Tuesday, 29 March 05
What a thrill it was for my family to visit Kylie Trost this evening. She is six years old and 100% pure sunshine with a captivating smile, even though she is scheduled to have brain surgery at M.D. Anderson in Houston on 07 April 05. Please visit Kylie's website and read her story. She thrives on notes of encouragement.
Monday, 28 March 05
The first half of the eighth round of chemo was completed tonight. No nausea during this past two weeks, probably due to the Kytril that I took each evening. So now I get two weeks to 'rest' from the chemo. During the rest period, I am able to eat anytime I need to (e.g. whenever I am hungry), as opposed to having to manage my intake of food to be able to take the chemo in time to be able to go to bed before midnight. I typically go to bed hungry during my chemo rounds.
I also am taking a break from the Accutane, a drug that tends to turn my face and ears tomato red sometimes. My skin peels and dries up on my arms and the back of my neck. This agent was designed to treat acne, so these effects are not unexpected, but clinical studies suggest that Accutane is also efficacious against cancer growth factor receptors, so these side effects are more than tolerable. Still, I need to give my system a chance to catch its breath from time to time. After my skin returns to normal, I'll resume the Accutane. I will take Accutane for three weeks, then typically take one week off for skin recovery. I am continuing the Celebrex - it doesn't seem to have any noticeable side effects.
Thursday, 24 March 05
Our five dwarf baby rabbits are now four weeks old - still a bit too young to go to new homes. This is a bummer, with Easter just around the corner. Still, they are very cute and should have no trouble finding new homes when they are ready in a week or so.
Wednesday, 16 March 05
I began the 8th round of Temodar chemotherapy on Monday. I am taking 1 mg of Kytril per day to mitigate the nausea I have been experiencing. Not sure what is causing the nausea and the vomiting. The Temodar is the obvious answer, except that I took this agent for a year without incident. Now, I have now had enough nausea and vomiting to begin the Kytril, a drug that is evidently as effective as Zofran, but with less tendency towards constipation.
Saturday, 12 March 05
My current list of dietary supplements consist of:
Green Tea Extract, 315 mg/day
Centrum multi-vitamin from A to Zinc, 1 tablet/day
Chinese Mushroom Combination, 1350 mg/day (one capsule)
Flax, Fish Borage Essential Oils, 1 softgel/day mfg
Super Milk Thistle, 1 softgel/day
It is not clear what difference, if any, these supplements actually make in
a person's life. It seems that the traditional medical community generally discounts supplements as having any real benefit, although I have heard that green tea and mushroom extract are effective antioxidants and there is good reason to take them. The milk thistle is supposed to support the liver function, and I am doing a multi-vitamin which includes vitamin E because it is reported that fish oil produces free radicals in your body. Vitamin E helps counteract these radicals.
I do not like taking vitamins that provide 1000% or 6660% or some other huge dosage way beyond the daily recommended dosage - the Centrum tablet is great in that it stops at 100% for the entire antioxidant group, and also includes key minerals like Zinc and Manganese.
During radiation treatment (one year ago), I had to stop all supplements per the radiation oncologist's direction. You also have to be careful about taking vitamin A when taking Accutane, since Accutane is an acid form of Vitamin A.
Monday, 07 March 05
I received the radiologist report today, which read, in part: "Stable MRI of the brain without change from 01/07/05. No evidence of any recurrent tumor mass." This means that my 7th bi-monthly post-operative MRI, like the six before it, is clean! Glory be to God. As always, Dr. Virginia Stark-Vance seems almost as happy with the results as we are. I appreciate the army of folks praying for me!
The monthly CBC results look good as well, so I am ready to begin the 8th round of chemo. The start of this round is being delayed by one week, because I had an infection about two weeks ago that required Z-Pak to eliminate. I had to stop the Temodar for one week while doing Z-Pak. This means that I finished the Temodar just a few days ago. The routine is to take 14 days off between chemo rounds, so delaying the start of chemo round eight will accomplish the two week rest period.
Sunday, 06 March 05
I made the mistake last night of leaving the prayer pager out on the dresser in our bedroom. At about 4 am, somebody paged me and just about blew me out of bed! The pager's vibrations resonated in the wood of the furniture and it sounded like someone was using a jackhammer in the room. The flashing light of the pager produced a strobe effect and I thought the world was coming to an end for a moment.
Friday, 04 March 05
Aimee and the 5th grade class at Argyle went on a field trip to NASA today administered by Education In Action. Mr. Stein and I were assigned 10 students for the trip - our task was to facilitate the learning experience and to move the group through a series of events and activities. All three bus loads of kids, a total of 12 parents and several staff members from Education In Action left at 6:45 am from Argyle Elementary School and returned about 12 midnight. I enjoyed my time with the 5th grade class, but I must say that 10 hours on the road in one day with energetic 5th graders presents a unique set of challenges!
Thursday, 03 March 05
My seventh bi-monthly MRI was accomplished today - the previous six scans since brain surgery in February 2004 have all been reviewed as being clear of any recurrent tumor. I will receive the official results of this scan Monday when I visit the oncologist, but my review of the film leads me to believe that I am still clean! In fact this scan looks even better than some of the earlier MRIs because the region where the tumor was located now seems to be "tighter" (smaller) than before.
