Day 48

Wednesday June 19th, 2013

It is always awesome to be home and to be able to sleep in your own bed!!!

I had a great nights sleep after I stopped waking up every hour/hour in a half to go pee, but that is just the way it is.

I've got my meds already for today and I'm just waiting for my shot of Neulasta to arrive.

I'm sitting at my desk working from home today.

This Neulasta blast might still kick my ass, but I'm ready and roaring to Bring It On!!! Friday I've got blood work that will let my Dr. know how well the Neulasta is working. Last cycle the Neulasta's reaction was delayed by a day and that threw me off a bit, but I was ahead of the pain with my meds. Same plan for this cycle.

I'm due to take my shot around 10pm which was the same time I did last cycle. I can administrate the shot myself. It doesn't really hurt when you take it, but it sure does later on.

I'm scheduled for my radiation consult on the 24th of June and that will let me know what the scheduling for my radiation will be.

Today for me has really been a waiting game to take my Neulasta shot so I can get it over with.

That is what is going to boost my immune system back up so I'm not depending on the steroids I was taking in the hospital that were acting as my immune system.

I learned that after this cycle that I really need to be on top of my germ plan because of the way that this cycle of chemo effected my system. So I'm really going to step it up as much as I can at home and at work.

 I'm more than half way through it and it looks like with 2 weeks off and 3 weeks of radiation I've got 5 weeks left and what ever recovery time I need if any.

I'm going to try harder to keep the blog updated, but it is difficult when there isn't anything going on except another typical day.

Round 3 Cycle 3 Day 5

Tuesday June 18th, 2013

Well this is it, last day of chemo and I'm waiting for 6:30pm for the hydration bag and so on.

Everything has gone great all 3 cycles!!!

Team MGH has done and unbelievable job of taking care of me and every other patient in the ward. They are by far the absolute very best any patient could ask for.

Team MGH has made me feel right at home and taken the weight and pressure off my shoulders so I can concentrate on what they need me to do without worrying. I did my walking, hydration, ate more than I should have, but I need the extra to feed the meds and chemo and they kept calm and I did what ever they asked of me.

I seen the PICC tech around 7:45pm and had that removed. Now I'm ready to head on home and plan out the rest of the week.

Round 3 Cycle 3 Day 4

Monday June 17th, 2013

I'm glad to say that it's like just another typical day here in the hospital. Everything is going great and Team MGH is in full force in my corner.

My dosages of chemo are not only up, but now decreased in volume time from 24hrs down to 22hrs and I'm taking it like a champ with no sweat.

I worked from the hospital today as I plan on doing tomorrow. I still got my walking in and helped get a lot of work done at the same time.

France and I talked about the upcoming weeks and the radiation treatments. After I consult with the Dr. we'll all come up with a working plan that won't fail.

Without going into much detail about my visit this evening because it's personal.

Strength is Energy. Strength isn't being able to lift something heavy and people go wow, boy are you strong. Strength comes from the heart, spirit, gut, whatever you want to call it, but not everybody has it. You build it, you learn to face fear head on fearlessly regardless of what it is. That's what I learned to do in my Filipino and Indonesian training and that was train like a warrior, think like a warrior and breath the spirit of a warrior. The arts themselves were very different and so was the mentality behind the training. Most importantly the way I was taught by my Guro. You know who you are! Thank you!

Sometimes a fight isn't with another person. Sometimes it's with yourself over your own personal issues, depression, disease, failure, dissatisfaction in life and the key reason that people fail in their fight is a great lack of strength, no spirit, no plan and no team behind them.

It was AWESOME to share tears of strength with my Brother's today! Sometimes you have the opportunity to learn something for one reason and use it for another and I was blessed with the opportunity to thank and express my gratitude to the man responsible for giving me the knowledge and the warrior training that is keeping me ahead in this fight. A fight that I'm winning with my warrior spirit and the help of Team MGH and Team Tarallo!

Some would understand the mention of a warrior like Genghis Khan going into battle and others would understand the mention of a great warrior named Floro Villabrille preparing to do battle in another death match. That's just what this is, a death match. I've prepared myself with everything I've learned and disciplined myself to coach myself through the most difficult times on my own because it's me that has to win this fight and I can't begin to thank everyone for giving me the strength and knowledge that I have to compete with this disease at the level that I am!!!

