Before the War

Chemo # 5 "I little bit of Needle in the spine, a little bit of Chemo makes it fine, ..." I've been given the go ahead for Chemo start on Tuesday. As an added bonus, I will be getting the postponed Lumbar Puncture on Tuesday too, and while they're at it, they put in a bit of the Chemo drug too. You see, many years ago, they wound up curing leukemia, but then people wound up getting Leukemia in the brain. Not good. So now they check up in there and shoot a few rounds of chemo off just in case there are a few hiding. If they actually see any in the spinal fluid, then it's a whole new ball game. So, same as last time, I am in there Tuesday afternoon, Mom meets me at the hospital, and comes home with me, and then we are in again for the next 5 days. Then, if I am lucky and careful, I will NOT get any fever in the week after. If no fever, then it's back in every 2-3 days for blood work and transfusions as required. I probably will get a fever, so basically, I

So, I was in today for my blood work after being away for almost a week now. They are eager to start my Chemo next week. I wasn't planing on starting until after labour day. I had asked one of the doctors earlier if it would be ok waiting until after labour day. They had said it would be ok. Now they don't know if it will be ok. Mom doesn't come back until the day after labour day. They are still deciding. We will work it out either way. It looks hopeful that it will start the day after labour day. I got quite the stern lecture from "The French Doctor" that had given me the "Stupid Young Men" talk earlier. I guess she felt that I hadn't quite listened good enough the first time around, since I went to the Waterslides last week. Going to the waterslides was, of course, risky. Not because of my white count, but because of the "Portal into my inards" that is the Hickman Line. Yada Yada Yada, bacteria into the line, internal direct infection

The window for my mom's car finally arrived yesterday, so I dropped it of this morning at Mertin GM in Chilliwack (where Sonja's Step-Dad Ken works) to get it installed. Since it was going to take a few hours to do the install, we decided to make a day of it and went to the Bridal Falls Waterslides. It was nice being able to enjoy some real life with the family today. It was a little awkward having to try and keep my hickman line dry. I did the dressing in the morning with the "water-resistant" bandage, but still have to be careful not to get it full on immersed. You can see on the pictures on Sonja's Blog how I managed to keep the Top Right dry ;) Even though I have a bit of an immune system now, and it is getting stronger, it's still frowned upon to pour bacteria into the ol' vascular blowhole. It was a blast. Dexter is very good in the water, so even though he wasn't big enough to get onto and off of the waterslides himself, he went down all of

Yay, they did my last IV Antibiotic drips today. My numbers are all going up, and the neutrophils are now at 0.6, so I don't have to take the pill antibiotics or antivirals. They have let me go on my own for a week, and I don't have to go back until next Tuesday. I am back on full dose blood thinners though, so I still have to watch that I don't nick myself ;)

Again, sorry for the lack of updates. I have been having so much fun, that I just haven't been able to find the time to post. No, Really. I have been skirting my luck by having improptu parties at high tourist areas like the Vancouver Airport, and Granville Island. Running around licking parking and vending machines, etc. I figure, since they are pumping me full of the most powerful antibiotics they have kicking around, I might as well put them to good use ! So, I guess my luck ran out, and either I had something, or one of the two little snot nosed punks that have shacked up in my house have managed to get a booger on daddy sometime in the last few days, and BANG, I was sick. Very Sick. Both Mom and Sonja wound up getting bouts of something as well, after me. Sonja drove me in on Thursday when Mom was feeling crappy, and by that night Sonja was out for the count until noonish the next day. I only started feeling better today, which worked out good since some fu%#ing punks deci

So today was an early 8:30 appointment which I had made with the hope of making a dental appointment at 1pm. I had canceled the dental appointment the day before since I was still neutropenic. Unfortunately, it turned out to be a good idea. They decided that I should have two bags of platelets today due to my still very low count of 19. During any transfusion, I have to chart my vital signs every so often to make sure nothing funky starts to happen. In the process of the second bag, my temperature started to go up, peaking at 37.8. This, as we have learned from the last round of chemo, is not a very good thing to let them know. As expected, the cards fell where they do, and bada-bing, bada-boom, I am hooked up with 3 bags of antibiotics, and one is the 2 hour drip one that I need Benadryl for. Bloody Hell. So, for the next x days ( 2 < x < 6 ) I am going to have to be in there at 2pm for the drugs and/or transfusions if I need it. It better be something this time.

In again today (it will be every two days for awhile). Needed Red Blood Cells, and Platelets today, so we didn't get home until about 6pm. I think the taste buds are getting worse (like they did last time), so even the raman noodles are starting to taste metallic. Guess my diet plan is not a total loss yet.

So, things have been pretty good the last few days. I had a big bowl of noodles and beef on Wednesday night, and I was a little concerned about how the night would be. I was full for a change. In the morning, I was feeling pretty good - No "Flu" feeling, and that's the way it has been since. My numbers have finally bottomed out (White cells at 0.2, and no Neutrophils) and I needed more platelets on Friday. I still have no energy, but that's easy to deal with. No immune system means I can't leave the house except to go to VGH. Trapped again.

Sorry for the lack of updates. I have pretty much been out of it since my last post. I guess I finally woke up about 3am last night. The chemo started to take hold and take me down. The heat and the driving didn't help. Not being able to eat didn't help. Others who have been through it tell of a "Tunnel" vision you get where you don't really focus on anything, but just exist, waiting for it to be over. I now know what it feels like. I don't remember much over the last few days. I don't want to remember. Around 3am last night, I woke up, and felt hungry. I got up and made some toast. I started a fire in the toaster oven (someone let cheese fall on the bottom...), took down the fire alarms, opened the windows, and vented the billowing smoke out the oven fan. Terribly exciting, and more activity than I had in days. Everyone managed to stay asleep through the whole thing, and I just sat out on the couch for about an hour eating my toast, and listening