Before the War

So, Chemo started Monday, and day 2 of 6 was today. It's about a 4-5 hour event, alternating between a 2pm start, then a 9am start, then a 2pm start, etc. The first hour is pre-meds (3 - anti-barf drugs), then the chemo bag for about 3 hours. I had a bit of nausea last night, and some this morning, but nothing much. Tonight I am working through a bough of hic-ups that have been going for about an hour now. The "Flu" feeling is starting to come on. When I got home, I had to crash for about two hours. It's going to be hard working the blog the next few days, but I will try keeping it updated.

These guys are having a bad Friday So, it's Friday. A friend of a friend had a look at the car on Thursday night and as I expected there was an issue with the callipers and rotor on the right front. That's resolved, and the noise/feeling I was hearing. There is still an alignment/arm/etc. issue. We were referred to OK Tire here in Abbotsford to have them hoist it up and look at it. It's Friday. I should know better. Anyway, a motor mount is gone, and rear subframe for the motor has rusted away. The curb hit finished it off. It's about $1400. We're not worrying about it right now. Last night, Sonja's Parents ( and Kim - Yay Kim ) took AJ and Dexter to spend the night at their house so we could go out for a date and enjoy a bit of life before they start trying to kill me on Monday. White Spot and a Movie. Best Night in a long time. We saw "The Hangover" and it was WELL WORTH THE MONEY. DAMN funny. Tears in my eyes funny. If you liked "Zack ...

"No, no, no, no, no, you-you don't understand the scope of my crime. I didn't kill just one Husnock, or a hundred, or a thousand. I killed them all - all Husnock, everywhere. - Are 11,000 people worth... 15 billion? Is the love of a woman worth the destruction of an entire species?" -Kevin Uxbridge, Star Trek TNG, "The Survivors" So, the results are in, and they are unable to detect any Leukaemia cells in the bone marrow biopsy they took from me last week. Technically, this is know as remission. AKA Good News ! Unlike the Husnock though, the chances are about 50/50 that some of the buggers survived in the trenches, and once the coast is clear will breed like rabbits on viagra, and BOOM, Leukaemia again. So, as planned, now that I am feeling good, it is time to mess me up again. The 1st of 3 more rounds of Chemo starts on Monday. For 6 days, starting Monday, I will be going into Vancouver, and over 4 hours they will be filling me full of a high dose of C...

This morning was my appointment at the thrombosis clinic. You see, I have this big hunk of clotted blood having a big old party in my right Jugular. Like most parties, the cool dudes hang out in the kitchen, AKA, the Hickman line. So, to prevent the party from getting any bigger, they are cutting off the beer supply with something slightly more funky and cooler sounding than Rat Poison (Warfarin) and way more sellable - Fragmin ! I get to shoot this stuff into my belly once a day, and sometime down the road I get to stop. Along the way the chances are good that a small hunk of this will NOT break off and kill me, or even worse make me speak like Jamie Oliver on the Food Network. After speaking with the Blood Clot doctor today, they have switched me to a different vendor for the blood thinner so I can only have to take one shot a day. They also have a good old fashioned syringe instead of an extra funky super safety one that has a ricochet retracting needle. Tomorrow I visit the dent...

So, the new big Shoppers Drug Mart here in Abbotsford has a working pharmacy system on the weekend, so they will be able to bring in the required dosage this afternoon in time for my injection. As for Sonja's car, I havn't had a chance to look at it yet, and I am not going to take it to a crook, er Mechanic, until I have an idea what is wrong. After driving it last night, my guess is that either the front right caliper is messed up, or a suspension arm is bent. Sonja said that she hit a curb yesturday, but on the rear. My guess is it got the front. The truck still works fine, and has car seats in it, so we are not out of commision, and Mom is back tomorrow so there is no urgency for my next week appointments. Either I am getting used to the pain, or the pain is getting less from the blood clot. I am feeling pretty good, well, relative to how I have been feeling. I still can't last much more then a few hours, but I am able to get around in those few hours. I went to th...

Ok, so this Friday stuff is getting a bit silly now. Wednesday night, I started to have some neck pain around my Jugular vein where my Hickman line goes in. It continued in the morning, and even though is seemed to get better, it didn't continue getting better. There was also swelling with the pain, so I called the clinic. I had no fever, and felt fine otherwise, so they scheduled me for a visit in the morning today. The pain is pretty incapacitating, and since it is ruining what little sleep I was getting at night, I am getting even more tired. Sonja and Dexter dropped me off at the hospital and went on to have an full day, and I went in to get an Ultrasound of the area. Blood Clot, in the jugular, around the hickman line. Yippie. Now I need to give myself daily injections of a blood thinner for the next forever to prevent further clots while my body slowly dissolves the existing one. As an added bonus, I need to give myself 20000 units of the stuff, and the largest syringe i...

