Putting the foot down

In the next few weeks they are going to draw my blood originally three times a week. It ends up being seven because they want to make sure I'm not crashing. Which is fine, but in the past year and a half of this I have crashed once, and I know darn well what that feels like. So this week they are going to get three blood draws.

Yes, we are closer, but it's still a needle in my body. This is me saying you get what you need to keep me alive, and that doesn't involve living at the hospital. (I'm close enough as it is...)


~B.
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Like the waves

Hey Team,
Sorry it's been so long. Thursday, Friday, Saturday and even today I am still dealing with a migraine that slipped in behind me as I was finishing up chemo and I am still dealing with residue making the inside of my skull feel like jello. (Not, I am sure, helped by the after-effects of chemo leaving the body either.)

We're setting back into life here in Houston after our little month long adventure into the Northwest. One of the things I have been really thinking about for this year is about how I am going to do the things I would like to do during those times when chemo isn't squeezing the life from me. For the time being I have come to the conclusion that letting myself rest when I am not in a position to be working, and then to go absolutely full steam the two or three weeks I might have to feel well. Really dive in and tackle projects, put in long hours when I can, and then just relax and be calm maybe some some little compiling things here or there when I am "down".

In other news yesterday Lisa went for a bike ride and I staid home, and when she got back I helped facilitate this recipe: Cauliflower Crust pizza. Let me say, it's nothing like pizza crust. Was it good? Yes. Did it lack any form of bread? Also yes. We put sautéed onions, mushrooms, sausage and peppers on the one we ended up making. I'm not really sure what to think... it could have been both better and much worse. But I'm not entirely sure I want to put the time into doing it again to "perfect" it. As a fan of bread there really isn't any incentive for me to perfect a crust made entirely from cauliflower.


~B.
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The (Weekend) Chemo Update

Hey Folks,
I really dislike chemo. I was feeling great five days ago, now I feel horrible. I spent all that time trying to feel better and this is what I get in repayment? All kidding aside, these rounds have been going ok. Nothing horrible to write in about, but also nothing really fantastic. Loss of brain power, ability to type, hooked to a pump for eight days. The usual.

Unusually though, we got out of bed this morning to find our water pressure gone to non-existent. It appears that in their excitement to do road work in such fine weather we are having currently here in Houston (slightly overcast and in the low 70's, seriously, it's really nice out there.) that someone forgot where to mark where the water line was. So while they resume work we'll be waiting for four to six hours it takes to shore up/replace/fix a bull-dozed water line. This really only is a problem for Lisa as she will be home today while I am at the hospital. (Though I suppose she could always change her mind...)


~B.
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The Trend Continues

I think perhaps I have become just a little bit jaded when it comes to news from my oncologist. I'm the type of person who when faced with potential bad news run the worst case scenarios through my head so I'm not "surprised" when I get the news. I've gotten better about it as this cancer stuff has gone on (Not doing it, not getting better at doing it...) and even though the past few times I have gotten PET scans the news has been good (stable, with lessening metabolic activity) I can't help but think that that trend won't continue. It's a good thing what I am thinking and what my tumors are doing aren't the same thing, because this afternoon I was informed that the trend is in fact continuing and the metabolism of my tumors has gone down again. The place they have been using as a reference point was at a 7.8 the first time the metabolic rate was down, then the time before last it was 5.6, now it's at 4.6. (On a scale of 0 to 22)

God has really been answering those prayers team! Please continue to pray for increased tumor death, and don't forget to thank God for what He is doing.

An interesting note: before we left my doctor was implanting my tumor in some rats so that he could do some tests. Turns out (I don't know if he knew this before or just found it out) that my tumors won't grow in animals. Their bodies reject the tumors. Thus no animal testing for my type of cancer.

Thanks again for the continued support and prayers!


~B.
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Whoops

Fun fact: When you don't post blog entries for more than five days your site traffic starts to dwindle.

But seriously, it's been a busy past week and I haven't had much time for much more than the quick comment via Google+, which of course trickles down to all the other social media platforms.

Yesterday I had the normal run of medical scans and today I have a followup with my doctor. (supposedly in an hour and half... but it'll be at least an hour after that...)

The past five days saw us wrapping up our time in Seattle and heading home, and then getting things around the house in order as I prepare for another week of chemo.

I'll be posting some more pictures of our Seattle trip, but overall I wanted to say that it was a fantastic month that we had with family and friends. A week or two just isn't enough time to see everyone, and God blessed us with fairly good health the whole time we were there and we were able to enjoy the company of some people we haven't seen in a long time.

We decided it was probably the best holiday season we have had perhaps in our married life. Our big thanks to everyone who made that possible.

Thanks team, I'll update this afternoon after I meet with the doctor on what's going on cancer wise.


~B.
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