I thought I'd start a new thread for updates on my cancer treatments and whatever else is going on, since the bad news thread title is misleading now.
My last treatment went better than the previous two and my chest wound is still closed up, which is a good thing. My arm is getting slightly stronger and I hope to resume lifting dumbbells next week. I need to build up my strength again, because I am going back to Denmark in May and I am extremely pumped about that! I'd like to be able to schlepp my own checked bag and not have someone else lifting it for me.
It's going to be a fabulous trip, 6 weeks and a couple of days for me. My brother is going along as well as my friends Chipp and Rod. Chipp is staying close to 3 weeks and has not gone with me over there since 2006 so he is also very pumped to be going. It will be Rod's first trip and he will be there for 2 weeks. I will get to be a tour guide. Also, I am throwing a party in my favorite pub of all, the wonderful, ever-magnificent Irish House in Aalborg on May 7th. The owner and I are friends and he will give me a little discount. We'll have Irish stew and brews in the cellar and I hope to have around 25 family and friends there. I might bill it as the "Fu** Cancer Party." A few months back, I was not sure I'd ever be able to go over to Denmark again or if I'd even be alive, but the cancer hasn't gotten me yet. I'm doing a number on it, instead.
Some other cool things I plan to do when I am back in my ancestral lands include a wine tasting in a castle, touring another castle and the northernmost manor home in the country, and visiting Skagen, the top of Denmark, where you can stand on a little patch of beach and have one foot in one sea and one in another. They also have a brewpub up there I am wanting to check out. I will start and end my trip in Aalborg and spend 5 weeks in an apartment I rent that is very close to the beach. I can hardly wait for May 4th to roll around! [Reply]
Originally Posted by Lonewolf Ed:
I just got a blood test result in on MyChart. They checked my CEA, the cancer marker in my blood. It sky rocketed to almost 550 in December as the chemo stopped working, so with two months of no treatments, I was expecting to see 1500 to 2000. It's 287.2 and I have NO IDEA how it went down so much.
Interesting. Body fighting back on it's own? [Reply]
Sorry to hear about the bad news Ed. Keep fighting.
Originally Posted by Lonewolf Ed:
I just got a blood test result in on MyChart. They checked my CEA, the cancer marker in my blood. It sky rocketed to almost 550 in December as the chemo stopped working, so with two months of no treatments, I was expecting to see 1500 to 2000. It's 287.2 and I have NO IDEA how it went down so much.
Hmmm. I .... well, I'm calling that good news. [Reply]
Originally Posted by wazu:
Interesting. Body fighting back on it's own?
That is the only thing I can figure. Chemo was beating me down and I am getting stronger and fighting back harder. I guess. Or maybe it was that third of a shot of 21 year old Irish whiskey I had on Friday? [Reply]
I got a call from a nurse at the cancer research center and I go in Monday for the initial paperwork, insurance, and so on junk. I should start treatment the following week, unless something screwy comes up in a blood test, but it looks like I should qualify. Now, this experimental treatment is very broad in scope, being used for breast cancer as well, so it may do nothing for me. But, I have been getting better, I guess, on my own lately. Not only did my CEA drop by a huge margin, my lymph nodes are not bothering me as much and I have not had to take as many pain pills. Thursday night, my appetite kicked in and after I ate dinner, I was hungry again. So, at 10:30 pm, I whipped up 4 eggs, some cheddar cheese, milk, salt, pepper, and made scrambled eggs that I had with 3 strips of bacon and a big glass of skim milk.
Aside from being tired, I am feeling greatly improved. I have to work on some more firewood with the chainsaw tomorrow, but my buddy Chipp is coming to do the most of it. If I feel okay, I will go out later with him and another friend, Dave, to KC Bier Company's third anniversary bash for some fine brews and good German and Austrian food.
Oh, and in other news, I have finished finding directions from my hotel in London to 15 pubs and other points of interest. I am very pleased that so many pubs are close to the others and the furthest is a mere 1.1 miles away. There would be two times where I'd have to take a cab, going to Bailey's Fish and Chips for the best in the area and to the Royal Albert Hall, but even those two are 2.1 and 2.2 miles away. I checked and the cab fare would run from 12 to 15 pounds, so that is under 20 bucks since the exchange rate is .8 dollars per pound now. The thing that excited me most is how close I will be to the Hammersmith Apollo, also called the Odeon, where so many famous groups played in their up and coming days, from the Who, Led Zeppelin, The Stones, Black Sabbath, Hendrix, and on and on. [Reply]
I was listening to this Guro Fancy pants guy Wayne Dyer the other day and he said that harboring ill will can make you sick with cancer and such. I don't know if you got any deep seeded hatred, but it is just an idea if you do to forgive and let go. I am sure you probably did that already. [Reply]
Originally Posted by Demonpenz:
I was listening to this Guro Fancy pants guy Wayne Dyer the other day and he said that harboring ill will can make you sick with cancer and such. I don't know if you got any deep seeded hatred, but it is just an idea if you do to forgive and let go. I am sure you probably did that already.
The only thing I hate with a burning fury IS the cancer in me. [Reply]
I went to the cancer research center yesterday to meet with the doc and go over the paperwork and insurance stuff. We talked quite a while about my medical history, my trip, and the possible treatment I may receive. There could be a problem with me starting for 2 months and being off for 2 months, but he said DO NOT cancel my trip. He saw nothing that would make him say it was a bad idea to go concerning my health. That was actually a big relief. He totally understands and supports patients needing that time away and I didn't have to convince him that it makes me feel alive again to be away from doctors, needles, and pills.
My treatment is not unique to the cancer center, but a national endeavor, so my doc is not the one in charge of it all, but is in charge of the treatment with me. He wanted to stress that while there are experiments to run, such as a drug cocktail, while I am on the treatment to see how my body reacts to them and how long it takes to metabolize and rid them from my body, I am not a lab rat. He said if he were to just administer a drug on a whim to see what it does to me, I could have his ass for assault and he'd lose his license. The drugs I'd have to take are nothing scary, just caffeine, warfarin, and two others I can't spell, but they are all common things people take. So, for example, if caffeine skews my blood count numbers or makes me feel ill, that data will be collected and one day when the treatment drug is FDA approved, it would probably say on the bottle, "avoid caffeine with this product" or if nothing happens, then it won't. I see and understand the value of the drug cocktail. And damn the luck, I *still* won't be able to have any grapefruit juice. :-)
There will be two days where I have to stay at the clinic for 13 hours, which will suck massively, but hey, if I gotta, I gotta. And as if I have not suffered enough humiliation these past 2.5 years, and many of you on here may be envious of this part, I will have to keep... a poo diary. It will be done on something looking like a cell phone. It has 8 different pictures of turds and I press the number that mine resembles the most. The ones I saw were things that have never come out of me: elk droppings, a photoshopped brown banana, and something looking like some weird coral reef. If the most common side effect hits me, the runs, I hope there is a photo of wall spackle on there so I can press that number.
One of the plus side of things is that this treatment is not via I.V., but in pill form. They will have to draw blood a lot, and that will be done through my port. I have a 26 or 27 page consent form with info about the treatment, side effects, what sort of things I must do, and so on, and they sent me home with it, urging me not to just sign the thing, but go over it in depth and talk to family and friends about it first. I like their approach to treatment and it was also stressed that their top priority is my well being, so once again, I am not some lab rat and they give me X just to see what it does to me. Second is treating the cancer and hopefully having good results where my numbers don't rise but go down and I feel better. [Reply]
Originally Posted by Kram:
I admire your courage and your "Ok, what are we doing next?" attitude. Keep it going Ed, and just keep looking forward to Aalborg!
