incommunicado

It has been nearly a month since my last blog post and I thought y'all were due for an update.  I finished my first 50 day cycle about three weeks ago.  In the mean time, I have had relatively few problems and while I still have to take about eight pills a day (consisting of antibacterial, antiviral and anti-fungal pills) it has been great being off chemo.  The only issue I've had was about two weeks ago when I had a minor fever after hours which resulted in a visit to Emory's ER.  It was a quick visit at three hours and after some IV antibiotics I was back home again.  

Since then Laura Beth and I have spent most of our time at Lake Burton.  It has been so amazingly refreshing and relaxing.  I was struggling with some anticipatory nausea and the time off has really helped.  

Tomorrow I start round two and fortunately there are a lot less appointments compared to last time.

I will try and do a better job of keeping in touch and updating this blog.  While I am sorry for not doing a better job it really felt great to shut my laptop and cell phone and turn the world off for a little bit.

Late Afternoon Adventure

I was preparing some baked hot wings (they were really good!) for a little dinner I was putting together when I noticed that my lower lip was fattening up a-la Bubba Gump.  Chocking it up to trying to deal with the canker sore on my lip I ignored it.  When my face began contorting and I physically could not make myself stop smiling, I knew that something was wrong.  I was afraid that maybe I was experiencing some self-aware stroke or palsy and didn't know what to do.  So at 4:30 I rushed over to Winship and found my amazing nurse, Lori, who found the PA, Marian who tracked down Dr. Khoury.  He said that I shouldn't be too concerned right now as it was probably a deficiency and an infusion would clear it right up, however, if the twitching continued I would have to go toe ER for further diagnostic treatment.  Luckily the only issues I was experiencing was a deficiency in calcium and magnesium, two things that can be given by infusion and then taken in pill form (think Tums).  So far I have had no more twitching but if ANYTHING pops up I am rushing to the ER.

Law School Update

Dean Hughes and Dean Brokaw have been amazingly supportive.  I met them with them recently and worked out the next few months in terms of how law school will go down.  No longer do I have the end of June deadline to finish all of my exams.  I now have until the end of next spring to finish the Spring '08 semester up.  This takes a huge amount of stress off and allows me to take my exams when I finish up treatment and have time to really focus on studying.

What this means in terms of graduating is that I will join up with the class of 2011.  While short-term losing a year may not be the best thing, in the long run it will allow me to still participate in the write-on competitions for Journal as well as On Campus Interviews in the fall for 2L summer internships, which are incredibly important.

New CT Scan

The other Friday I had a new CT scan performed and received the results on Wednesday.  It sounds like my tumor is a fourth the original size (1/2 a coke can!) which is great news.  Dr. Khoury was happy with the results and feels we are right on course and where we need to be.

Thanks for everyone's support!

-Drew

Out of Sight, Out of Mind

I've noticed that my posting on this blog has reduced significantly these past few weeks.  There seems to be an inverse correlation between my increasingly becoming averse to coming to Winship and the decrease in blogging.  

While the chemo has not been causing me many issues in terms of nausea, I have been having significant trouble just walking in to Winship (when my stomach starts to churn) and taking my daily pills (which makes me dry-heave).  I now have to take all my pills with apple sauce like I'm taking some liquor shot.  Needless to say, we go through A LOT of those individual packs of apple sauce.  

In general I have been feeling pretty well recently.  The past two weeks I've been receiving subcutaneous shots (essentially a shot with a really short needle into my abdomen) 4 days a week for the past two weeks.  These have really been a non-issue.  I'll go home and lay down for a few hours and then be up and about by the afternoon.

Last week my red blood cells were a little low (which can lead to anemia) so they gave me a transfusion of two bags of blood.  They pre-medicate me with benadryl on top of all my other anti-nausea drugs which cause drowsiness, so the day was a slight blur.

Which brings me to today: my platelets are below their threshold, so on top of my short vincristine infusion I will receive another transfusion.  After that, I am off chemo until next monday which will be a welcome respite from the hospital!

Belated Birthday Present from Urology

Urology today felt that based on the new CT scan (taken this morning) and ultrasound from last Friday, and despite the X-Rays from earlier this week, they wanted to pull the nephrostomy tube, AND THEY DID!  after a twist, snip and pull, it was out and all I have now is a little band-aid over where the tube used to go in.  This is quite the belated birthday present (birthday was on the 4th for those not in the know) and has really boosted my spirits after a rough week of chemo.  It feels amazing to be able to roll over in the bed or sit in a chair and not have to worry where that dang tail was hanging.

P.S.  Thanks to everyone for their birthday wishes.  While the day was a little rough, I'm willing to take it on the road to good health. 

A friend sent me a funny quote for my birthday:

Nothing says 'Happy Birthday' like a batch of intensive chemo.

-anonymous via Alex Bunn

Not So Fast!

Well, it looks like the nephrostomy tube is not coming out as planned.  While the sonogram on Friday showed no hydronephrosis (swelling of the Kidney), when they injected dye into my kidney today and x-rayed my back the images showed that while I do have flow from my left kidney it is still impeded in parts, as can be seen in the accompanying X-Ray.  (I had to whip out my camera phone to get this shot).  What this means is about two more months with this tube and if it is not resolved by that point (God willing) we will look at other solutions, such as inserting an internal tube.  

This is quite frustrating as I had hoped to be rid of this thing and it was starting to cause some back aches and limit my mobility.  However, I have made it for two months with the tube AND a pee bag, so I think I can make it for two months more with simply a little tail hanging out of my back.   

So after six hours in Interventional Radiology I am finally over at Winship, long since missing my 830 chemo appointment and had to be worked in to the schedule.  It looks like I will be done around 7pm tonight but it means I won't have my chemo schedule pushed back one more day, which is a relief!

PS - When I first saw the image of the zipper I thought it was a crazy medical device that had been left inside me.  I freaked out for a bit on the table.