11/26/10

Hi everyone, this would be day number 2 of my second round of chemo for this latest stint in the hospital. So far, not much as far as side effects except for some bad nausea, but as always, these things seem to hit me after the chemo ends rather than during. With a 3 day treatment, it's hard to tell when the side effects will come so we'll just have to wait and see. I made it through the last round of chemo with pretty much no down side, which in turn gave us a bad result, so I'm almost hoping I get hit really hard by this one. I do have to admit that there was a day, Wednesdayday of this week to be exact, that I got completely knocked on my ass. I had a headache that my medication just couldn't touch, and as a result wouldn't go away from morning until very late at night. On that same day, I had the worst nausea I've had to endure since I got in here, so both of those things together made it so bad that I seriously couldn't move for about 16 hours straight. And I'm serious when I say I couldn't move. I couldn't even talk it was so bad. Unfortunately that was after we had already received our bad news that round one didn't work, so the pain had no upside.

Round two is pretty close to round one with the exception of adding in one component called Mitoxantrone which turns the cocktail's name to CLAG-M as opposed to simply CLAG which is what the last mixture of chemo was. The CLAG alone is a combination of Cladorbine and Cytarabine. If you remember from my last message, the M is the component which was supposed to add some risk to me heart, but they have a way of monitoring pretty closely the effects this medicine is having on my heart. Our biggest worry is obviously that this round doesn't throw me into remission either. Until then we'll be thinking positively and preparing for the best news possible. And we have reason to. This round of chemo is supposed to be pretty heavy stuff. They have assured me that they took this as far as possible from a strength perspective, without taking on too much risk. The problem is that my body is starting to educate itself on how to deal with chemotherapy, so the effect it had on my body the first time we went through this is different compared to what the effect is now. This doesn't mean it's not going to work by any means, only that it's different. I really do feel we are going to get through this round with a favorable result, if not then we move on to the next set of options.

From a timing perspective, we will be doing another bone marrow biopsy in about 12 days from now, with results following roughly 3 days later. When the results come back in our favor, they want to move as quickly as possible to transplant. If the results are less than that, then we move on to other options. Bottom line is that we will know the next course of action in a couple of weeks. The world we live in right? We want our information and we want it now. Isn't that a song?

As difficult as that last batch of news was, Evey and I are taking it all in stride and concentrating on making this current round as successful as possible. We had a really nice turkey dinner last night brought from my Dad compliments of my Aunt and Uncle Josie and Hans. The food was a great reminder of what's waiting for us on the other side of this illness. Today we get round two with my Mother in Law Sonia coming down with leftovers from her and her brother's cooking yesterday. Both of these women and Evey's Uncle are incredible cooks, so to say we are lucky to have them hooking us up with Thanksgiving dinners would be an understatement. I personally can't indulge in the salads which kind of sucks, but everything else that's cooked is fair game, and fortunately they are coming during a time where my appetite is ok so I actually get to enjoy it.

We're making the most of it and actually finding time to have some fun and laugh. We continue to drain our doctors of information about current state condition and treatment and what lies ahead, so I guess my point is, we are definitely making the most of our time here. And above all else, Evey and I get to spend time with each other. When we're not fighting over the TV remote, we're walking the halls of the hospital spending some good time together. The biggest difference between here and home is that when we walk, we don't have Floyd at the end of a leash. Anyway, now I'm bumming myself out. No more about Floyd. That's about it anyway. You've got the latest medical update and also a peek into our hospital lives. As I said before, we are making the most of it and even starting to laugh a bit. It's really the only way we are going to get through it. Well that, and of course the love and support we get from you all on a daily basis. Please continue to send it our way in whatever form you feel fit. Take great care of yourselves and we'll catch up soon.

Evey and Kurt