Hair today Gone tomorrow

My hair started falling out last week. It was a mess to get off my pillow, so I had my oldest daughter buzz cut my hair after this weeks treatment. She got it down to fuzz and then my wife and I finished if off with a razor later that night. So at least I won't have to worry about the pillow issue any more. 

This was my third treatment is this cycle. The Oncologist wants another scan before my next treatment, so I should be going in for a Pet Scan in the next couple of weeks. 

I am still working 4 days a week and hope to be a able to work 4 days this next week. It all depends on how I feel when I get up. Some days I can do it and some I can't.

Vicki is hanging in and helping me get through this as always. I would not be able to do this without her.

That's it from here.

Hope all is well with you.

RT

Round 3 Chemo 2 Me1

If you think the title of this post has a point, you're right. I went to Chemo by myself today; my wife had to stay home. She is recovering from what could be a contagious throat infection. Therefor ME1.

Today's treatment was the second in this round. So, Chemo 2, and including my first round of oral chemo this is Round 3. So there it is, the meaning of the title.

The chemo went OK today, I'm tired, but otherwise good. I also saw my oncologist today as well. He tells me the blood work is OK for now and I should expect a couple of months of treatments every other week, for as least the next couple of months. After that a scan to see if the chemo is killing or at least stopping the cancer from spreading anymore.

So.... Vicki is getting better and for now I'm doing all right. We'll see how the weekend goes. Oh and yea I've got the on body injector deal on me that will give me a shot of Neulasta tomorrow around 3:15 in the afternoon. Then the whole treatment will be done.

Hope you have a great weekend.

RT


 

Three is a Charm?

After finding two small masses in my lungs and then a biopsy to determine if it was cancer, which it was, I had a PET scan to see if the cancer was anywhere else. If it had just been two little masses they would have radiated them, but they found two more so that meant I must do chemo first to stop the cancer spreading anywhere eles.

So this will be my third round of chemo if you include the oral chemo I took with radiation for 28 days straight at the start of this process last year. Then I got a break for a few weeks before surgery and then I went on chemo again. That second round was infusion chemo using a port surgically implanted in my chest. This latest round will be the same, though the drugs used are different.

In addition to some very expensive toxic chemo drugs to kill the cancer floating around in my bloodstream (The billing lady at the clinic told us each dose of one of the drugs was $5000), I am also being treated with a biologic which requires a shot of neulasta 27 hours later to help keep  my white blood count up. This is accomplished through an on body delivery system that gives me the shot while I am at home. The unit injects a needle into the skin on your stomach, then removes the needle and replaces it with a thin plastic tube. This tube delivers the dose over the course of 45 minutes 27 hours after treatment.

In order for the chemo nurses to know the unit is working properly the needle injection takes place at the clinic, then you wear the unit for the next 27 hours till it delivers the drug. It seems that in this I am an early adopter. The unit has been in use about 4 months. It worked fine yesterday and I have no complaints since it beats going back in to get a shot.

Speaking of being an early adopter, we purchased a new 4K UHD big screen TV recently and had to go back to Best Buy today to choose another brand and have ours picked up for return. The TV we initially purchased was the Sharp Aquos 65 inch Smart TV. I was familiar with the great picture quality from Sharp sets after viewing Sports on an older Sharp big screen at my local cigar store. Turns out the picture is still great, but programming of the smart portion just doesn't cut it.

The home theater manager was very helpful in showing us the pros and cons of Samsung, LG and Sony. We chose a Sony to replace the sharp . We took the Sony because he made us a deal on an open box unit with 5 years of in home service. I am hopeful this one will work better. We really enjoyed having Netflix direct to the TV through the build in WiFi till it quit working on the Sharp. (one of several glitches we experienced with the Sharp)

I am  hopeful we'll have better luck with this set and I am very hopeful that this round of chemo will get rid of my cancer.

Hope things in your world are going OK.

