Session Six....The Midpoint??

If we can get the little demons in my liver under control, this will be the halfway point. I continue to sit for CT scans, including another next week, and from that we’ll make some serious decisions. If the tumors don’t shrink much, we may be adding additional drugs to the cocktail. With shrinkage, we may not need to endure all six remaining six sessions. So cross your fingers, toes, or whatever rabbit foot you might rub that we get good pics next week. (The only phrase that should include the word "shrinkage" may have to do with tumors...)

I wish I could say there were many, eventful outcomes from this past session or today. Mostly, we’re just going through the boring regimen, hoping to avoid the hassles of the first session and the study drug, and working when possible. It makes the work weeks swing by quickly, and the “pump weeks” unpredictable. I can’t predict how I’ll respond, so I lie low and just wait for the hassle to pass. The odd part is to think that if someone would have said "18 sessions" a couple of years ago, it would have been tougher...this is going ok.

Thankfully, we have clear weather. Cold, but no rain. Maybe a little snow by the weekend. With a fun party to attend on Saturday night I’m not a schoolboy hoping for a snow day!

Take care, everyone. The year is kicking off well…and we’ll kick those little demons pretty hard, too.

Work Week!

It seems that I may have been a little whiney when last I wrote. The good news about this whole process is that I only have to feel like that on alternating weeks. This week, I'm back to work, hoping people pay attention to what I have to say, and enjoying the kind of work we get to do. Docs are such wonderful folks, it seems that every conversation is both educational and fascinating.

This week has been a bit tougher emotionally than many of the past sessions, but the good news is that I'm almost half done. I'll visit the Opium Den on Monday, after a rapid trip to lovely Lewiston, Idaho for a retirement party this weekend, and by this time next week I'll be looking at the downhill side of the treatments. Life could be a LOT worse.

Each time I write here, I think I should have something incredibly profound to say. Others are capable of that, but I remember the kids are the real writers in the family, I just pretend. So nothing profound this week...just the reminder that we live in a very gracious world, and inviting people to share in it provides us with incredible rewards.

Thanks for being so gracious....

Can Ohio State even spell BCS???

Well, let's see. The Big Ten has all this reputation and no ability. Meanwhile, people think the Pac Ten is awful because good teams take turns beating each other up. Must have something to do with the time zones, and people missing games...I haven't even bothered, but an accumulation of total points scored by each conference in a bowl game might make for an interesting SportsCenter segment, don't you think?

Today, I’m typing in the Opium Den. Finished “Hannibal Rising,” not exactly the best movie to watch in a physician’s office, but well done nonetheless. Not as creepy as Silence of the Lambs, but a little more gore. No, a LOT more gore. Not for most teens or certainly any children.

Moving along to a bit more pleasantry, it dawned on me today that most people are fortunate not to have experienced a CT scan. My torso scans are shot horizontally, while lying down. Then, when the “slices” are compiled, it creates something akin to a multi-story building. Each slice is a new floor. Oddly enough, when the radiologist reviews the images, it is much like installing an elevator in one’s body, and the radiologist rides up and down the elevator. “Image six, hepatic dome.” “Sportswear, ladies' accessories, jewelry.” “Visible at this view, an ill-defined attenuating lesion measuring 2.1 cm by 1.7 cm.”

Moving down to the lower floors, we’re comfortable knowing that the spleen, kidneys, gall bladder and pancreas are unremarkable. Each is found on a different floor, basically, in our building. Pretty remarkable science, if it is conducted on someone else’s body. On mine, I get a little weirded out thinking that someone can simply zip up and down the elevator. I keep hoping they find a $20 gold piece I may have swallowed as a child, or some other miracle…but it is all organ tissue and these crummy little “lesions.”

Two weeks ago, the session was challenging. Today, I’m hopeful that more rest than I could manage over Christmas, and some refinements to my diet, will help the 48 hours pass uneventfully. I’m getting a later start this week, not on Monday, because the room was simply too busy to accommodate us all yesterday. Poor commentary on the state of cancer in the US, when holiday schedules are overloaded by all the patients. And this is just one of the cancer clinics in Portland.

Other than fatigue and some creeping nausea last time, life is GOOD. Lizzy and Billy were here for New Year’s and the birthdays we accumulate this time of year. Terrific to see them. Hard to have both of them leave, and then follow that up a few days later with Vickie’s return to Valpo. Each is so enthusiastic about life right now, which makes it easier to see them off…knowing that they are building terrific young lives. I love learning from them, knowing more, and just seeing some terrific kids turn into terrific adults.

Circles of friends continue to do nice things. Dinner with Jon and Nancy Egge—others making plans for the Valentine’s wine tasting trip—Fubarians getting out golf calendars while planning months ahead. We’ve come to realize that it isn’t the stuff we do….it is the people with whom we do it. That’s what makes a difference. I’ve already made reservations to see the Boston Pops Orchestra when we attend BU commencement, and more planning will come together for that trip, too.

Keep thinking good thoughts. We go back and shoot pictures up and down the elevator shaft in a month, with plans for reduction of the lesions. This time, it was good to have them stabilize, and now we want them to begin to disappear. More chemical weapons may be called upon to assist, but we’re running this same game plan until February. For now, it seems my hair has stopped falling out as fast as before, my weight is actually up from the Holiday Feasting, and on the weeks I don’t visit the opium den I feel terrific. Let’s just hope this week is a little more docile than last.

Double Nickels

Isn't it amazing that we Fubarians put together an entire west coast tour when we turned 50, and no one even wants to talk about turning 55? Does it have anything with reaching the speed limit and using our turn signals at all times as responsible adults? Well, after reaching that point I don't mind at all. Might even run a redlight late at night now and then and live on the edge....

Last week's session was a little more difficult than I'd have liked. It took only four days to recover, however, and by Friday I was eagerly awaiting Liz & Billy's arrival from the east coast. After a five hour delay in Denver, waiting for their plane to get in from Texas so they could come to Portland, they made it happen. It meant that Billy was up for something more than 24 hours, given a full day of work on Friday...That's a commitment to go see one's new in-laws we should admire. It would have been easy to book a return flight to Baltimore and call it a day, maybe spending a night with Nate and heading home. But the two of them soldiered on and arrived in the wee hours.

The holidays went well. Emotional, as usual, heightened by various medical issues this year. Lots of people have things going on, not just me. I guess that's either an age thing, or the bad news that we can share immediately via electronic means. Maybe we heard about others via more delayed media in the old days, but there sure seems to be a lot going on in the circle we call friends.

This week, I bask in the support of folks at work before heading back to the Infusion Den on Monday. Next week will serve well to get thank-you's done, give some thought to a reunion in Lompoc in March, and do some planning for the graduation weekend in May.

Happy New Year to all. Enjoy your January, and know that I think of the wonderful support team around me more than I can ever describe. Talk to you SOON!!