Fatness With a Touch of Vinegar and Neupogen.

I am exhausted.  This has been a very, very, very, very………VERY long weekend.  I suppose it’s okay, because it has kept me away from work.  But it has been long and exhausting nonetheless…  I just hope it wasn’t a long weekend to preface an even longer week. Read more

A Summary of Last Friday’s Cancer Center Visit

Here is a summary of what happened at the Cancer Center last Friday.  To say the least, it turned out nothing like I expected.

• Labs/Port Flush turned into a mini-doctor visit.
• I’m not retaining water, I’m fat.
• Oncologist won’t give me Phentermine.  Go, figure.
• Radiologist and Oncologist disagree on my progress as noted by recent chest xray.
• Neupogen hurts.

Blogging for Blood Cancer - Calling All Bloggers!

Tonight I was sent an email asking me to participate in the Blogging for Blood Cancer Event that will occur August 11-18.  The event is hosted hosted by Goodies for Mom and Friends of Heros (FOH) National Light The Night Team.  During this event, we are asking for bloggers of all types to blog about blood cancers to raise the awareness of the mission of the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.

“Friends of Heroes is a national Light the Night Friends and Family team. We are comprised of moms, dads, families and friends compelled to help find a cure for blood cancers.

Friends of Heroes is the largest team of this type in the country and we have raised over $960,000 for The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society in the last 4 years through Light The Night Walks.”

I have recently been ashamed that I was not a part in an organization to help and better the lives of others that have been afflicted with some sort of disease.  The most I have ever done is donate a few bucks to Jerry’s Kids.  Now, seeing the other side of things, I realize how important it is to support organizations like the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, and to participate in events like this blogging event and Light the Night Walks.  I have often mentioned that now I am not strong enough, but one day I will have the strength to participate in walks and even Hikes for Discovery, like the Seattle Team.  For now, I have the strength to blog - and I will, to help raise the awareness of blood caner.  I have personally been helped by the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, and without people like this, like you supporters, I would be in a different place now.  I cannot thank anyone and everyone enough for their time, effort, monetary donations and support.

If you would be so kind to help the cause - it might bring us closer to a cure,  I know I could use a cure right now, all of us would be forever grateful.  Even posting a banner on your site to raise awareness of the event would be more than appreciated.  If you would like to post a banner, please see the Goodies for Mom website listed above.

Thank you, again, to those who already have supported the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.

“The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS) is the world’s largest voluntary health organization dedicated to funding blood cancer research, education, and patient services. LLS’s mission: Cure leukemia, lymphoma, Hodgkin’s disease and myeloma, and improve the quality of life of patients and their families.”

The Best I’ve Felt In Months.

It’s a race between my fingers and my Temazepam.  I took it only seconds before I started typing this post.  Hopefully I wil get out all I have to say before it knocks me out.  I have a lot of info to cover, I think - and don’t necessarily have a specific direction this post should go, other than the fact I know I was going to update you all on everything going on right now. Read more

I’m Sufficiently Appeased…For Now.

I have been putting off writing this post since Friday night.  I promised a post outlining my doctor’s appointment, and I have failed many of you.  I’m sure, though, it’s not the first or last time that will happen.  You would think, especially with the “great” outcome of the appointment I would have been a little more eager to share, but somehow the excitement escaped me. Read more

Fruity Pebbled Pickled Peppers and PET Scans

So I am writing from my crackberry because I’m too lazy to sit at my desktop, my laptop is so slow it’s annoying me, and I wanted to be able to write before my temazepam takes it’s last swing on me and I am out for the night. As I mentioned in last nights post, I have been way out of it the past few days. Today has been much better - but I am still in a dizzy phase. Constantly dizzy, at least it’s a fun dizzy feeling… This post is mainly to serve as a daily recap of things going on right now.

My tastebuds are pretty much nonexistent at this point. Can’t taste anything, (wow I fell asleep writing this… Good morning!) Read more

The Chemo Chronicles: 7.11.08

This was some chemo treatment, let me tell you.  Here it is Monday night, and I am just now writing about it - 3 days later.  This was my worst treatment yet.  I don’t feel that I can fairly complain, as my treatment to now have gone without a hitch - the main complaints being thrush once, fatigue and indigestion.  But this one has been very hard to deal with.  Read more

Big, Fat, Sweating Headaches…

This has been one of the longest days ever.  I guess with everything going on, I have come to appreciate long days.  I just wish they weren’t spent at work.  I have been up since 3-something in the morning.  We’re working on 19 hours or so.  I was on-call last night, and the phone started ringing early.  As I was trying to go back to sleep, I heard what I thought might be gunshots from a shotgun.  Turns out there was a S.W.A.T. Standoff in my apartment complex close to me.  It ended up being a false alarm, and a made up story by a pissed off girlfriend (yeah, she is in a lot of trouble now), and I’m still wondering where the shots would have come from.  But I started my day way early nonetheless.  I also had myself are tangled up in some sort of frenzy due to my “night sweat” last night.  I don’t know if it was or not, but either way, I will just have to make my oncologist aware of it.  Some kind wonderful people over at the Hodge Board were nice enough to tell me that some of them still have sweats or night sweats and they have had no evidence of disease in a long time.

They were also kind enough to tell me that just because I feel like I am bothering my onc, that is his job and that is what he is paid to do.  He has never given me any reason to feel like I am a bother to him - I guess it’s just my own insecurities leading me to believe that.  I just feel that I bug sometimes…But I guess that is just my job as the cancer patient, no?  If I have questions, question.  I think this prednisone is really messing with my head.  My emotions have been all over the place the last few days.  From bitchy, to depressed, to manic.  It’s almost as if I am literally on some sort of emotional roller coaster.  Literally.

I gained more weight too.  I went from about 125 in 3 weeks to tonight at 150.  I called the cancer center today, and Dr. Clark called me in a script for Dyazide.  Hopefully it will help me get rid of some of this water weight.  While I understand the need to at a healthy weight through all this, I don’t want to be bloated and full of water.

And I have a huge headache right now.  It’s raging.  I took my temazepam, so no oxycodone for me, hopefully my 3 ibuprofen will kick in…But it’s been nearly an hour and nothing.  I am off to sleep, at least lay here until I fall asleep.  I sure hope tomorrow goes much better than today.

Night sweat - …?

Night sweatS?  Night sweatING?  Which is it?  I cannot tell.  One of the most common B-symptoms of Hodgkin’s is the night sweats.  I had them bad, up until my first chemo treatment, which was actually part in helping for my diagnosis.  Since they switched me from the A_VD to the MOPP, they have been increasing again. Read more

T - Minus 3 Days…

I had my chemo last Thursday, the day before Independence Day.  I was in bed all weekend, minus my 2am kitchen cleaning surge and the little bit I was able to stay out of bed to clean my room on Saturday.

Last Thursday was my first ever injection of the mustard.  It was okay, but I think it took a bigger toll on me than anything else has to this point.  I’ve experienced chemobrain super early this time, it usually takes a few days, I noticed effects as early as Friday afternoon. Read more

Next Page »