that was quick. But really, why wait. An awesome doctor passed on information to me to help me be ready for that, in that MY kind of lymphoma is rarely mis-diagnosed the first time. I also know that it is time to dive in. For the last 3 days, I have not slept well, have had concern with new pains I thought I was feeling, and well, more and more concern for my shoulder. While I had medication to help with the pain, it just had a constant nagging pain, and it has made me loose enough sleep. So lets get to the reason I jumped in full steam.
Today's news has some new items to pay attention to, and will explain why I was extra ready to kick some butt. Let's start with the PET scan. This, as many know, is the scan that shows the spots that matter when it comes to how well the chemo is working to wipe out the bad cells. My right shoulder lit up the charts, imagine that. From the previous scan's, it was called a hot spot. My oncologist shared with me that it stood out on the PET scan again, he told me that it was about a 20 on the scale. So I asked what the low end of the scale was, maybe normal, and well, he said a 2. Yeah that didn't surprise me, nor was he surprised when I talked about the pain. I guess I did not do my job to make sure he understood my pain was bad at night last Friday, because the meds I have don't help. He said he would fix that. Next up was the lower right side abdomen. Some new spots showed up and he asked if I had any pain. Funny thing is, that was one area I wanted to tell him about and he already knew it. Maybe the other scans did not pick up what a PET scan does, maybe they are new. But I had questionable pain in that area and well, I was a little concerned, but he beat me to the punch on that one. Okay, lastly, the left shoulder showed a little activity on the PET scan. He asked if I had any pain there, and again, that was on my list to discuss with him, and he already knew it. Now, the left shoulder is in the bone marrow just like the right. Hopefully that doesn't get bad, but it added to my decision to jump right in. It's time to start killing the bad cells and getting on the road to recovery. It only takes one aggressive lymphocyte to go on a rampage, and I don't want that. I brought up the recent fever and night sweats, even though I knew that was just part of the body fighting all this bad junk, and he confirmed that it was nothing to be alarmed about, and well, it's gonna be common until we kick this lympho's butt. I got to meet my oncologist's right hand woman, his nurse, and I can tell she keeps him on his toes. She was on top of everything he said, and had stuff ready to go for me, so I feel pretty good about that team, and decided it was time to stick with him, and that was my decision. With the added news this time, I think it is time to get started and if I need to re-evaluate, I can always do that.
Okay, so they wanted to get my port installed today, but the schedule was full, so chemo cannot start on Monday. Tuesday morning I will get my port installed, and Wednesday is my first treatment of chemo. Wednesday will be a full 8 hours due to the need to administer the drug slowly. For those who want to know my cocktail, it is a combination of Rituximab (Rituxan), Mitoxantrone (Novantrone), and Fludarabine (Fludara). There are many things with each drug that has side effects, and won't go into those but the Mitoxantrone is a blue color and it can cause urine, sweat, saliva, and the whites of my eyes to be discolored. So no reason to be concerned if I have some blue eyes, at least they aren't pink. :) That was a joke. But, I guess I may look a different way, but some of those side effects are normal.
I dropped of 7 prescriptions today at the pharmacy. Finally I got me some good meds to kill this pain. But all the others tie into the chemo so I can't wait to get them started next week. :)
Okay, so thats about that. I am excited to get this journey started, and without all the wonderful support I don't think I could have made it this far. Wednesday could be an interesting new beginning, but it is a necessary step. I will say I am not scared with an honest face. Your prayers are always the best thing I could ask for. But as I start chemo, please remember that my immune system will be wacked, and I can easily pick up something that could be trouble for me. So if you have or been around someone that is ill, they recommended you stay a little further away to help me. If I am wearing a mask, it's only to help me be out and about but also help protect my system. I will try to blog a lot, so that time passes fast but also I can give you an idea my ups and downs. If I am sleeping, I won't have the phone ringer on. So please don't freak out if I don't answer. Text messages will be a lot easier for me, so just understand I might not be in the mood to talk. Don't be afraid to come visit me, but also don't be offended if I am just not up to it. Hopefully this will be short lived and I won't really need visitors. Don't be offended if I ask you if you have been around sick ones, or if I wash my hands a lot. These are things recommended for me to keep healthy, just want you to understand as well. I might do the Howie fist bump a lot :)
Okay, so thats a wrap. I am still EXTREMELY MOTIVATED to kick this slight inconvenience's butt. Keep up with my journey here. If you wish to email me privately, I have created a temporary email account and you can email me there. I will also answer from that email through this journey. So if you add @insightbb.com to the first words at the top of this post, you will know that address. Remember, I don't want auto spammers to just get the full email by trolling the web. If you don't get it, let me know, and I will find a way to call or write you :)
Thanks for ALL of the support. And iBelieve!!
