This is the Great Adventure

Halloween Fun

Photos for your enjoyment!

October 31st, 2007 at 06:32pm Posted by Katie | General | 4 comments

Great Come Back for “Phil” Thursday, October 25th

In most cancer hospitals and dr offices, you’ll see signs and cartoon posters about “Phil”. This refers to Neutraphils which is the subtype of white blood cells that offers you protection. The point is to make sure you watch your levels of “phils” so that you don’t contract a nasty infection that would be no big deal for normal people but could be dangerous if you are just off of chemo and your protection is down.

After getting the white cell shot yesterday, my “phils” that they want to be over 1,000 to not wear a mask went from just under 700 yesterday to almost 8,000 today. My white cells are 10,000, Red cells are over 3 and my hemoglobin has climbed to 10.8 . That still is below normal of 14 for a normal male but that number is great for me.

The only thing that went down was my platelets but the dr said that was to be expected after getting the white cell shot that I did. My platelets that were 155,000 a couple of weeks ago arer down to 62,000 now.

Since the shot I rec’d is the long lasting type, I should have good numbers for a while now. I’ll have my blood retested every Tuesday and I’ll post the results here.

Brad

October 25th, 2007 at 03:10pm Posted by Brad | General | one comment

Concern over blood work continues Tuesday, October 23rd

I had my blood work done today and the roller coaster continues. My platelets dropped back down about 30%, all of my red numbers came up a little as did my white blood cell count. However, my neutrophils (the part of the white blood cells that provides protection against infection) came down from 50% of my white cells to less than 20% of my white cells. They are down to 700. Anything below 1,000 and I have to wear a mask. Great, that will be wonderful at school.

The dr gave me an antibiotic to start on and had me email my oncologist at MD Anderson for his recommendation. I presume I’ll go back on neupogen shots (white blood cell) tomorrow but we’ll see.

I’ll let you know more when I know it. Until then,

Brad

October 23rd, 2007 at 05:17pm Posted by Brad | General | 3 comments

Light the Night Success Monday, October 22nd

Last night was the Light the Night walk in Dallas. There was a great turnout and it ended up being a ton of fun. Thanks to everyone that donated or walked for the event. We ended up having 13 walkers on our team that showed. For those of you that didn’t make it, you missed a good time including free BBQ, drinks, assorted gadgets and just a wonderful overall time together. My legs and feet are a little bit on the sore side. We were at the very front of the line with only about 10 people ahead of us and probably well over 2,000 behind us. When we started, I kept hearing Tami say “I thought this was going to be a leasurly walking pace” as we raced ahead.

Until last night, I hadn’t walked more than 1/3 of a mile at one time since my chemo. Last night’s walk was 2 miles and at a very good pace. I made it just fine but had a few moments of looking for a bench along the way. Thankfully, there were none to tempt me.

Our daughter, Katie, and two of her friends made up shirts that said “Brad’s Girls” on them. As they were beginning the walk under the Start/Finish line, the camera man said he had to get a picture of them for the web site. If they make it on there, I’ll put a link to it on here.

Tomorrow is blood work day so I’ll be posting after I get those results but I’m expecting good numbers.

Brad

October 22nd, 2007 at 07:22am Posted by Brad | General | one comment

Good Report Today, October 18th

Had blood work done today and met with the local oncologist. My whites are a little down but my hemoglobin, reds and platelets are all up. The platelets went up fairly nicely.

He told me that he really thought that after seeing my blood work last week that the cancer was back but (and he laughed about this part) he was very surprised that the bone marrow looked like it did…all clear!

We go back to doing blood work every week now so that alone makes me feel better.

I’m still looking for donations for our Light the Walk this Sunday night. Please Go Here! No donation is too small.

Thanks for all of your support.

Brad

October 18th, 2007 at 03:25pm Posted by Brad | General | 2 comments

Light the Night Walk for this Sunday

We have put together a team for a walk to help raise money and awareness for leukemia & lymphoma. I had originally thought that I wouldn’t ask for donations for this since so many of you have helped in so many ways. After thinking it over, I have decided to go ahead and promote the walk and set a very modest goal of $500.

