Late last night my week long fight with fever broke. I woke up about 1 this morning and felt like getting up and doing something. Rare for me lately. Checked my temp and it was down to normal. First time in a week! Went to doc this morning and temp still normal but heart rate was 120. Not sure what that was about but I also lost six pounds in last three days. Hmmmm..sick for a week, racing heart rate, lost poundage….can you say dehydration?
I’m back on track to have my third round of Rituxin Monday and then Tuesday they will replace this PICC line I have with a new one.
White cells were up today from .3 to 1.4 so we are going in the right direction.
Oh, Mark. First, the steaks were GREAT. Thanks And second, as much as I love my Mavs, I want to prove here and now that I’m not a homer. I’m picking Dever in 6….but I hope I’m wrong and will be pulling hard for Dallas.
Brad
April 30th, 2009 at 09:58am
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I’ll keep this short. I haven’t felt very good since Thursday..but then again, we knew that was coming. We’ve also run into a snag with my PICC line in my arm. One of the two lines is absolutely clogged. I mean clogged like it is shot full of concrete. Tomorrow I go in to have it taken out and then put right back in. Fun, fun. Well, I say I am. If you are running fever they won’t do it. I’ve been running around 101 since last Thursday. Goes up a little then down a little.
We found out last week that my white cells that had been 5.0 were now at .3 Yep, not 3 .3 Needless to say that explains why I can’t fight this infection. I’m on 4 different antibiotics.
Headed back to bed now. I’m soooo ready to get back to life that is normal and have not given up on that idea just yet.
Brad
April 29th, 2009 at 08:43am
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The last few days have been interesting but I just haven’t felt much up to writing. Sat evening, I came down with a rash across my chest. By Sunday it had spread to my stomach and both arms and by Monday it was also on my back. We pretty much knew it was GVHD but I was seeing my local doc on Monday morning to start my treatment, which I knew included four days of steriods which just happnes to be one of the first things they do for GVHD of the skin so I just waited to see him. Sure enough, that is what we did. I’m now on day three of the chemo and havne’t gotten nearly as sick as I have before. I’m also not doing all of the drugs that I usually do, just two of them. The biggest problem is just being so tired. The steriods seriously hype me up so much that Monday night was a zero sleep night…not a few minutes here or they…nothing. Yesterday I got some Ativan and mixed with Benedryl which gave me some relief. However, I took that combination over an hour ago and you should see all the retyping I’m having to do because my fingers won’t hit the correct keys the first time. I feel like someone that is trying to detox. (not that I have personal experience with that sort of thing)
I get disconnected tomorrow from my line. The next two mondays I have Retuxin and then we start this three week deal all over again. That means that about 6 weeks from now we should be restaging to see that the cancer is all gone and then go straight into the stem cell booster in HOuston before I head back here around the end of june to start my maintainance and get ready for next school year. I’ve been told that teaching shouldn’t be a problem AT ALL so I CANT WAIT to be back in the classroom. I’ll be doing four shots a month that can all be done after school here in Irving and one IV a month which is about 4 hours long. The only do that during school so I’m checking with Baylor Dallas to see if they do it on Sat but if not, I know MDA does so if worse comes to worse, I’ll fly down to Houston once a month on Sat monrning, get my treatment and fly back that night. Not much of a price to pay to work.
So far, so good. Keep praying. Oh, and if you want to read more about GVHD, you can go here
April 22nd, 2009 at 12:00pm
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I had my new little best friend installed today. This time I was given a PICC line in my arm instead of a CVC line in my chest. This should be a little easier to take showers with so I’m happy about that. Like any of them, it will just take time getting use to something hanging out of your body.
I begin the chemo Monday morning. We will be doing two rounds for a total of about 6 weeks before retesting to make sure it is gone and then heading down for the booster stem cell transplant. It really isn’t much more than collecting some extra cells from my sister and watching them drip into me but it should help the disease stay away longer. The difference this time is we have a plan to keep me on two medications AFTER they are able to get the disease in remission. One requires me to stop by the docs office four times a month for a quick shot and the other requires me to get an IV once a month. Neither one of these drugs makes me ill so I shouldn’t have any problems working next year which makes me very excited.
Here’s to an uneventful and stress free weekend before starting that chemo I hate so much next week.