RT

Back to Treatment

It's been a while since I've posted because I have been awaiting the results of my last scan and then a biopsy of three small spots in my lungs. I got the results on Monday from my oncologist. The small tumors are cancer, the same cancer that was in my colon. It has moved and bypassed my liver, stomach and other organs. Instead it found a home in my lungs.

The masses are quite small and this coming Monday a Radiation Oncologist will tell me if they can attack them with focused radiation and how the treatments will go.

First though I'll need a full body PET scan to see if the cancer has landed any where else. If it has not, then treatment will begin on the three known tumors. After that I may need chemo (something I wished to never partake of again) and then way down the road surgery to remove the dead tumors after radiation and chemo.

All this is speculation till I have the PET scan. 

I am hopeful that this round of treatments will be successful and will be the last, but the reality of cancer is that you just can't predict its' behavior.

I remain hopeful and enjoying my life. I am back at work 4 days a week and will try to keep working as long as I'm able. 

The good news in all this is that Vicki had to have a biopsy as well this week for a small tumor in her breast and the results were negative for cancer. This was the best thing that has happened to me in a while.

Here's hoping everything is going great for you and yours.

RT

A Great Concert

We went out to Ak-Chin Pavilion this Saturday evening to see the first concert we've been to in years. It started out with Sam Hunt. He got the crowd rocking and the girls loved him. His set was pretty short, but very good.

Next was Hunter Hayes. This little guy can play the hell out of his guitar and really showed it. He did a couple of long songs with great guitar riffs.

And last was Lady Antebellum. These folks got me through  my mornings going in to work when I was on Chemo. I have a soft spot in my heart for this group and their great harmony. They played some songs off the 747 Album and some new and old tunes as well. Here's a short clip from one of the oldies but goodies and a few shots of their set.

 

 Here's a shot of the crowd. One of the security guys told me he believed they were well over capacity for this show.

I took this shot of their last song as we were heading out.

It was a great night and I enjoyed the music. We had a little spat with folks getting out of the parking lot. Not everyone gets the "you go then I go thing" it seems. Other than that it was fun.

We went by the Ve Quiva Casino on the way home. They had an R&B band in the lounge when we got there so we danced a long song and then gambled till around 1:30 in the morning. 

It is really nice to have enough energy to go out and have some fun.

I hope your weekend is as good as ours has been so far.

RT

Independence Day

Happy 4th of July to all my fellow Americans. That's all of them. The immigrants, the newly wed gay couples, the old school Hetros, the tall and short, white and black, brown, red, and even orange.( We don't want to leave out John Boehner) The Rednecks and Yankees, the farmers and businessmen, the hunters and the tree huggers, the soldier and the peace corps volunteer. The city dweller and the suburbanite, the Uber driver and the Taxi Driver, the cat people and the dog people, the folks that like the toilet paper to roll off the bottom, the folks that must have it roll off the top and those that don't give a damn.

Our big, beautiful country is so diverse and so different, yet alike in one thing for sure. We all value our freedom and independence. True, some much more than others. There are passionate Tea Partiers and liberal big government wonks as well.

I hope that on this day when you are gulping down beer, tea, soft drinks or whatever while devouring burgers, hot dogs and all the delicious accessories, that you'll take just a minute to appreciate how lucky we are. No doubt this country has a shitload of problems , but we've got a lot of great people working on them. 

So watch the fireworks, eat and drink till you've had your fill and remember how special we are to have this day and this country.

RT

Back at Work

Well, the party is over. No more laying around and eating bon bons. I got the release from my doctor and went back to work for two days this last week. I will work three days a week for a couple of weeks and then transition to 4 days and then finally 5 days down the road. I'm trying to ease my way back into the routine.

It was great to see my workmates and I got many  hugs and welcome backs.

The company is really busy with lots of folks working overtime, so they 
needed me to come back  and take on some of the workload.

I got a different cubicle and a better set of monitors for my computer, so that's a bonus.

Vicki and I are commuting together again and we love it. The HOV lane is awesome.

We both feel blessed to be back in the swing of things.

Hope your world is treating you as nicely.

RT