Hello All
I just wanted to provide a little update on my progress moving along in this the 3rd round now of my treatments. This will be chemo infusion treatments only (two very powerful ones), given once a week, on Friday's, for three cycles of 2 weeks in a row then a week off, then repeat. I finished the first round this past Friday. The infusions went well, but take a long time, around 4.5 hours total. However, by about 10 pm on Friday night I started to have some of the expected side effects, by throwing up most of the night until around daybreak. While that is fun in itself, it is followed up by a day of just feeling fairly crummy and can't do much. Unfortunately that Saturday was Annette's 39th birthday and I couldn't do anything with her - sorry Babe.
I improved on Sunday and on Monday I even played golf with my brother-in-law Oscar. My appetite is fair at best with lingering nausea but it is mostly controlled with oral medication. Needless to say you don't feel great but not terrible either. Just something we have to deal with in order to get the medicine in you that you need. I am losing a little weight again and definitely muscle tone but "I will be back!"
Annette and I did get to celebrate our 3rd Anniversary last Thursday night wherein we went to a local Chop House which was very good. I will attach a picture from there as well as several of our newest grand daughter, Vivian Fracine Lane Bunch. She's a looker huh? Kind of looks like her grandpa.
My sister, Darla, stopped in here briefly Monday evening while enroute from NY to Florida. Then the crazy nut continued her drive all the way down to Florida. A total of about 24 hours on the road. I thought she had more sense than that - Darla what up?
Speaking of golf for a moment, last Thursday I played for the first time in a month due to some soreness I have had in my stomach and restricting me from swinging. Well, I was invited out, with comp passes, to play one of the famed 8 Pinehurst golf courses. They are numbered 1-8 and we played #8. #2 is the most famous and it is where they have held the US Open twice I believe and will be again 2014. Anyway, it was a great experience and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Thanks again to Tommy, a friend of a friend who got us on. Annette has also been playing more lately with a group of lady friends and I am happy for her to have some girl company. She doesn't care for my coaching style!
Well enough about the local news around here. I will probably not do another update for a few weeks after we return from the Outer Banks around the 9th of October. Take care and keep those prayers coming our way. They are desperately needed, trust me.
Love
Drew
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
Monday, September 14, 2009
So Far, So Good
Hello All
Just a brief update to let you know that I have restarted my treatments again after the little setback that I had a week before last requiring a short hospital stay. This past Friday Annette and I were back up to Duke early for blood work and doctor's consultation before we went in for my chemo infusion. We waited 3 hours between appointments and then it was a little over 4 hours for them to give me the juice. It makes for a long day for us, about 12.5 hours up and back along with the treatments but it's better than all those weeks we had to stay in the area.
They reduced my dosage by 20% for the two drugs to see how that would affect me and so far, so good. I am on 3 anti-nausea drugs daily and they seemed to be doing the job. My appetite is fair, not great but OK. My energy level is fairly decent too but my endurance is off I'm sure. I can tell by how far I can walk our dog. I haven't played golf in 3+ weeks and I may see if I can swing a club later this week. Mostly this is due to a strained stomach which hurts when I swing (probably a combination of the tumors and straining from the puking I was doing when I got sick).
The doctor said that depending on how my blood work turns out this coming Friday, she may try and return my dosage for one of the chemos back up to 100% as obviously she would prefer me to have the strongest dosage I can handle. We shall see what will be will be. Oh, also, my Doctor, Hope Uronis, said she just presented my case in front of an interdisciplinary doctors group up at Duke for consultation as she said "nothing has gone normal for me so far and she wanted to get their advise." She said they agreed with her approach and we will just have to see how the cards fall.
I had hoped to load a couple of pictures of my newest granddaughter herein but haven't been able to figure out how to do it by downloading off of Robin's blog into my blog. Techno wheenie I am not. Good looking now that is another story! Little Vivian is apparently doing great and all is going well at home. Her big sister, Marjorie, just loves to feed her and help Mommy out. She is going to be a big helper. My only grandson, Reece, Jackie's second, turned 5 this past week. They are all doing well down in Flordia and enjoying being back in school. Emma changed schools this year from private to a charter public school and is loving it. She is in 3rd grade. That leaves little Adeline the only one home now with Jackie.
Well, I guess that is it for now folks. Annette and I will be celebrating our 3rd anniversary on the 17th and her 39th birthday on the 19th. We are planning a little trip out to the Outer Banks on 10/3 to stay in a timeshare. Till next time, please keep those prayers and well wishes coming our way. We need them more than ever.
Love
Drew
Just a brief update to let you know that I have restarted my treatments again after the little setback that I had a week before last requiring a short hospital stay. This past Friday Annette and I were back up to Duke early for blood work and doctor's consultation before we went in for my chemo infusion. We waited 3 hours between appointments and then it was a little over 4 hours for them to give me the juice. It makes for a long day for us, about 12.5 hours up and back along with the treatments but it's better than all those weeks we had to stay in the area.
They reduced my dosage by 20% for the two drugs to see how that would affect me and so far, so good. I am on 3 anti-nausea drugs daily and they seemed to be doing the job. My appetite is fair, not great but OK. My energy level is fairly decent too but my endurance is off I'm sure. I can tell by how far I can walk our dog. I haven't played golf in 3+ weeks and I may see if I can swing a club later this week. Mostly this is due to a strained stomach which hurts when I swing (probably a combination of the tumors and straining from the puking I was doing when I got sick).
The doctor said that depending on how my blood work turns out this coming Friday, she may try and return my dosage for one of the chemos back up to 100% as obviously she would prefer me to have the strongest dosage I can handle. We shall see what will be will be. Oh, also, my Doctor, Hope Uronis, said she just presented my case in front of an interdisciplinary doctors group up at Duke for consultation as she said "nothing has gone normal for me so far and she wanted to get their advise." She said they agreed with her approach and we will just have to see how the cards fall.
I had hoped to load a couple of pictures of my newest granddaughter herein but haven't been able to figure out how to do it by downloading off of Robin's blog into my blog. Techno wheenie I am not. Good looking now that is another story! Little Vivian is apparently doing great and all is going well at home. Her big sister, Marjorie, just loves to feed her and help Mommy out. She is going to be a big helper. My only grandson, Reece, Jackie's second, turned 5 this past week. They are all doing well down in Flordia and enjoying being back in school. Emma changed schools this year from private to a charter public school and is loving it. She is in 3rd grade. That leaves little Adeline the only one home now with Jackie.
Well, I guess that is it for now folks. Annette and I will be celebrating our 3rd anniversary on the 17th and her 39th birthday on the 19th. We are planning a little trip out to the Outer Banks on 10/3 to stay in a timeshare. Till next time, please keep those prayers and well wishes coming our way. We need them more than ever.
Love
Drew
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