Happy Biopsy Day Everyone ! I hope you all had a great Biopsy Day ! As always it's a tradition for Sonja and I to go in together for Biopsy Day, but she didn't get her paperwork in on time, so only I got to have the biopsy today. I had on my best Biopsy Day clothes, my best Biopsy Day shoes, and even a special pair of Biopsy Day underwear. The nice sporty, stretchy kind, in Black, so that the blood stains don't show. We arrived at around 7:30, but it turned out the appointment wasn't until 8:30, so I had to sit and wait extra long. Sort of like waiting to be able to go downstairs and see the presents under the Christmas Tree. Anyway, the time finally arrived, and I was able to meet my Biopsy Doctor for the Day. It was my doctor from last week, who was very nice, Dr. Mary. I was very excited that it was going to be Dr. Mary. She is a slight build woman, and certainly not a body builder. The Fellow who did my first Biopsy Day was a very large man, built like a brick ...

Whew.. Sorry for the lack of updates. It's been a nasty week. Tuesday . Pretty uneventful. I managed to get some things done on the computer, and get caught up on some stuff. Tuesday night, my temperature started to climb, as usual. This time it made it up to 38.1, and that is the temperature that I decided I would call at (after the "Don't be a Hero Billy" talk). I have had a temperature of 38.1 at night in the hospital by the way. So, shortly after 10pm at night, I called the after hours number and gave them the low down. The nurse asked me a bunch of questions, but basically, it came down to the fact that I felt fine and had no other symptoms, so there really wasn't anything to be concerned about. I should call back if the fever gets worse, like 38.8, or if I start feeling bad. Well, gee, thanks. Oh well, I did what they said, and the response was as expected. By the time I went to bed just after 11, the temperature was back down to 37.9, and continued dr...

Nothing much going on today. I don't seem to have enough energy to keep me going for more then about 2-3 hours at a time before I start falling asleep. All my muscles are sore, and my neck was really bugging me later in the day. The tiredness is due mostly to the lack of food, and the drugs. The neck pain is nothing new, but certainly seems to be due to bad, and too much, sleep. I just can't stay awake, but can't get a good sleep from the neck pain. A vicious cycle. I am having some problems with our main server, so every so often it's just shutting down. Going to the blogs direct will still work, but richardandsonja.com might not. I am getting it running again as soon as I notice, but if it craps out after we go to bed it's going to be down until the morning. I will be getting a replacement power supply soon and that should resolve the issues.

Again, it's not Friday, so that means good news. Today Dexter stayed home to hang with Mom, and Sonja, AJ, and I went into town. AJ was going to spend the day with GranDan (Sonja's Dad) while Sonja and I were in for my blood tests, and most likely a blood and platelet transfusion given my Friday numbers. It's like 4-5 hours for that, so we expected to be late, and AJ was going to have a big day with GranDan. We arrived on time, did my vitals, and had the blood drawn. About 30 min later the nurse came in with my numbers at 0.5 White (Down .1), 92 Red (Up 1 !), and 17 Platelets (Down 2). Not only had my red NOT dropped, it was up 1 point ! My boys are finally making my own red cells again, and probalby Platelets too seeing as the drop was so low. So, no Transfusion, and given the numbers, I don't need to come back until Wednesday. All dressed up and no place to go ;) Fortunately GranDan and AJ had already made it to the park and managed to have a bike ride, so we pick...

Ok, so I am over my Friday event. Just to clarify, I knew that there was more likely then not going to be more Chemo, and that this whole journey was going to be many months long. It's just that the Doctors in the past were more "Optimistic", and there was the possibility that if everything when well, there might be only one consolidation round of Chemo, and then watching me. This doctor just plain says "There will be three more rounds". I am the kind of person who likes to prepare for the worst, and hope for the best. I prefer to be more pessimistic so that I can prepare for the worst. It makes me a good computer programmer, and it also makes it easier to "Look on the Bright Side of Life". Anyway, the important thing is my tastebuds. Yes, those little bastards on your tongue that work out Bitterness, Saltiness, Sourness, Sweetness, and Umami . Well, it seems, as expected, and common to many people who have Chemo, is that some of these guys decided...

So, we know what that means. First day free, and first day back to the Outpatient Unit at 2pm today for blood work and assessment. My numbers are still going down, but they were not as down as I thought. Due to the fact that I have no working white cells yet, I will be back on Sunday for another assessment, and most likely another transfusion. As always the nurses at the BMT Outpatient unit are super nice, and I had two today as one was new to this unit after leaving 10 years ago, and was going over the new procedures. They cleaned up my Hickman line, and watched as I did the normal home cleaning on it after. They loaded me up with more supplies for cleaning, and some Hydrogen Peroxide to clean up the scabbing that is still occurring. Then the nurse came in. I have met her before, and while her bedside manner is not the most pleasant she gives it straight up, and in the end, I appreciate that. Except that it's Friday. Remember, there is a reason I hate Fridays. So, she laid o...

So, they feel that I am good to come home, and that was their full intention today. But, AJ still had a fever, Dexter had just gotten over his, and my numbers were still NOT going up. As I said to the Nurse, "I don't know how much say I have in this, but with my son having a fever at home, that should break today, and with my number being quite low even after the transfusion, I would prefer to go home tomorrow instead of today". I explained the situation to the Doctor when he showed up, and after talking about my numbers, risks, etc. he agreed that tomorrow would be fine. I might have played up my concern, and enhanced the level of AJ & Dexters fever, but both Sonja and Mom were very concerned about me coming home too soon. I also had my own concerns about leaving on a Holiday, when my regular people were not around. Later, my day nurse, who was very nice, mentioned that it will be much better checking out tomorrow, since all the normal staff would be here, like t...