Good Times

This weekend I took a break from fighting cancer and got married.  :-)

Hopefully this week will see us in NYC!

Just Checking In

Sloan-Kettering received our samples, we're just waiting for them to call us now- as soon as they do we'll be in the car same day and heading up to NYC.

I've been out riding twice so far and I feel great!

Thanks to some really great friends (Nikki, Mira, Meredith, and whoever else made it possible!)  I am the proud owner of a BioMat-  it's like a heating pad on steroids.  It uses far infrared rays and negative ions along with heat to promote full body health in many ways.  Just another amazing tool to add to my arsenal!  Keeping the rest of me in good health is just as important as finding ways to attack the cancer cells, so any and every way we can find to do that is huge.

Thanks to my other friends Leah & Erik, who enrolled us in a produce delivery service, I've also been enjoying vitamin- rich power smoothies as part of my daily diet now.  Since my taste is more or less back to normal and I'm not getting chemo right now, I've been trying to readjust my diet back to pre-chemo- low sugar, limiting processed foods, more fish, less meat, etc.  Lots of fruits and veggies especially, and particularly those with a strong association of being good cancer-fighters.  Again, every little bit helps!

So that's about it for now...  another week of just sort of coasting along and waiting for things to happen.  Hopefully very soon we'll get the call to head to NY, and then I'll have lots of info to update on the new treatment.  Dr. Kang did also mention an immunotherapy trial starting up at Hopkins, so if this trial doesn't work out, we have some other options on the back burner before we resort to chemo again.

Love you guys!  And hey, I'm getting married on Saturday!

Trial Update

The tissue samples have officially been sent to Sloan-Kettering.  We're hoping to hear back quickly and get scheduled with a time to go up there in person and finish whatever enrollment/testing stuff needs finishing so we can get started.

Not much else to report- feeling good.  Keep those fingers crossed that we get to NYC as soon as possible!!

No Chemo Today!

Today was supposed to be my next chemo treatment.  Since that got cancelled, I celebrated by taking  half a day off work and going on my first trail ride in 3 months.  It was glorious.

That's all for today.  :-)

Amazing News!!!

Home!!

Alright, so here's all the news we got today.

Blood work- Awesome. Once again almost back to normal, within a few points of my last blood work, and well within normal healthy parameters.

The CT scan showed that the 2 rounds of chemo seriously kicked this tumor in the ass. We're guessing it at about a 75% reduction in size, maybe even more. It shrank a LOT. So much so that my cough has basically vanished. This is awesome.

Dr Kang, upon reviewing our progress, said now is a great time to go to the clinical trial. I can't stay on that chemo regiment forever (eventually, it will start doing damage to my body). But the tumors are small enough now that we have time to explore other methods of controlling or destroying it. So Ty has been busily coordinating with the hospital in New York, I am already accepted into the trial and we are just waiting for Hopkins to send some tissue samples up to Sloane-Kettering for their pathology department to review. In a week or so we'll go up there to meet with them and get me started on this new medication. Their are several up sides to this: the drug is less damaging to non-cancer tissue than traditional chemo, the drug has less side effects, and by the sounds of it, I can stay on that drug a lot longer.

And of course, the most important part: the lesions in my back have not gotten any worse, so the doc says I can ride again if I'm cautious. We're also going to do an infusion they have that will strengthen my bones and help prevent any injuries.

So basically everything we got today is incredibly good news. We have seriously kicked some cancer ass, and we're going to continue on doing it.

:-)

Just Checking In

Sorry for the quiet, hasn't been much new to report.  Just working and waiting.  Feeling good- appetite is normal, my taste buds have been recovering well again.  I've been working almost every day since we got back from the beach.  I was off Sunday for family stuff for the 4th, and then back to work Monday.  The only other day off I have this week is Friday for my tests, and then I'll be working all weekend.  And then back around to Monday, which is treatment day.  Round and round we go!  At least soon we'll know how well we're doing and that should provide some additional encouragement.

And if they tell me I can ride again, I already have a weekend picked out for a camping trip.  ;-)  Just in case!