Our Weekend Recap

So David did awesome this time. No drugged feeling. Stayed very connected. He said that he'd like to drive himself the next time so that I don't have to go back and forth from work. I will still go in the morning while the set him up and he talks to the doctor. i love David, but if I don't go with him and hear what they have to say... no one will know. And he'd love to blame this on something they refer to as "chemo brain"... but its not. It is simply David brain.

He was able to play his computer game, which speaks a lot to his ability to focus. After the first treatment, he didn't play for a week. We watched a movie Saturday night called "Lucky You" with Drew Barrymore.. we both liked it. Other than that it was a very chill weekend. We were both awake early for some reason Saturday, but slept in until almost 11 a.m. Sunday!

I think David is having some trouble sleeping, but this happened after the first treatment as well. there are also some mild stomach issues that we knew to expect. He is tired of it already, poor guy. I just keep trying to remember that we're moving forward everyday. His body is fighting everyday. I am sure it is exhausting to know all of that is going on in you all the time.

No plans for the week. David has his final exam for school tomorrow night. for those of you who don't know, David is a third year electrical apprentice. He has had an A all year long and all previous years. He has one more year. I think he'll be trilled to be done with night classes, although he has mentioned maybe taking a gaming or graphic design course in a year or two. We'll see.

Had lunch with David...

at the Oncologist office. It's funny, if you know David you know he always has pink cheeks. The only time I have seen them go away have been when he's had IVs. So when he had surgery to remove the lymph nodes, installation of the mediport and these two chemo treatments she looses the pink in his cheeks.

David is feeling good. No relaxing or nausea meds this time. I guess the nausea meds really contribute to the sleepiness. Hopefully he'll continue to feel good today!

2 Down, 6 To Go!

As I type this, David is at this weeks chemo treatment. He was scheduled for chemo Tuesday, but after checking his blood counts they said that the white count was too low to do chemo. David was very frustrated with this news, he wants to keep on the schedule and be done with this. So we went this morning to try again to have chemo, knowing that they had told us that if the white count was still low that David was not going to have chemo again today.

We got in and they "access" David's medi-port and take blood and again they said it was too low, better but low. They de-access him and call the doctor to find out when to reschedule him. Well, I guess this week she read some new research and with the course of chemo he is on the changes in white blood counts are ok and are more common than she thought. We were also told it is a good sign because the chemo is killing the bad cancer cells, and the white cells are just in the way and end up getting killed too. So in the future David will not be delaying chemo due to white blood cell count. David was very happy with this news. I was also pleased to hear him giving the nurses a hard time today. He is getting comfortable and familiar, and while its too bad he has to make himself at home at the doctors office, i am glad he is comfortable there. The staff there continues to be outstanding and they like David a lot. It is nice for me to know they all are looking out for him and taking care of him while he is there.

Minor Setback, if that.

David was scheduled for his second chemo treatment yesterday. When we get there, we usually wait 10 minutes in the waiting room and then a few in the exam room. He gets hooked up to about 8 inches of IV tubing to his mediport, they take blood, he sees the doctor and then he's hooked up to the chemo and chillin' for six hours. Well, his white blood count was low yesterday--- too low to do chemo. They don't know why it was low. They said if it did get low, they would expect that 10 days after treatment, but he had it checked last Friday and the counts were good. The doctor asked David not to be so difficult, this is not something that they see often with the chemo treatment David is on. It was hard to believe for us, the nurse and the doctor.

David did not take that news well. He feels fine and of course there's no "feeling" like they are low. They have scheduled him to get blood work at 9am on Friday, and if his counts are back up (and we expect then to be back up) then he will have chemo Friday. Everything felt out of control for David and he felt in his words "helpless because he can't get better any faster." There is not really anything he can do to contribute to getting better sooner other than taking care of himself and getting treatment. We are not patient patients.

We'll update again on Friday. We don't know what this will do in regards to the overall schedule. I don't think they would keep it up and have another treatment 10 days after Friday, so i think they'll hold him up a week.

Old---- David Part 3 (3.19.2008)

David is doing very well. His first chemo was yesterday. He is at the oncologists office for 6 hours on chemo days. He took a book, our Ipod and a personal DVD player friends lent us to keep him busy. He was there for 9 until 3 and saw the doctor before it began. I dropped him off, brought him lunch, picked him up and worked some in the middle of it all.

He did awesome.

They gave him some meds to relax him and prevent nausea and they totally worked. He was so relaxed he didnt care about much last night. He slept through the afternoon portion of chemo and slept for another hour and a half when we got home. He is off work today, just trying to let the relaxing meds get out of his system. He has an appointment Friday to make sure his port is healing well and a blood work appointment next Thursday or Friday. He should do very well through this, I think he would like them to reduce the relaxing medicine next time. His next Chemo will be on Tuesday, April 1.

Please keep praying!

Old---- David Part 2 (3.14.2008)

Hey all, Sorry for so many updates. Plans seems to shift quite often lately. David had the port put in yesterday. It was an out-patient procedure and he is even working today. However, this seems to be very painful. He says it hurts more than the neck sugery (to remove the lymphnodes) was. They have also put some limitations, such as lifting and pulling with his right arm, on him for two weeks. He is still tentatively starting chemo on Tuesday, but if not then definately the next week. We're hoping time flies!

