Chemo Treatment #4

This past Tuesday, January 26th, was Ed's 4th chemo treatment and it was all "normal". Nothing unusual, nothing different, . . . We are getting used to this routine. We arrive at Cooley around 8:30 for blood work, then meet with Dr. Bowers, then into the infusion suite for the chemo. The staff to Hampshire Hemotology are great--all very nice and helpful. We still think highly of Dr. Bowers and love his oncology nurses as well, in particular "the wonderful" Shayne. Augie was there to greet us again, I just haven't been able to get a picture of him yet.

Thankfully, I'm still able to join Ed for his treatments (because my supportive and understanding supervisor and employer!). Ed doesn't really need me there for the treatment. He reads the paper while I work on my laptop and afterwards he could definitely drive himself home. However, I like to be there when Ed meets with Dr. Bowers to be sure Ed shares all pertinent information and also to hear what Dr. Bowers has to say. This week there wasn't any new news. The chemo seems to be shrinking the tumors on the liver and Ed seems to be responding well (no signs of the cancer getting worse). So we'll continue with the treatment and probably have a CT scan done sometime in the next month (probably around the 6th treatment).

We are very thankful that Ed is having no serious side effects and is beginning to get his energy back. There are no further signs of hair loss. Ed still has occasional swelling in his feet/ankles. Dr. Bowers told him he should elevate his feet during the day (hmmm...where has he heard this before!?) (Grover feel free to yell at him if he doesn't do this while at work!)

Although Dan hasn't updated his blog, he did send me a quick email earlier this week and he seems to be doing well and keeping quite busy. Last weekend he went to Rome for an arch workshop. This weekend I think he's headed to Siena. He's also sharing a TA position with another student. Ed would still like to try to fit in a trip to Italy. Since he's responding so well to the chemo, we might actually entertain this now. We'll see.

I have to say it is a little weird to say Ed has cancer when he has been doing so well. I remember how awful it was when he got the initial diagnosis and now here we are not even 2 months later and he's doing so well that you wouldn't even know he has cancer by looking at him. That is a good thing--don't get me wrong! And it's easy to forget that cancer has entered our lives and so there are times when I'm waiting for the other shoe to drop. But for now, we'll live in the moment, and relish the fact that he is responding so well to the treatment and life can continue on fairly normal, at least for the time being.

So thanks for the continual good thoughts and prayers. We appreciate them all.

Waiting in the exam room for Dr. Bowers. Can you believe he actually smiled for me?

This yellow X appears on the back of the exam room doors. What do you think they are for? Note that these are the only doors in the room, so to indicate "exit" doesn't make sense. Any guesses?

On the back of the bathroom door as well. Post your guess and we'll ask Dr. Bowers at one of our upcoming appointments.

Quiet Days

Hi all! Things have been quiet around here which is really nice for a change. In case you haven't noticed there is a link to the right to Dan's blog. He posted some info about his first few days in Italy with some very nice pictures, but nothing recently. Classes started for him this past Monday (no Martin Luther King holiday in Italy!). This weekend he was off to Rome with two other classmates for some kind of architecture workshop. It's about bridging cultures and so each of them will team up with an Italian student and design something. The workshop ends on Saturday and they will stay until Sunday to do some sightseeing. What an experience! My weekend plans include laundry, cleaning, etc. Dan's include going to Rome! Isn't that what we're all doing this weekend??!

I'm sure once he's back, he'll post something on his blog--or at least I hope he does. From what I understand the Internet is not very good, at least not in their apartment, so he's having a hard time uploading pictures (or so he says!).

Things here at home are relatively quiet--thank God! Now that we've made it through the initial diagnosis, first few chemo appointments, made it through the holidays and getting Dan off to Italy safely, we are returning to some semblance of "normal". I'm back to work on a regular schedule just taking a few hours off to go to the chemo appointments with Ed every two weeks.

Ed has returned to work and works fairly full time. Things are slow this time of year and if there's not much work, he'll come home or not even go in--that's fairly typical during the winter. Earlier this week he had a stomach bug that lasted no more than 24 hours, so we know it was either a bug or something he ate, not anything to do with the chemo.

The one side effect we continue to try to manage is swelling of his ankles/feet and soreness in his feet. After evaluating when this happens, we're pretty sure it's linked to when he is on his feet all day at work. I keep telling him he needs to take a break during the day and elevate his feet, but he'll only listen sometimes. He is being careful about staying ahead of the hand-foot syndrome that is a common side effect of the Xeloda and can result in very dry, blistered, and painful hands and feet. There are three stages of this and some people can't even walk because it is so painful. So he is sure to lather up his hands and feet to keep the skin moisturized which is the secret to staying ahead of this.

Other than that, we are doing well and Ed is looking good. He said a couple weeks ago that he was beginning to lose his hair, but I have not noticed this. I mean it is thinner, but no bald spots yet (and doesn't thinning just come with age!). He is also getting his energy back. So except for the myriad of pill bottles on the counter, the occasional swollen ankles, and his weight loss, you would not know there is this cancer inside his body that he is battling.

