Well, it happened. Dr. came in today and told me that the cancer was back, after only 87 days of new cells. He said we would move to “salvage treatments” but I don’t like the sound of that too much.
I drove back to Irving and will go back to Houston Thursday to meet with my old oncologist and try and decide what plan to try next. Right now, I’m still in a state of shock. I knew it would most likely come back….but after a few years, not three months.
We will continue to fight. My only change is that I’ve told them I will not do another 4 or 5 month stay in Houston. I’ll get their advice and will try and do the treatment here. The travel is just too much.
Thanks for your prayers.
Brad, Tami and Katie.
March 27th, 2009 at 08:19pm
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Tami and I met with the lady who is in charge of doing the discharge classes yesterday. A fun filled two and one-half hours of sitting and listening. Not my best skill. Anyway, she pretty much spent the entire time scaring us and the other couple that were in there. That and taking away any hope of a normal first year life. She would say things like “you just have to go live your life” but then would follow it up with “except you can’t do this, this, this….last my other patient who died three days later”. We were asking all sorts of questions about working in the yard (which she said not to for at least one year) and so Tami saw her opening. You see, I’ve been wanting to get a motorcycle ever since I saw the movie “Bucket List”. If you haven’t seen it, you should. It’s great. Anyway, I said one of the things I wanted to do before I die (which we are hoping won’t be for quite some time now) is to take long rides on a motorcycle. Tami decides to commit the lawyers worst sin….she asked a question that she wasn’t sure of the answer for. Well, she thought she was sure. The nurse proceeded to tell her that it wasn’t a problem as long as I was safe about it. HAHA I can’t mow, dust, vacuum but I can ride a 1/2 ton machine that will go over a 100 mph. Yeppie….now, I just have to figure out how MD Anderson can give me one based of my frequent guest program points that I’m sure I’m accumulating here!
Oh, and yes. The nurse confirmed to me that we are getting out of Houston on March 27th. I have three more normal visits for IV’s and then next week is my re-staging to make sure the cancer is still all gone. If everything is clear, a week from tomorrow is my last day here! Back to Irving and a somewhat normal life. I’ll still be taking large quantities of pills and getting my blood checked once a week but other than that, ….well, and the entire list the nurse gave us of don’t do’s for the first year, it will all be back to normal soon. Dad, get in shape. I’ll be there in three or four weeks to play golf!
Brad
March 19th, 2009 at 07:00am
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I met with the PA today and was told I should be getting out of here next Friday, March 27th. I have my CT, PET scans, and bone marrow tests next Wednesday and Thursday. As long as all tests are clear, I’ll be heading back to Irving for good on Sat.
I did have to get another Neupogen shot today as my white cells just won’t stay up. Other than that, everything else is fine. Oh, the other good news is that I’m done with IV’s except on the two days a week I go to the hospital. I’m only on pills now…no more self administered IV’s two hours a day. YEPPIE!
Needless to say, I’m excited. It seems like I’ve been here forever and now I’m only 10 days away from beginning to get my life back.
I can’t wait!
Brad
March 17th, 2009 at 09:09pm
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I just rec’d my numbers and talked to the PA. All of my numbers are headed back in the right direction except the white cells and they didn’t fall as much as the normally do. All in all, I feel much better about things than I did over the last two days.
Katie and I will be heading back to Irving today after I get out of the hospital and she will be done with her taking care of daddy duty. I know it wasn’t fun for her but having a daughter that was willing to do that for us helped out a great deal. What a treat of a daughter! Tami will come back with me to Houston on Monday since that is her Spring Break and then we’ll figure out what is going on after that. I’ve been given permission to stay alone after that week as they think that will be my last week. So, as it stands now, I might be getting out of here two weeks from today.
I hope everyone has a great weekend…I know I will!
Brad
March 13th, 2009 at 11:12am
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They had me go in for extra blood work yesterday and when they called, I found out my platelets went down another 20%. My hemoglobin had been rising nicely but it came down too for the first time in a while. I go in tomorrow for my regular Friday visit and IV so I’ll know more then. I’m hoping the platelets have decided to not be so negative about this process.
You may notice that there is a new button at the top right of the page that is to subscribe to my blog. Thanks to my computer Guru (Mark C), you can now sign up to be notified when I post instead of having to keep checking. If you are registered on my site, you should already be receiving the emails.
On a side note, How About Them Bears! Sorry, having gone to Baylor, Tami and I don’t get to brag about our sports teams very often. Tonight Baylor ousted number #1 Kansas from the Big 12 tournament. Sic ‘Em Bears!
March 12th, 2009 at 08:26pm
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it would appear that I won’t be going home on March 20th like I had hoped. They still can’t get my white cells to stick around for more than a day or two but that is almost expected. What was a little unexpected is that my platelets dropped about 25% today when they had been holding steady or slightly climbing for a while now. My kidneys also aren’t very happy and so I’m having to go back to the hospital tomorrow to have another blood test done to see if there really is a problem or if I was just a little dehydrated.