Old--- David Part 1 (3.12.2008)

Dear Family and Friends,
Well the news is good. David has stage 1A Hodgkin’s Disease/Lymphoma. The 1 refers to that the cancer is only located in the right side of his neck. The A refers to symptoms associated with Hodgkin’s that David does not have. (If he was having night sweats, fevers, chills, etc then he would have B.) So now we're going forward. David has an appointment this afternoon to get some specifics about the chemo he will be getting, what to expect, foods he may prefer, etc. Tomorrow he is having an out-patient procedure to put a mediport in. The mediport will be used for the chemo treatments as well as taking blood. This will make it so they are not sticking him with needles in the arms and hands all the time.
If our insurance company is prompt with their approval for the chemo treatments to begin, David will have his first treatment on Tuesday, March 18. He will have treatments every other week for 4 months. At the end of this they will do some radiation on his neck. Regarding side effects of the chemo, nausea should be less with the course they are doing for him but they all but guarentee he will lose his hair. As for long-term, they say that this course of chemo should not effect his future fertility, so we're good.
David is taking everything very well. He is ready to get it over with and get on with his/our life. I think the procedure tomorrow for the port will go a long way for making it real that this is all happening. David will be able to work as much as he feels up to it throughout this. Our employer, since we both work for White Electric, and all our co-workers have been very understanding and supportive.
Thanks for your thoughts and prayers! We really appreciate them and with good news like this they certainly are working. Feel free to call or email anytime if you’d like to know more. We’re just going to beat this. It’s that simple

A Photo Tribute

My Mother-in-Law at our wedding

My Papa

My Gram on the right. (Also in the pic, my mom & her husband, us, and my uncle.)

David with the neck mass. Huge, right?

Chemo, Day 1. Gauze is where medi-port is.

Side order of Life, Scrambled with Cheese

Ok, so 2007 was an awesome frickin' year overall. Got married, saw family a lot, got a new car (albeit because the insurance co. totalled the old one), went to Seattle... enough said, you get it right? Great year for us!

So far, 2008 sucks and is not a great year. We'll get through it, but it has to be said that we're getting a good kick in the pants this year. First we'll say that David's mother was diagnosed with cancer in December, days before Christmas. She is truly kicking cancer's sorry little butt and we're super proud. As we understand it she is finishing up chemo and should be able to get back to her "regularly scheduled program" very soon. My grandmother moved to Virginia Beach from Missouri last May. After a two month stay with David and I waiting for an apartment to come available, she moved in to an independent senior living facility. She hasn't done as well as we expected and last week was diagnosed with dementia. We are very sad to have this diagnosis, but grateful to know whats going on and be able to move forward. She will be moving into a nursing home this week, where they will better know how to encourage her to have more interaction with others. I do want to say that both David and I are blessed that she lived with us for a time and we really enjoyed her. Hopefully time and some adjustments will give some of her back to us. In mid-February I got a call from my uncle. My papa, who lives in Colorado, was very sick. My father was out of the country, and could not be informed of this. I have been unable to travel to see him, but he had a very hard fight and passed away today. He had been fighting pneumonia and sepsis; his organs had been shutting down. Today he peacefully stopped breathing and went home to heaven to see his wife, my Nana, for the first time in five years. I felt the loss of him coming. I love him more than words, I think he loves me more than I even know. I was his "bip-bip". Rest in peace Papa.

Finally, if you can believe there is more, my beloved husband, was diagnosed with Hodgkin's Disease/Lymphoma on February 26, 2008. We found out after a surgery was performed to remove two swollen lymph nodes from his neck on Feb. 20. We had been dealing with these nodes since November '07, but were never led to believe that they were cancerous. Before the surgery he had a CT scan, a fine-needle biopsy, endured 3 sets of steriod pills and at least that many anti-biotics. Since the diagnosis our life has felt surreal and as if we're on fast forward mode. He has had a PET scan, to find out if there was more cancer. This provided us with staging so we knew how long a battle he had ahead. He also had an echo to make sure his heart is good, and a pulmonary test, checking his lung function. He had a medi port installed on March 13 so they can give him his medicine through that rather than through IVs every time. David's news is good. Hodgkin's is very treatable and curable. Better than that, he is stage one! He began chemo last Tuesday and is tolerating it very well. He will have chemo every other Tuesday a total of eight times. He will most likely lose his hair, but other than that the side effects are minimal. He has medicine for nausea. Last week he felt very drugged on Tuesday, Wednesday and some of Thursday. He is going to ask about reducing some of the meds that relax him. But, if its a choice between relaxed and sick, we're taking relaxed.

So that's our life right now. We are trying to take it all in good humor. David has accumulated a series of nicknames lately, cancerboy, chemoboy and my new favorite bionic man (b/c of the medi port). He is working as much as he is able and relaxing alot too. I love my husband, he is a really tough guy to handle all this crapola!

So It Began...

David and I met in Febuary 2004. We met, conspicuously, in a bar that neither of us have returned to since. At the time, I was working for Olive Garden and David was in the Navy. Since then David and I both now work for the same company, an electrical contractor in Virginia Beach. We were married on July 7, 2007 in Massachusetts. It was a beautiful; we enjoyed a perfect day with both family and friends. We want children in the future, but not quite yet. We're happy! and... we like each other ALOT!