You will never understand the power of prayer until someone prays for you!!!

You will never experience your own true strength until it is challenged!!!

Right now I feel like it, but in 5 years I will stand victorious atop of my mountain with Cancer's decapitated head raised in my hand.

Round 3 Cycle 3 Day 3 Happy Father's Day!

Sunday June 16th, 2013

Happy Father's Day!!!

I hope that you have a great day with you family today. It's going to be a beautiful day to go out and do something with your kids and grand kids.

I'll get to talk to my son right now cause that's him on the phone calling (8:13am) while I was typing this. BRB.

I got to tell him the good news that the Dr. told me and I'll get to talk with my awesome GrandDaughters later on today. I miss playing with them and now I only have to wait another 34 days not including any recovery time if any from the radiation treatment.

To me Father's Day isn't so much about how proud you are of your children, but how proud your children are of you for being there as a Father should be, as a parent,as a friend, as a mentor and most importantly as a guide toward success in their lives and the sacrifices that you've made to help make that success happen for your children.

Thank you for being the joy in your children's lives and if you haven't been get your head out of your ass and get it together!!! Read and listen to Anthony Robbins, he will help you get into your own head and help you clean up shop.

Happy Father's Day

Anthony

More later on...

Round 3 Cycle 3 Day 2

Saturday June 15th, 2013

I had a pretty rough night sleeping, mainly from the Neuropathy feeling in my feet that was making me uncomfortable. I seen Dr. Ativan a little late (12am) which didn't help me get to sleep earlier.

I woke up nice and early and felt tired, but walked a mile anyway around 9am. I had a great breakfast and I'm planning on studying later today.

I found out today that my magnesium was low so I'm taking a magnesium pill 3 times a day. Hey whatever helps.

I did another 2 miles today, but didn't get any studying done.

I'm handling the chemo dosage increase very well so far. Tonight my drip is going to be decreased to 22 hours. It's looking like the treatment is working out very well for me and I'm handling it great.

It's 9:30 so I think I'm going to sign off and talk about anything I may have left out tomorrow.

Round 13 Cycle 3 Day 1

Friday June 14th, 2013

Well I just got good news from my doctor, that the PET scan didn't show any signs of the two sites that showed up before!!!

I still have to finish the treatment plan, which I still have to finish this 3rd chemo cycle and 16 days of radiation over a 3 week period.

I also got answers to the questions that I had for my DR.

1). How long will I be on meds? For about a month after the radiation treatments end.

2). How long will I need to take Prilosec? (some of the steroids cause heartburn) Same as question 1.

3). How long will it take after the chemo is all done to get my immune system back to normal? It depends, but I should be back to normal in about a month after chemo.

4). What tests can be done to check if someone has Lymphoma or is at risk of Lymphoma? NONE

 More info after I get settled in my room.

Well I got settled into my room about 2pm and got my PICC line in around 6pm and got my Chemo started around 9pm.

We ate lunch in the Cafe downstairs while we waited for the room to be available and just hung around talking over the plan for this cycle which is work out just fine.

I had a good dinner and I feel great about this cycle.

Tomorrow is another day and I'm not going to have any problems handling it either.

Day 42

Thursday June 13^th, 2013

I had a great day at work today with the exception of losing my cribbage trophy defending my championship. I’ll get it back.

I got a lot to do when I get home so I’m ready for Friday morning. It’s like packing for a mini vacation, but you’re not really going anywhere. Well I’ll tell ya when I’m done with all of this I’m taking a real mini vacation cause I’ll need it.

I’m feeling really good about tomorrow, very excited about the Pet scan results and my blood work. I got some questions ready for my Dr.

The few things that I really want to know are:

1). How long will I be on meds?

2). How long will I need to take Prilosec? (some of the steroids cause heartburn)

3). How long will it take after the chemo is all done to get my immune system back to normal?

4). What tests can be done to check if someone has Lymphoma or is at risk of Lymphoma?

Some of the other tests like the Echo CT will show what effect the treatment has had on my heart. I’m not sure when I go for that test.

