(4/17/08 - did you file your taxes? Oops, too late now! Well, unless you filed for an extension, you cheeky monkey.)
Well here I am again, finally. Back in the hospital. My white cell counts were off the charts (high end) on Monday because of the neupogen shots I'd been taking, but I guess that's okay, because they know there were plenty of precursor cells to produce them. If there were only a few precursor cells or something else was going on with my bone marrow, we might be singing a different tune, but for now it's "Oh, I'm so bored in the hospital" (a little known ditty by an obscure but popular motown group in the 60's). On the upside, I've got a very friendly roommate this time around, so we've been chatting quite a bit. Also, a steady stream of visitors helps a lot (hint, hint).
Well, just one more day. . .
Thursday, April 17, 2008
Thursday, April 10, 2008
All Clear on the Bone Marrow Front!
(4/10/08)
Woohoo!* The results came back and my bone marrow is perfectly fine and healthy. All the precursor cells are there, but I guess they just need some stimulation. I'll be taking neupogen shots for the next three days to get the marrow factories working again, but I hopefully should be all clear to go in for treatment next week (knock on wood!).
I was a bit bummed the past couple of days, even though I wasn't thaaat worried (not true for the fam, though). My low counts made some sort of sense, given all that's happened in the previous couple of weeks, without it being due to some new anomaly. There's always that pesky glimmer of doubt, though - the one that constantly says, "Yes, yes, it should be because of this that and the other, but what if...?" So, yes, I'm definitely feeling relief at this news. Whew...
* By the way, have you seen the new Washington Mutual ads? They insist upon spelling this word, "Whoohoo", or some such nonsense. what's the deal with the extra "h"? It seems someone thinks that's the correct spelling, but my two minutes of searching on the internet has not produced an explanation. The original song featured in Kill Bill, Vol. 1 and in the Vonage commercials was spelled, "Woo Hoo", but that was also by a Japanese band - and we all know how the Japanese like to butcher English (check out: www.engrish.com). Regardless, I still stand by my spelling, gosh darn it.
Woohoo!* The results came back and my bone marrow is perfectly fine and healthy. All the precursor cells are there, but I guess they just need some stimulation. I'll be taking neupogen shots for the next three days to get the marrow factories working again, but I hopefully should be all clear to go in for treatment next week (knock on wood!).
I was a bit bummed the past couple of days, even though I wasn't thaaat worried (not true for the fam, though). My low counts made some sort of sense, given all that's happened in the previous couple of weeks, without it being due to some new anomaly. There's always that pesky glimmer of doubt, though - the one that constantly says, "Yes, yes, it should be because of this that and the other, but what if...?" So, yes, I'm definitely feeling relief at this news. Whew...
* By the way, have you seen the new Washington Mutual ads? They insist upon spelling this word, "Whoohoo", or some such nonsense. what's the deal with the extra "h"? It seems someone thinks that's the correct spelling, but my two minutes of searching on the internet has not produced an explanation. The original song featured in Kill Bill, Vol. 1 and in the Vonage commercials was spelled, "Woo Hoo", but that was also by a Japanese band - and we all know how the Japanese like to butcher English (check out: www.engrish.com). Regardless, I still stand by my spelling, gosh darn it.
Tuesday, April 08, 2008
Delays Raising Brows
(4/8/08)
I'm starting to feel like a broken record - "counts too low, counts too low. . . " This week they were even a little lower, 940, down from 1050 (course, that's probably within the error range of the neutrophil test). It's a bit of a cause for worry, so I had a bone marrow biopsy yesterday (ouch!) to check for any badness in the white cell production factories. Once we see what that shows, I guess we'll have a little bit more of a plan for what to do. My doctor thinks it's probably just taking the marrow a long time to recover from the combination of radiation, chemo, and two infections (zoster and then the random neutropenic fever afterwards), but I guess it's hard to speculate. I feel kinda frustrated, but this is supposedly "normal", meaning that it's definitely happened before to other folks who have gone through this treatment protocol.
On another note, I think my eyebrows are thinning out. I wonder if they'll go away completely. The hair on my head seems to come and go a little bit, but there's been a constant sparse fuzz there.
I'm starting to feel like a broken record - "counts too low, counts too low. . . " This week they were even a little lower, 940, down from 1050 (course, that's probably within the error range of the neutrophil test). It's a bit of a cause for worry, so I had a bone marrow biopsy yesterday (ouch!) to check for any badness in the white cell production factories. Once we see what that shows, I guess we'll have a little bit more of a plan for what to do. My doctor thinks it's probably just taking the marrow a long time to recover from the combination of radiation, chemo, and two infections (zoster and then the random neutropenic fever afterwards), but I guess it's hard to speculate. I feel kinda frustrated, but this is supposedly "normal", meaning that it's definitely happened before to other folks who have gone through this treatment protocol.
On another note, I think my eyebrows are thinning out. I wonder if they'll go away completely. The hair on my head seems to come and go a little bit, but there's been a constant sparse fuzz there.