So today was the second most important doctors appointment for me. In the past 3 weeks I have done more tests than I care to, but it has all built on how I made my decision today. As you know, picking the right doctor is a hard choice. You do your fact finding, weigh the good and the bad, and decide what is best for you. This has not been easy, and well I can't have every BEST doctor there is to cure me. So today, it was clear to me, and I chose to steer my boat full steam ahead. I knew that if it was time, we would schedule chemo, and get the port installed. Unfortunately, they couldn't work me in today to do the port install, so my chemo won't start on Monday, but Wednesday. Yep, that was quick. But really, why wait. An awesome doctor passed on information to me to help me be ready for that, in that MY kind of lymphoma is rarely mis-diagnosed the first time. I also know that it is time to dive in. For the last 3 days, I have not slept well, have had concern with new pains I thought I was feeling, and well, more and more concern for my shoulder. While I had medication to help with the pain, it just had a constant nagging pain, and it has made me loose enough sleep. So lets get to the reason I jumped in full steam.
Today's news has some new items to pay attention to, and will explain why I was extra ready to kick some butt. Let's start with the PET scan. This, as many know, is the scan that shows the spots that matter when it comes to how well the chemo is working to wipe out the bad cells. My right shoulder lit up the charts, imagine that. From the previous scan's, it was called a hot spot. My oncologist shared with me that it stood out on the PET scan again, he told me that it was about a 20 on the scale. So I asked what the low end of the scale was, maybe normal, and well, he said a 2. Yeah that didn't surprise me, nor was he surprised when I talked about the pain. I guess I did not do my job to make sure he understood my pain was bad at night last Friday, because the meds I have don't help. He said he would fix that. Next up was the lower right side abdomen. Some new spots showed up and he asked if I had any pain. Funny thing is, that was one area I wanted to tell him about and he already knew it. Maybe the other scans did not pick up what a PET scan does, maybe they are new. But I had questionable pain in that area and well, I was a little concerned, but he beat me to the punch on that one. Okay, lastly, the left shoulder showed a little activity on the PET scan. He asked if I had any pain there, and again, that was on my list to discuss with him, and he already knew it. Now, the left shoulder is in the bone marrow just like the right. Hopefully that doesn't get bad, but it added to my decision to jump right in. It's time to start killing the bad cells and getting on the road to recovery. It only takes one aggressive lymphocyte to go on a rampage, and I don't want that. I brought up the recent fever and night sweats, even though I knew that was just part of the body fighting all this bad junk, and he confirmed that it was nothing to be alarmed about, and well, it's gonna be common until we kick this lympho's butt. I got to meet my oncologist's right hand woman, his nurse, and I can tell she keeps him on his toes. She was on top of everything he said, and had stuff ready to go for me, so I feel pretty good about that team, and decided it was time to stick with him, and that was my decision. With the added news this time, I think it is time to get started and if I need to re-evaluate, I can always do that.
Okay, so they wanted to get my port installed today, but the schedule was full, so chemo cannot start on Monday. Tuesday morning I will get my port installed, and Wednesday is my first treatment of chemo. Wednesday will be a full 8 hours due to the need to administer the drug slowly. For those who want to know my cocktail, it is a combination of Rituximab (Rituxan), Mitoxantrone (Novantrone), and Fludarabine (Fludara). There are many things with each drug that has side effects, and won't go into those but the Mitoxantrone is a blue color and it can cause urine, sweat, saliva, and the whites of my eyes to be discolored. So no reason to be concerned if I have some blue eyes, at least they aren't pink. :) That was a joke. But, I guess I may look a different way, but some of those side effects are normal.
I dropped of 7 prescriptions today at the pharmacy. Finally I got me some good meds to kill this pain. But all the others tie into the chemo so I can't wait to get them started next week. :)
Okay, so thats about that. I am excited to get this journey started, and without all the wonderful support I don't think I could have made it this far. Wednesday could be an interesting new beginning, but it is a necessary step. I will say I am not scared with an honest face. Your prayers are always the best thing I could ask for. But as I start chemo, please remember that my immune system will be wacked, and I can easily pick up something that could be trouble for me. So if you have or been around someone that is ill, they recommended you stay a little further away to help me. If I am wearing a mask, it's only to help me be out and about but also help protect my system. I will try to blog a lot, so that time passes fast but also I can give you an idea my ups and downs. If I am sleeping, I won't have the phone ringer on. So please don't freak out if I don't answer. Text messages will be a lot easier for me, so just understand I might not be in the mood to talk. Don't be afraid to come visit me, but also don't be offended if I am just not up to it. Hopefully this will be short lived and I won't really need visitors. Don't be offended if I ask you if you have been around sick ones, or if I wash my hands a lot. These are things recommended for me to keep healthy, just want you to understand as well. I might do the Howie fist bump a lot :)
Okay, so thats a wrap. I am still EXTREMELY MOTIVATED to kick this slight inconvenience's butt. Keep up with my journey here. If you wish to email me privately, I have created a temporary email account and you can email me there. I will also answer from that email through this journey. So if you add @insightbb.com to the first words at the top of this post, you will know that address. Remember, I don't want auto spammers to just get the full email by trolling the web. If you don't get it, let me know, and I will find a way to call or write you :)
Thanks for ALL of the support. And iBelieve!!
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