I was sooo looking forward to getting out of here but I would rather be here and get everything set than leave a little early and end up coming back later.
Brad
March 10th, 2009 at 07:12pm
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It was two years ago today that we heard that word…Cancer. Like many people, once we rec’d the exact diagnosis we spent hours on the internet. Man, that can be depressing. We have learned sooo much in the two years since then.
Today’s visit went well with the exception of my white cells being low again. Another shot and they should be good to go by tomorrow. I did find out that my grafting percentage has gone from 90% Cheryl’s cells to 95% Cheryl’s cells. We are shooting for 100% but the docs are happy for now.
I was going to write something about looking back on the last two years but Tami showed me an email she sent out to the school and it seemed to say it all so I’m just going to steal it. For those of you that don’t know, we teach at the same school.
It was two years ago today at 4:30 in the afternoon that mine and Brad’s world turned up side down. That was the day that his primary care doctor told us by phone to get to the hospital right then because his body was full of “some type” of lymphoma. All because Brad went in thinking he had pulled a hernia while moving us into the Canal Side Lofts in Las Colinas 2 weeks earlier.
We were on our way to our joint mid life crisis- sold our house, signed a lease on this crazy loft with a boxing ring in the workout room, bought a really cute blue BMW, had no kid living at home-things were going to be great. Then BAM! A new reality of medical jargon, numbers, blood counts, tubes, harsh chemicals, more tubes, needle sticks, masks, gowns, hospital beds, living in homes without any of our own things, trading in that cute BMW for a “reasonable” car, asking for donations to be able to make it-that became our new reality.
For those of you who have been on this ride with us, your words of encouragement pulled us through many rough times. The cards and gift cards have been greatly appreciated. The funny videos from second grade made him laugh on a day when he would have probably chosen to just roll over and give up to this mean cancer.
The support for Katie has been seen also. Her world also turned around as she had to give up many things that a 21 year old shouldn’t have too.
At this time, the doctor is indicating that Brad will be able to come home on March 20th. He still won’t be back to work until Aug. and then we will have to really be careful since his body could reject the transplant at any time during the next 5 years. But I will take that any day over the day they came to us with the report that he probably only had 12 to 18 months to live.
Here’s to the next 25 years of our life together! Thank you to everyone. Tami
March 6th, 2009 at 08:14pm
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Baby Bottles
Some great news. While meeting with my doctor on Tuesday, I asked about getting the heck out of Houston. Not that I don’t love the place, but trailer life gets old after a while. It’s really not that bad but now that the Houston Rodeo is in town, there are lots of really large diesel trucks that come in and out of the park at all hours of the night…..man, those things are loud! Anyway, Katie is going home before spring break and Tami is coming down. When it is time for Tami to go back to Irving, it will be day 81 for me. Usually, you have to stay for 100 days after transplant but the doctor said I was doing so well he didn’t see a problem with me getting out of here IF we don’t have any problems between now and then.
My white cells actually stayed put after getting another shot last Friday. All of my other numbers were doing well and things are steadily going in the right direction. I’m still a little weak obviously but feeling better all of the time.
Now, about baby bottles. Until now, I’ve been self administering two drugs via IV everyday that I don’t go to the hospital. One is a one hour small bottle that doesn’t need a pump and the other was a three hour bag that had to be hooked up to a portable pump that I could carry around. Last week they changed that to only a two hour bag. Today I rec’d my supplies for the next week and to my surprise, they’ve taken me off one IV (switched me to pills) and the other one is now on a baby bottle. I kid you not, it looks like a baby bottle with a liner in it. The liner actually uses pressure to slowly force the meds into your body without the use of a pump. Giving my pump back to the home health nurse sure felt good. So now I’m down to a two hour infusion and only 32 pills a day. LOL…yeh, that is a lot. Oh, thank God for insurance. I picked up two new medicines yesterday that without insurance together were just over $4,700 for a 30 day supply. Geeze, this stuff is expensive. Since I am paying a ton extra each month for the better coverage, it only cost me $60.
You know what the worst thing about being stuck home all day is? Being able to watch C-Span. After hearing how things were going to change…no more earmarks…a new transparancy…etc…then to see these guys try and sneak in almost 9,000 earmarks and say this has to be done immediately to help the American people…..ARG! Watching our congress do their “job” is like watching a car wreck on TV except that we, the taxpayers, are the one’s that are in the car without our seatbelts on. I’m going to beat cancer only to have a stroke watching our elected crooks….uh, officials (of BOTH parties) steal OUR money. Sorry, I had to get that off of my chest.
Bradley
March 4th, 2009 at 06:14pm
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