So I'm thankful, and I know he is as well, that this journey so far has not been as difficult as I know it can be. I am thankful that our lives have returned to "boring" and that my weekends can be putzing around the house, doing chores, and taking life a little slower right now.

We thank all of you for your prayers because I know this makes a difference. The docs give us the medical treatment, but I am convinced that determination, hope, and prayers is the other part of this battle...and miracles as well. So keep the prayers coming and thank you for your continual love and support.

Next chemo appointment: Tuesday, 1/26. Hoping for continual good news and another "quiet" day.

Chemo Treatment #3

Our regular, biweekly hangout. Their "therapy dog" is Augie.
I'll need to try to get a picture of him at our next visit.

After getting Dan off to Italy on Tuesday, Ed had his 3rd chemo treatment on Wednesday. The report from Dr. Bowers is that things are looking good. His blood tests are looking good (numbers are moving in the right direction) and it appears the liver has continued to shrink. He's quite happy with Ed's response to the treatment. He considered doing another CT scan but both him and Ed agreed they could wait a couple more sessions (not me...I want to look NOW...but I figured I'd give Ed this decision to make!).

They used Ed's port for the treatment and the nurse (the wonderful Shayne) said the port area looked very good considering he just had it done last week. Kudos to Dr. O'Brien on doing such a good job!


There were two women receiving their first treatments while we were there and Dr. Bowers recommended they both get the port. So here was Ed, one week after getting his port, sharing info about the surgery and showing his port to them. We laughed about how he is already the veteran and it was only his 3rd visit! Of course as I type this I realize how sad it really is how quickly new cancer patients arrive and Ed is no longer the newbie.

The treatment was uneventful. Ed read his paper, I did work on my laptop. So far still no serious side effects but I'm watching and waiting carefully. Dr. Bowers keeps saying he'll be fine; others have said it's worse after the second or third treatment. Time will tell.

Minor side effects are dry skin--partly from the dry air/winter, but partly due to the chemo; thinning hair; and some slight swelling in his legs. He hasn't had any swelling the last couple weeks so I attribute this to the fact that he worked all day today and probably was on his feet longer than he should have been. But these are all minor things that we can deal with.

On another note, we did hear from Dan (a quick email) to let us know he arrived in Italy and so did his luggage. They've got him busy right now with orientation so he really didn't have much time to write yet but he's hoping to share pics in the next few days.

And for all of you who keep asking how you can help, be careful...I might ask you to try to figure out all the medicine bills and insurance claims! It is crazy and I'm an organized, detailed person. But trying to make sense of the bills and tie them up to claims, etc., is nuts. This is what I tried to do after work tonight.

So thankfully not too much report. Below are some pictures that Ed allowed me to take.

You can see the port here.

IV inserted into the port.

All "wired" up.

In his "usual" chair in the infusion suite.
Of course, he's usually reclined, sitting back with his feet up.

And He's Off...

Today was the big day...the day Dan left for Florence, Italy for four months (note my countdown clock below on the right!). He was flying out of Logan. I've never been there but have heard nothing but horror stories about trying to get in and out of there. For days we've been considering using Logan Express--we would drop Dan off in Framingham and he would take the shuttle bus into Logan. We would avoid all the hassles and cost of driving into Logan, but it also meant saying good-bye in Framingham vs. the airport.

Well, this morning we decided to drive to Logan. It's an estimated 2 hour drive and we were planning to leave at 11 anyhow, so this gave us an hour+ buffer to deal with whatever traffic issues we might encounter. (Dan's flight was at 4:30 so we wanted to be at the airport by 2-2:30.)

We hit the road shortly after 11. In fact we were ready early since Dan had done most of his packing on Sunday. So this morning was just double checking the list that we had already triple checked.

We stopped for gas before leaving town and off we went arriving at Logan at......12:50 PM! Yes, less than 2 hours later we were at the airport. There was no traffic at all. The most confusing part was following the signs once we were at Logan, but thankfully I had checked it out beforehand so had an idea of the layout and where I wanted to park. Really, the only confusing part was when Ed was at a V in the road and Dan yelled at him to go left and I yelled to go right (right was the way to go).

There were NO crowds at all. In fact, the entire terminal was pretty much empty except for a short line at Lufthansa (full of RWU students checking in!). Since Dan checked in online the night before, he was able to bypass the long line and just walk right up to the counter (no waiting) to check his bags. So that took an entire 5 mins of our time!

We took advantage of the time we had and enjoyed a light, leisurely lunch together. Around 2:15-2:30, Dan went through security. Once he got through security he turned around and waved good-bye before heading to his gate (it still makes me smile that he thought to do this--made my day). Ed and I then made the drive back home. Soon after we got home (around 4:30) we rec'd a txt message from Dan that he was on the plane and they were about to take off. (Another smile for texting Mom.)

I have to say we are quite happy with our decision to bring Dan to Logan. It was definitely the right thing to do and the fact that we ran into no problems helped as well. Of course we laughed about the cost of this little adventure--parking at Logan was $12, and lunch was $35, plus the cost of the tolls! So the Logan Express would have been MUCH cheaper ($22 for a round trip ticket), but this was soooo worth it and the right decision.