Friday, April 04, 2008
Still ain't there
(4/4/08)
Well, I went in on Monday again, only to be told my counts were still too low. But it's not like they came up and just weren't high enough; they were actually about the same level as last Wednesday (1050 instead of 1040). Again the docs said there's nothing to really do except wait. Probably due to radiation and chemo combined, my bone marrow is just being sluggish. I've had some friends tell me that over-exercising can actually bring the counts down, so I guess I've been taking it mostly easy this week (though I did go climbing on Tues, and to Tai Chi on Wed). Of course there's other info that says regular moderate exercise brings the counts up. . . And then there's nutritional advice - some people say animal products reduce the ability of your body to produce natural killer (NK) cells, so we should all be more vegetarian. Then there's the mysterious-but-possibly-based-in-truth Chinese medicine advice, which says you should eat certain foods like frog legs (which I did do this week) to boost your immunity.
I think what gets me the most is the uncertainty and, being of a relatively scientific mind, the lack of data on a lot of this stuff. I suppose part of the problem is that the body is so complicated that even if there were tons of data on this and that, there's no guarantee that it would apply to me as an individual. Plus, there's no guarantee that the studies are controlled enough to yield a true result. I guess that's why every week the news tells us something else is either great for us or wrong for us or will turn our skin purple with pink polka dots, and then a year later that thing is in the opposite category. Ugh. It's endlessly frustrating.
Well, I went in on Monday again, only to be told my counts were still too low. But it's not like they came up and just weren't high enough; they were actually about the same level as last Wednesday (1050 instead of 1040). Again the docs said there's nothing to really do except wait. Probably due to radiation and chemo combined, my bone marrow is just being sluggish. I've had some friends tell me that over-exercising can actually bring the counts down, so I guess I've been taking it mostly easy this week (though I did go climbing on Tues, and to Tai Chi on Wed). Of course there's other info that says regular moderate exercise brings the counts up. . . And then there's nutritional advice - some people say animal products reduce the ability of your body to produce natural killer (NK) cells, so we should all be more vegetarian. Then there's the mysterious-but-possibly-based-in-truth Chinese medicine advice, which says you should eat certain foods like frog legs (which I did do this week) to boost your immunity.
I think what gets me the most is the uncertainty and, being of a relatively scientific mind, the lack of data on a lot of this stuff. I suppose part of the problem is that the body is so complicated that even if there were tons of data on this and that, there's no guarantee that it would apply to me as an individual. Plus, there's no guarantee that the studies are controlled enough to yield a true result. I guess that's why every week the news tells us something else is either great for us or wrong for us or will turn our skin purple with pink polka dots, and then a year later that thing is in the opposite category. Ugh. It's endlessly frustrating.
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
2 days ain't good enough
(3/26/08)
Well, it turns out two days isn't good enough to get the counts up. In fact, my neutrophils were a little lower (1040, from 1220). Seems to me like there aren't enough data points to really know what the neutrophils do in the interim between chemo cycles. Apparently they like to bounce around a bit before coming back up. . . The doctor doesn't seem to think physical activity/lack of sleep affects things too much, so there's basically not much I can do other than wait, wait, wait.
Oh, and there was a problem with the last post (part of it got cut off), so I went back and fixed the ending. Anyhow, just a short note this time. Guess we'll try again on Monday.
Well, it turns out two days isn't good enough to get the counts up. In fact, my neutrophils were a little lower (1040, from 1220). Seems to me like there aren't enough data points to really know what the neutrophils do in the interim between chemo cycles. Apparently they like to bounce around a bit before coming back up. . . The doctor doesn't seem to think physical activity/lack of sleep affects things too much, so there's basically not much I can do other than wait, wait, wait.
Oh, and there was a problem with the last post (part of it got cut off), so I went back and fixed the ending. Anyhow, just a short note this time. Guess we'll try again on Monday.
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
Well well well. . .
(3/25/08)
Well, folks, I finally got out of the hospital two Saturdays ago, and I basically laid around the house for a couple days while my leg got slowly less painful. By Wednesday I could walk pretty well again, so since then I've been trying to do as much as fun stuff possible. A couple high school friends are in town, and we've been traipsing around the area. A little rock climbing, a little karaoke, a little bit of running around on the rocky beaches in SF and almost getting poison oak (cross yer fingers for us), some ice cream crepes in Japan town, bocce ball in Campbell . . . All in all it's been a good few days.
I was supposed to go in for treatment yesterday (Monday), but my total neutrophils were a little low (1200 - they can treat me at 1500). I'm going to try again tomorrow to get in, but I guess I'm not holding my breath. It's again the mixed blessing of well, I get to spend a couple more days feeling good, but I don't get the treatment in. . .
Update on my lung nodules
I did finally get a chest CT last week, and fortunately or unfortunately, the lung nodules are still there. They've supposedly gotten smaller (the largest is 3mm, used to be 4mm I think), but they're still there, which could mean a couple things. It seems to me like the resolution of the CT probably isn't good enough to distinguish 1mm. My doctor thinks they're probably just random specks of something, possibly just some inflammation, but the fact is we don't really know. If they are malignant, the chemo should have wiped them out by now. We can't biopsy them, since they're so small, and so there's no real way to know what they are. I guess we can hope for the best, which is that they're not malignant, and the disease has not metastasized beyond the pesky butt bump. More uncertainty, but I guess that's par for the course in this situation . . .