I know that many of you reading this can not contribute but there are those that can pitch in $25, $50 or more without missing it. There also may be some of you that work for companies that would be willing to donate under their corporate giving program.

If you are interested, you can visit my donation page HERE You can donate online via credit card or you can call me and if you are local, I’ll come by and pick up a check.

Thanks again for your interest in my journey and together, we’ll beat this thing.

Brad

October 17th, 2007 at 07:39am Posted by Brad | General | no comments

Bone Marrow Appears Clean Monday, October 15th

I just rec’d a call from my oncologist at MD Anderson. It appears that the bone marrow is clean of cancer. They are waiting on one final test but he thinks from what he has seen that there is no evidence of cancer.

Time to celebrate.

Brad

October 15th, 2007 at 12:16pm Posted by Brad | General | 7 comments

Back at School Friday, October 12th

We are back from our quick trip to Houston and MD Anderson…my home away from home. Other than being a little sore where they did the bone marrow, I’m feeling much better after my 10 hour tranfusion of blood on Wednesday. When they did my blood work at MD Anderson yesterday, my white cells had gone up from 2.9 to 3.4 and my platelets had gone up from 97 to 104. Hemoglobin jumped from 6.2 to 9.1 as we expected.

I was told that getting the blood only causes the red cell numbers to go up and does not affect platelets and white cells….that is good because it means that my bone marrow is still working to some extent.

I’ll get the results sometime around the middle of next week and will post then. If it is back, we will continue to fight. If not, we thank God for additional cancer free time and look forward to what comes next.

Brad

October 12th, 2007 at 07:49am Posted by Brad | General | 2 comments

Doing better after getting blood

I was at the hospital this morning a little more than 10 hours but I do feel better. My heart has slowed down from over 110 beats per minute to just over 80. That alone makes me feel better. We’ve just arrived at our hotel in Houston and it is almost 10:30pm. We’ll get some sleep and then have to be at MD Anderson for my labs at 7:30 tomorrow moring and then the bone marrow is at 9am. We’ll probably be on the road back to Dallas before noon.

I would love to say pray for good news but I know I should be saying pray that whatever is God’s will is what will be done. That is hard right now so I’ll just say “PRAY” and leave it at that.

We won’t get news on my blood marrow results until middle of next week. That will be a long few days.

Brad

October 10th, 2007 at 10:25pm Posted by Brad | General | 2 comments

Heading back to Houston early Tuesday, Oct 9th

I just returned from having my blood work done here locally and my red cell/hemoglobin is well down. Red cells are 1.67 and hemoglobin are 6.2 Platelets have dropped to 97 from 155 but white cells have only slightly dropped to 2.9 from the mid 3’s.

My local dr said he doesn’t like what my bone marrow is doing is seems to think that the cancer could be back in my bone marrow. He wants me back at MD Anderson this week for a bone marrow test. I’ve just gotten off of the phone with my doctor from MD Anderson and he doesn’t seem to be so gloom about it. He says there are other reasons and that it doesn’t mean that the cancer is absolutely back but we do need to do the bone marrow and make sure.

As soon as I hear from him on when we are going to Houston, I’ll post.

Brad

October 9th, 2007 at 12:11pm Posted by Brad | General | 4 comments

Doing Fine – Just a little tired Friday, October 5th

I must have put down the wrong date in the last entry because I’ve rec’d several emails and calls over the last couple of days about how the tests went. I don’t actually go back until next Tuesday, the 9th, for my repeat blood work. This two week period is by far the longest I’ve gone without getting numbers so I’m a little nervous about it.

I’ve finally been working my full schedule all week with kids and it has certainly improved my sleep at night…I’m worn out at the end of the day. Actually I’m worn out by lunch and then just crawl to the finish line. Ok, that might be age more than anything but I’ll be very interested to see my red cell numbers next week.

Tami and I are meeting some good friends at a lodge in OK this weekend to relax a little. That will be our first non medical trip since March. Looking forward to it.

Brad

October 5th, 2007 at 07:19am Posted by Brad | General | one comment