Ed continues to feel well and did all the driving today. Tomorrow morning is his next chemo appt so hopefully he'll continue to have no serious side effects from that. Only time will tell but I'll be sure to update you.

Phew...what a month it has been! I hope the next 4 months are boring!

A blurry picture of the three of us that some nice gentleman offered to take...

Port Implant

Happy New Year!
Well we rang in the New Year hanging at home watching TV and playing Wii with Dan and his girlfriend, Cassie who came to visit for the weekend. Ed still does not have any serious side effects from the chemo so we are thankful for that (knock on wood!).

Today was Ed's surgery for a portacath. Here's a couple pictures of what a portacath looks like...


And how it is used...

These aren't great pictures, but you can Google "portacath" if you want more information. But basically, this will allow IVs to be given via this port instead of through a vein in Ed's hand/arm. And with regular chemo, this "saves" your veins and you don't need to worry about your veins collapsing. An added bonus is that this can be used to insert dye if you need a CT scan, etc.

Ed's surgery for the port implant was scheduled for today at 2 PM with us needing to arrive at the Kittredge Surgery Center at Cooley Dickinson at 12:30. However, Ed got a call yesterday and he was rescheduled to earlier in the day (which he wanted) to 7:30 AM. Now that doesn't sound so bad except we needed to be there at 6:15 which meant we needed to leave the house by 5:45 at the latest!! Yes, 5:45 AM!! So I was up at 4:45! Oh well, I guess I can function on a few hours of sleep!! I am thankful that we had less than a half hour drive (at least it's less than a half hour at 5:45 in the morning!)! And I guess, now that I think about it, we certainly didn't have to worry about things running late!

Now I'm very lucky to be able to say I've never had to use the Kittredge Surgery Center, but I can tell you I was QUITE impressed with not only the beautiful place, but the staff there were incredible as well. From the warm, welcoming gentleman at check-in, Ed's nurse Gail, his surgery nurse (sorry, can't remember her name), his anesthesiologist (Dr. Goswami), the two "girls" (Kate and Heather) who took his chest x-ray, and, of course, Dr. O'Brien--they were all so warm, friendly, patient and took the time to explain things and be sure we didn't have any questions and even took the time to joke and laugh. When I was first sitting in the waiting area I was impressed by the beautiful space and how welcoming and comfortable the waiting area was, but by the end of our visit, I was also very impressed with all the staff working there. What a wonderful team!

And they were quite efficient! Surgery was scheduled for 7:30 and at 7:30 on the nose they wheeled Ed into the operating room. They have this very cool, large screen "SmarTrack Family Board" in the waiting room where you can monitor a patient's progress. So at 7:30 the board indicated "Ready for Surgery". By 7:40, status had already moved from "In OR" to "OP in progress" and by 7:45 the status was "closing". Less than 5 minutes later, Dr. O'Brien was standing next to me in the waiting room to let me know everything was done and I could go back to see Ed in recovery! Heck, I didn't even have a chance to even begin going through the work I brought with me to read through!

We then spent the next hour in recovery, monitoring his vitals, getting instructions, etc., and we left around 9:15 and he rested/slept most of the day. He's a little achey, especially his left arm and shoulder since the port was inserted in the upper, left side of his chest. So recovery is to take it easy, tomorrow remove the bandage and shower, watch for infection, and next week Dr. Bower's office can use the port for the chemo! Just like that!

I have to say I'm relieved. This was another major event/milestone on the calendar and I know I was fretting about it (although I wouldn't tell Ed that). I mean it's surgery--sure minor surgery--but still. I'm relieved that the surgery went well and that the whole experience was as positive as it was. Who knew? I guess so far we've been so lucky to have encountered all the great doctors, nurses, and staff that we have. Maybe all the good ones do outnumber the rotten apples that you tend to hear more about.

Next on my calendar...getting Dan off to Italy on Tuesday, then Ed's next chemo appt on Wednesday using the port. And then I think life returns to our new "normal" (whatever that might be). But the last month has been a whirlwind--from the colonoscopy (can you believe that was just a month ago?), to the diagnosis, to the first chemo treatment, to Christmas, to more chemo, to New Years and now to this surgery! Phew! It's hard to believe it's only been a month.

So now, I just need to focus on making sure Dan is all set to leave for Italy next Tuesday. Then I'm hoping we can settle into a new, less stressful routine with "just" chemo every two weeks. I would never had thought 4 weeks ago that "just" having biweekly chemo would be less stressful. Who knew? But I am thankful that this is all we need to worry about at this point and I hope and pray it continues to be this "boring".

Happy New Year and may 2010 be a safe and healthy new year to all of you who are supporting us on this journey. Know how much your good thoughts and prayers mean to us!

Here's Ed wondering why in the world I've got my cell phone out (because I didn't bring my digital camera, of course!)

I even got him to smile for this one!
There must have been something good in that IV they were giving him!!