Well, folks, I finally got out of the hospital two Saturdays ago, and I basically laid around the house for a couple days while my leg got slowly less painful. By Wednesday I could walk pretty well again, so since then I've been trying to do as much as fun stuff possible. A couple high school friends are in town, and we've been traipsing around the area. A little rock climbing, a little karaoke, a little bit of running around on the rocky beaches in SF and almost getting poison oak (cross yer fingers for us), some ice cream crepes in Japan town, bocce ball in Campbell . . . All in all it's been a good few days.
I was supposed to go in for treatment yesterday (Monday), but my total neutrophils were a little low (1200 - they can treat me at 1500). I'm going to try again tomorrow to get in, but I guess I'm not holding my breath. It's again the mixed blessing of well, I get to spend a couple more days feeling good, but I don't get the treatment in. . .
Update on my lung nodules
I did finally get a chest CT last week, and fortunately or unfortunately, the lung nodules are still there. They've supposedly gotten smaller (the largest is 3mm, used to be 4mm I think), but they're still there, which could mean a couple things. It seems to me like the resolution of the CT probably isn't good enough to distinguish 1mm. My doctor thinks they're probably just random specks of something, possibly just some inflammation, but the fact is we don't really know. If they are malignant, the chemo should have wiped them out by now. We can't biopsy them, since they're so small, and so there's no real way to know what they are. I guess we can hope for the best, which is that they're not malignant, and the disease has not metastasized beyond the pesky butt bump. More uncertainty, but I guess that's par for the course in this situation . . .
Thursday, March 13, 2008
It's burnin' up in here
(3/13/08)
Well I had a nice day and a half at home, and now I'm back in the hospital again. Man, this is getting ridiculous. I started having a high fever yesterday (102.3 F) and had to come into the emergency room. Luckily the on-call oncology doc (Whew! Say that one three times fast) called ahead and I was actually roomed pretty quickly. Plus, because of the zoster and potentially low blood counts, they had to isolate me, and I ended up in a pediatric room. Normally I guess this doesn't mean much, but at Stanford it seems to mean you get sweet diggs over the cold, sterile, and boring adult side. The room had a TV with normal TV, games, on-demand movies, and some other stuff that was less exciting. Plus the computer actually was accessible and allowed you to get onto the internet. The last time I was in an emergency room, there wasn't much more than the standard bed and sink in the room (well, plus all the doctor gadgets on the walls, of course).
They came in and did the bloodwork pretty quickly, and then we had to wait for the results. In the meantime, it was Shrek 3 and The Incredibles (true, the movies were all kid-friendly, but I happen to love cartoons/animation). The ED docs had specific instructions from oncology on what to do with me, depending on what my neutrophil count was (neutrophils are the white blood cells that help to fight off infection, according to my limited medical knowledge):
a) < 500 - get admitted for IV antibiotics and antiviral drugs
b) 500-1500 - go home with oral antibiotics
c) 1500+ - go home
Of course, the answer was a), and here I am. The docs think I'll need to stay here for a couple days until my counts come back up; then typically the fevers go away and things should be relatively "normal." Since I have to stay in the same room (usually I can go out into the hall at least and walk around), let's hope I don't go too crazy...
Well I had a nice day and a half at home, and now I'm back in the hospital again. Man, this is getting ridiculous. I started having a high fever yesterday (102.3 F) and had to come into the emergency room. Luckily the on-call oncology doc (Whew! Say that one three times fast) called ahead and I was actually roomed pretty quickly. Plus, because of the zoster and potentially low blood counts, they had to isolate me, and I ended up in a pediatric room. Normally I guess this doesn't mean much, but at Stanford it seems to mean you get sweet diggs over the cold, sterile, and boring adult side. The room had a TV with normal TV, games, on-demand movies, and some other stuff that was less exciting. Plus the computer actually was accessible and allowed you to get onto the internet. The last time I was in an emergency room, there wasn't much more than the standard bed and sink in the room (well, plus all the doctor gadgets on the walls, of course).
They came in and did the bloodwork pretty quickly, and then we had to wait for the results. In the meantime, it was Shrek 3 and The Incredibles (true, the movies were all kid-friendly, but I happen to love cartoons/animation). The ED docs had specific instructions from oncology on what to do with me, depending on what my neutrophil count was (neutrophils are the white blood cells that help to fight off infection, according to my limited medical knowledge):
a) < 500 - get admitted for IV antibiotics and antiviral drugs
b) 500-1500 - go home with oral antibiotics
c) 1500+ - go home
Of course, the answer was a), and here I am. The docs think I'll need to stay here for a couple days until my counts come back up; then typically the fevers go away and things should be relatively "normal." Since I have to stay in the same room (usually I can go out into the hall at least and walk around), let's hope I don't go too crazy...
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