ZzzzZzzzzz

Good news

• Bloodwork, appointment with Dr. T NP A and treatment (Folfori #3 - includes Irinotecan #5 and 5-FU) at Siteman South County

The news about yesterday's CT scan is good. The report is a big long detailed thing but the summary is pretty easy to process: things are shrinking. This is a good sign and puts me in the 20% of people who see some shrinkage on this chemo. So we keep going. Maybe this chemo will help to shrink the tumors so that maintenance chemo could be an option again. Or maybe this chemo will continue to be our best option at keeping the cancer at bay. Either way, it's easier to sit here today with some good news. And we even got up and sat in the kitchen area to eat some lunch.

Okay

• CT scan of my chest, abdomen and pelvis at the Barnes West County Imaging Center

I always have a hard time mentally when I'm prepared for one thing and there's a last minute change of plans. My insurance wouldn't approve an MRI this close to my last one and it was the check-in nurse at the Imaging Center who told me and instructed me to call my doctor's office. "But I'm already here............."

It'll be okay. So instead I'll have a full CT, more radiation than we wanted to have, but hopefully we'll get a good idea of what is going on.

• Neupogen injection at the Cancer Care Clinic at Big Barnes

People who brunch

• Neupogen injection at the Cancer Care Clinic at Big Barnes

We started the morning by meeting some friends for a charity 1 mile walk at Forest Park. The weather was nice and it was good to be there supporting friends. Afterwards, we popped into Barnes for my injection. And then out of nowhere, I wanted to eat out... like at an actual restaurant. I can't even remember the last time that eating out sounded like a good plan. My appetite is all over the place and my taste buds haven't been working normally (thanks new chemo) for a couple of months now, so pretty much nothing ever sounds or tastes good. But we went and it was good. And then there was napping.

3 years

• Neupogen injection at Siteman West County

I'm back

• Bloodwork at Siteman West County

Dr. T's office asked me to come back in but after testing it turns out that my liver related blood test results look okay today, actually down from last Tuesday.

• Neupogen injection at Siteman West County

• Neupogen injection and urinalysis at Siteman West County

#51

• Bloodwork, appointment with Dr. T and treatment (Folfori #2 - includes Irinotecan and 5-FU) at Siteman South County

Party time

• Neupogen injection at the Cancer Care Clinic at Big Barnes

I felt well enough this afternoon to go watch a soccer game and then stop by a 40th birthday party. I was pretty worn out by the end of the day, but it was a good day.

• Neupogen injection at the Cancer Care Clinic at Big Barnes

Fingers crossed

• Outpatient surgery at Big Barnes to replace the stent in my left ureter (with a shorter one) with Dr. D not Dr. D

Everything seemed to go well with my stent replacement surgery today.

Dr. D came by to talk to us beforehand and she marked the left side (no need for confusion in the operating room) of my abdomen (near my belly button, this picture is PG people.) She even gave the marker to Hector as a souvenir. A surgical skin marker. Interesting. That's a YES, along with her initials. Although for a stent replacement, it should be clear which side has the stent? Anyway...

My actual procedure ended up being performed by one of her partners after Dr. D got called away on an emergency case. When she came by to talk to us in recovery, Dr. D said that she had "really wanted to do (my) surgery." Not to worry, I'll be back in 3 months for another replacement. She'll be looking at my scans and during the next surgery they will even perform some kind of additional test to see if the stent is still required. It would be great if my current chemo is shrinking that tumor and the stent could just be removed... not replaced. I'll be having scans in the next couple of weeks so we'll get our first look at what the chemo has been able to do...

There were no cartwheels today but on our way home from the hospital we did make one pit stop.

• Neupogen injection at Siteman West County

Indwelling

• Neupogen injection at Siteman West County

I learned a new word today.

I get an e-mail notification every time there is new information added to my on-line patient portal and today's information was a new condition added to my profile: "infection associated with indwelling ureteral stent." Indwell. A new Scrabble word.

Statistics

• Bloodwork and Neupogen injection at Siteman West County

Some new statistics recently released about colon cancer by the National Cancer Institute:

I was diagnosed at 38.

 I was diagnosed at stage IV (distant.)

Stir crazy

I really needed to get out of the house today... and out of the backyard... basically I really needed to get outside of the boundaries of our property. Stent be damned, I was determined to take a walk at the park, so I made it the slowest walk ever recorded. 1 mile in 21 minutes and 31 seconds. By the end of the walk, I was slightly uncomfortable but mission accomplished as far as getting a little sunshine on my face and getting to move my legs a little bit.

 

The funny thing is that when I looked at the data from my watch when I got home, it showed that my moving time during the first half-mile was 0. Was I actually moving so slowly that my watch wasn't recording it as movement? Silly running watch!