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]
I am currently in the treatment room with an IV hooked up to me. Earlier, when I saw the nurse practitioner, I asked her about my treatment since my CEA in December was 2.4 and I asked if that meant the colon cancer was gone, even from my bloodstream. She said no, but it is under control. I have colon cancer cells in my liver, which is what gave me stage IV in there. I thought liver cancer was liver cancer, but since it is not my primary cancer, it is different. Colon cancer often does that, jumping onto the liver as well as the lungs in cases like mine, where the cancer was not detected early but just as it was about to kill me. I don't have cancer in the lungs, just the liver, because the section of my colon that had the tumor was hacked out. I didn't know that colon cancer is still colon cancer even in other places. So I learned something new today. [Reply]
Originally Posted by Easy 6:
Wow Ed, you're looking GREAT, you're really putting the weight back on... sooo glad to hear the good news about your test results!
A very happy new years to you, see what the power of positive thinking can do?
I have put too much back on! I don't want to be over 204 lbs., but I weighed in at 209.4 today and 210.6 three weeks ago. The baffling thing is that my pants are still loose around my waist so I need to wear belts. I have no idea where the weight is settling, but it sure isn't around my waist. I told the nurses today and they all said, "NO! Keep the weight on!" Hrrmph. I bet if they gained 6 lbs. they'd all be purging in the bathroom. [Reply]
Originally Posted by Lonewolf Ed:
I have put too much back on! I don't want to be over 204 lbs., but I weighed in at 209.4 today and 210.6 three weeks ago. The baffling thing is that my pants are still loose around my waist so I need to wear belts. I have no idea where the weight is settling, but it sure isn't around my waist. I told the nurses today and they all said, "NO! Keep the weight on!" Hrrmph. I bet if they gained 6 lbs. they'd all be purging in the bathroom.
Same here.
Just started the second round of chemo and they didn't want me dropping past 205. I really was hoping to Silock it up and get down to 185 but that's not going to happen now. [Reply]
Santa Clara? I didn't know I was going anywhere in February except to the Black Sabbath concert at the Sprint Center. I got good seats for that show! [Reply]
Just started the second round of chemo and they didn't want me dropping past 205. I really was hoping to Silock it up and get down to 185 but that's not going to happen now.
Won't happen here, either. I am getting hungry for a Minsky's large pepperoni pizza again, and that I do not share with anyone. Mine, all mine! [Reply]
Originally Posted by Lonewolf Ed:
I just got an email before the year ended from MyChart about a new test result. I checked and it showed that my CEA was checked on Dec. 14, 2015 and I got a 2.4 and 3.0 or less means no colon cancer, so the stuff that my tumor spewed about my bloodstream has been vanquished! What a way to start the new year with some fantastic news!!
I am not impressed with my new insurance. I have been without Xarelto for 5 days now and have been on it since last March due to the Polish sausage length blood clot I had. With my new insurance and a new doc settling in, things are not moving fast. I called the nurse at the cancer center this morning to get things sorted or to find out whose ass I need to crawl all up into to get this mess sorted. The insurance company keeps rejecting the prescription and the doctor is not telling them that YES, he needs it so he won't have a stroke. So, anyway, now I have to go all the way to the main hospital to pick up a 10 day supply with a voucher so it is free of charge, and that is about a 35 mile drive each way for me. Without insurance covering the cost of my meds, they would cost me 364 dollars for 30 pills. That is one third of what I receive from disability.
So, off I go then on my trek for meds. F you, insurance company and doctor, whomever is to blame for leaving me twisting in the wind! :-) [Reply]
I got a call from the nurse at the center today. My insurance company has finally approved my Xarelto, but they will not approve a 90 day supply, just 30 days. Ok, that is what I *had* been getting all along. Wankers.
I will need a double prescription for my trip coming up, but if they won't supply me with enough, I will have to rely on beer and wine to keep my blood thin! [Reply]
Originally Posted by Lonewolf Ed:
I got a call from the nurse at the center today. My insurance company has finally approved my Xarelto, but they will not approve a 90 day supply, just 30 days. Ok, that is what I *had* been getting all along. Wankers.
I will need a double prescription for my trip coming up, but if they won't supply me with enough, I will have to rely on beer and wine to keep my blood thin!
I haven't posted any updates in a while about my condition, because there isn't much new to tell. I am still on the stuff I was on since September and the rash is not as bad in some ways and worse in others. It never went wild again over my face like it did in October, but it spread all over my chest and abdomen. The nausea is there but not as severe and I have not puked since the very first day after the new treatment started.
I did get my treatment schedule changed in mid February since I do not want to be hooked to the pump and have to worry about the tubes getting ripped out when I am at the Black Sabbath concert here in KC.
So for some good news... my trip is all set now. I have my airfare, hotels, and apartment on the beach secured, I've scouted out many pubs in Edinburgh for my side trip and will take a 12 hour coach tour up to Loch Ness with a few interesting stops along the way, including a Scotch distillery tour. I'm not a whisky guy, but hey, when in Scotland a lad has to have a wee dram and some haggis, right?
My brother can't make the trip this year so I will be going solo again. I just have to regain some strength to schlepp my luggage. I had help last year with my brother, Chipp, and Rod along, but not this time. I will manage somehow, though. I do have lots of friends and family over there, but Scotland will be an entirely new experience. I am part Scottish on my dad' side, but have no idea where in Scotland that part is from. I just know the old man's last name was MacGhee, my grandmother's father, so he was my great-gramps or whatever they call Scottish grandpas. I intend to absorb as much as I can of Scotland in order to feel and understand my limited roots there, so I will take in sights, sounds, smells, textures, tastes, and whatever else as much as I possibly can. I will eat the common man's comfort foods, drink the ales, listen to the songs, listen to the accents, and study the architecture and landscapes. I want to feel the wind, feel the sun, and the rain. Give me as much Scotland as I can experience in 5 days!
I have even found a few new places to check out in Denmark where I will spend most of the 2 months away. It's going to be great and I leave in 3 months! [Reply]