By the looks of it I’m halfway through it. If everything goes the way that I’ve been told I’ve got 5 days of chemo left, which I start today followed by 16 days off and then 16 days of radiation bringing the total days left to a whopping 37 days not counting recovery if any, after the radiation.

Well pretty boring stuff, but the next week will be more interesting to read.

See ya tomorrow.

Days 36 - 41

Wednesday June 12^th, 2013

Well, not much has changed in the past week. I still feel great, very strong, focused, been staying active at work and around the house.

Saturday June 8^th was France’s Birthday and I had a Tong Ren class so we nailed 3 birds with 1 stone and went to Sam’s Club for inventory for France’s business. We made my Tong Ren class and had enough time to drive to Providence RI for Waterfire. We had a great evening out and dined at the Cheesecake Factory. Since we arrived later than usual we missed a lot of the attractions, but did get to listen to a great Jazz band play a few songs and walk around the river channel admiring the fire.

We had a very productive Sunday. I got France a Bertha shelf for her birthday. We put that together and restocked the shelves with product that will make operations much more functional for France.

I got the chance to clean out more stuff that I haven’t been able to sell on CL and consolidate a few more boxes. 

Today I have a PET Scan scheduled and I’m excited about the results which I won’t know until Friday when I see my Dr. 

I’m also hoping that all of my levels are where they want them to be so they can up my dosages for this cycle.

After this chemo cycle is over I’ll get my radiation treatment plan hashed out and I can get started on that. My biggest concern with the radiation plan is the scheduling time. I’m not looking forward to losing the opportunity to work through the radiation because I’d have to be there at a time I have no control over. Don’t get me wrong, working from home at times is great, but I want to stay active and for me a big part of that is going from building to building to do my work and talking with people I know along the way. That is a very active part of my day that I will lose if I’m at home. So I still have to wait on that one.

Well that’s it so far. I’ll add more later if anything interesting happens.

Days 28 – 35

Thursday June 6^th, 2013

 

I guess I’m real bad at keeping a chronicle if I can’t keep it updated daily, huh?

Well the Neulasta reaction was delayed by about 36 hours which really threw me for a loop. I was ahead of the pain with my meds and I only felt the effects on mid-Friday into Saturday. Sunday was a strength and recovery day. France and I went out to eat Saturday evening at Dok Bua, one of our favorite Thai Kitchens.

Monday I went to work. I felt great all day. I went to do my weekly blood work after work.

Tuesday I went to work. I felt great most of the day. I started to feel like the Neulasta was recurring, but wasn’t sure.

Wednesday I worked from home. I was having a Neulasta recurrence. It wasn’t as bad as the last recurrence and this time was only in my legs, knees and feet. The tingling feeling from the Vincristine made it impossible at times to put pressure on my feet. I did some stretching to get some circulation going and that made it feel better. I didn’t do the walking that I would have liked to do, but there is only so much you can do when you feel like your body isn’t working with you.

Thursday (today) I went to work. I felt great all day, still do. I made up for my walking today. I’ve been carefully eating at the salad bar at the café at work. Chef Ryan makes up a mean salad to choose from. We eat well at work! We really do!

Tonight I’m going to walk some more and get ready for work tomorrow. It’s been a good week with no real setbacks. I’m staying on top of my viral/bacterial prevention at home and work. I’ve been trying to reduce my risks by sacrificing a lot of my outdoor activities on the weekends. I’ve been careful when we/I go out and bring my prevention gear with me. 

I have an I don’t give a %W&^% attitude toward people that act surprised when I gear up after they sneeze or cough. I’ll ask and wait to use another register so I don’t get the coughy, sneezy person’s change back in my hands. I prefer to go inside to get my morning ham, egg and cheese on an English muffin and coffee just so I can make sure that whoever is making it isn’t touching themselves all over their face or touching dirty things while they’re wearing gloves and making my food.

That’s part of the fight! Being able to say ‘I don’t want that because you wiped your forehead and then touched my food’ anything like that, I just don’t care at this point.

Pretty boring stuff, but I promised that I write about it. I could make stuff up, but I do enough of that with a guy I work with. We are in a 4 month long tandem story that I really should consider writing a sci-fi book about cause it’s that good.