Bradley
April 17th, 2009 at 02:48pm
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That’s right. I’ve made a decision. I’m going to go do some things that I enjoy this week and try and not concentrate on what treatment begins when. I’m waiting on some workers to show up and do some things around the house but once they leave, I think I’m going to go hit some golf balls. (Yeh, after watching the Masters, don’t ya just want to go try and do that?) I think I’m heading to my Dad’s house in E. Texas Wednesday and try and play a round of golf with him too. Why not? Treatment will get started soon enough.
If you haven’t been able to tell, and you might not have been able to since I didn’t post much lately, I was really counting on this last weekend being good news. When it wasn’t, I came closer than ever to hitting bottom. Not sure why, but I really felt like I had something going on my side this time. The tables were turning. Once again, that was my plan and not God’s. We see who usually wins out on those!
As I said, treatment will begin soon enough…most likely this week with 2 rounds of high dose stuff (six weeks) followed most likely by a stem cell booster shot down in Houston. I know, I said no more Houston…but that was long term Houston. This is a few days to two weeks at the most. I can handle that in my sleep. After that, we’ll begin a single agent that requires my to go by the clinic here in Irving 4 times a month for a shot…that’s it. No IV. If all goes well, I’ll be blowing and going well before the summer is over and excited to be back in the classroom. If not, well we have learned, if nothing else, to be flexible.
Here’s to a good week.
Brad
April 13th, 2009 at 05:55am
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Already have results from CT scans. Mass has grown in the last two weeks. I don’t have any more information than we will start treatment next week for whatever we decide then.
I’ll post more when I know it.
Brad
April 10th, 2009 at 02:15pm
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Things are changing quickly. After meeting with my local oncologist, we went back and talked with my houston doc and agreed that since my pain has gone away, we need to redo scans before beginning any treament. It MIGHT be that the transplant is now working on the tumors. Tami and I will leave right after school Thursday to do blood work Thursday night in houston and then CT scans at 6:30 am Friday. They’ll call me with results on Moday.
I know things might have not changed or even gotten worse but I just can’t help think that with reducing the anti-rejection drugs and my pain going away, there has to be a connection. If not, we’ll still have a plan but the plan of not doing any more treatment sounds the best.
Continue to pray.
Brad
April 6th, 2009 at 12:49pm
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I know not to make too much of this but I also know, after fighting this four times in two years, pretty much what the pain feels like from the tumors. About a week before I was informed that my cancer was back, I began having to take pain pills, and increasing numbers of them, due to pain in the kidney area. When I was told of my diagnosis, by far the largest tumor was near my kidneys. Made sense, huh. The pain continued to get worse of the next few days until not only was I talking several pain pills, I had tami rubbing bengay on my kidney area just to try and help with the relief (what a wife…oh, Katie had a turn too)
Last week while at MD Anderson to see my lymhoma doctor, I ran into my stem cell doctor who just mentioned to me to get ahead and back off of the tacro (anti-rejection drug) to every other day for a week and then stop completely. Within two days of doing that, the pain is GONE. I have been absolutely pain free for four days now. It can’t help me wonder if the graft vs tumor effect is finally working. Without so much anti rejection drug, my sister’s cells might finally be able to get in there and fight.
Ok, ok, I know that is a long shot. But it fits and I’m sticking to it for now. It gives me hope. I just can’t image that the tumors are growing as fast as they said they were and yet I’ve stopped feeling them altogether?
Tami and meet with the local oncologist today to get his recommendations after he has read a report from my MD Anderson doctor. I’m picking low dose to get through the next school year and re-evaluate then.
Wish us luck but we know that God is in control.
Brad and Tami
April 6th, 2009 at 07:18am
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Tami and I just returned from our quick trip to Houston. After meeting with the doc I am encouraged. He went over several options for treatment with us, most of which can be done in Irving while I continue to work next year with few side effects. They won’t cure things, but they should keep it at bay for a while.
Eventually I will still need to, at minimum, do a booster of my sister’s stem cells but I’ve asked to delay that for a while so that I know I’ll be ready to start the school year in August. The doctor didn’t seem to have any problem with that and was very supportive.
The cancer is mostly around my kidney area. I do have a small one in my upper chest and another small one in my groin but the biggest one that is by now about 8 cm around is just above my left kidney. That is the one I’ve been feeling over the last few days as it grows.
I meet with my local oncologist on Monday and then will put everything together to make a decision on what kind of treatment to begin.
Thanks for all of your thoughts and prayers. This time has been the worst for us…just because of the number of times it continues to come back. However, we still believe God has a purpose for this and we trust He will see us through.
Brad, Tami and Katie
April 2nd, 2009 at 06:58pm
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