Get the party started...

Today is June 29.  Today is exactly 2 weeks after June 15 which was the date of my first Chemo treatment for this occurrence of cancer.  Today after my labs and being weighed I would have normally been marched in and given a "cozy" chair for treament to settle in for the day with a blanket and a strong "cocktail" to go along with it.  However since the last two weeks went so swimmingly well, I was scheduled to see a Nurse Practioner before getting any treatment to talk about changes.  We waited a while in a small room just off the main hall of the blue pod room.  While waiting, my chemo nurse walked by and we chatted with her for a couple minutes about this treament then continued to wait for the NP.  After waiting for what seemed like forever, the NP poked her head in the room and introduced herself and said she was going to talk with my Doctor about my labs and then come back to talk with us.

When the NP came back to the room we began to talk about what my life was like for the last 2 weeks and then quickly shifted to lab result.  I'll spare you with many of the details except for two that are very important.  The white blood cells (WBC) and the absolute neutrophil count (ANC) are two things they watch for to see if they can administer chemo.  Those are your infection fighting cells in your blood.  So if you are sick (UTI) and have been given chemo, those numbers will go down.  WBC should be 4.0 - 11.0, mine was 2.9 today. ANC should be 1.5 - 7.7, mine was 1.0 today.  The NP said I was on the tipping point of getting chemo today and normally with a healthy patient they would give it anyway.  Due to my rough 14 days, and the fact my numbers were both low, and I am recovering from an UTI They chose to not give me chemo today.  My Doctor said they would be doing more damage than help this time and I really needed to build both those numbers back up on my own.

So now what you ask.  We talked a while with the NP and what that all boiled down to is I will get 1 more week to recover from my infection and get stronger without the effects of chemo.  Next Thursday July 6, I will get chemo, Saturday the 8th I will have my pump disconnected and I will also be getting a shot to help boost my white blood cells.  Then I will be scheduled to get hydration on Monday the 10th.  Both the shot and the hydration are to help pick me back up from the effects the chemo has.  The other important thing I haven't mentioned is I will be getting Emend in with my chemo regimen.  This is a drug that is a strong 48 - 72 hour anti nausea med. This med should cover me until Saturday or Sunday in regards to nausea.  These are all good things I heard today.  It seems to me that all these things will help make the treatment more tolerable next week and into the future.

I want to take this moment to say a huge thank you! to everyone for sending a card, commenting on the blog, making a meal, driving one or both of us somewhere, for a thoughtful phone call(s), and for many things not mentioned!  

Today We recieved a card from Lydia "Our best daughter" (her words).  She wrote this card on Monday the day she had her 10 girls arrive in her cabin.  She knew the speed of mail so in the card she said she hoped chemo was going well since she thought we would get it Thursday or Friday.  Perfect timing, something only God could arrange.  Earlier this week I got a call from a Pastor who was at Camp Geneva for another reason,  while on the phone he was bragging on how well Lydia is doing at camp!  That was so great to hear.  Keep it up Lydia!  Keep sharing Jesus with these girls each week all summer.

Prayer requests for continued health in fighting this UTI, for overall strength and for increased WBC and ANC, for limited side effects next week through treatment, and last for mental peace and calm as we approach the beginning of treatment number 2.

~Kent

Weekend trips

For many people summer means vacation or at least weekend trips.  The last two weekends (one physically and the other close enough it should be) I made a trip.  Unfortunately niether one was desired.  I already detailed the one from Thursday the 15th of June.  This past Saturdaythe 24th of June was yet another.  I was doing fairly well I even had a meal out with my family.  I enjoyed the meal but didn't have a huge appettite yet and I was eager to get back home.  Later that night, Leah was near me while talking to me and she felt my face and I was warm.  We thought I should take my tempeture and of course it was high enough it warrented a call into the after hours Oncology doctor line.  The doctor on call suggested we go right to the ER. He was worried that there could be an infection after chemo. We chose Zeeland this time since it's a little less chaotic

We arrived at 10 p.m. I went through a battery of tests including blood tests, urine sample, chest x-ray and a covid related nasal swab.  After 4 hours I was told I had a bladder infection or UTI.  Before we left at 2 AM I recieved my first oral dose of the antibiotic they thought I needed. Leah's mom picked up the med for us Sunday morning and by 11 p,m, Sunday I had my second dose.

Today I had every intention of a normal day at work however my UTI started my day out with other plans.  My UTI Symptoms got worse and I was seeing blood clots in the bowl.

Immediately Leah called the Oncology office.  It wasn't until 2:30 we had actually heard substantial information back from them.  In the mean time I pounded the "clear" liquids.  At 11:00 am I was taking my 3rd dose of the med.  After that med got on board and I got food on board I was feeling much better.  I ended up working most of the rest of the day.

The Oncoligist office after much discussion with those involved in my case decided that I was doing what I needed to be doing and to continue on the current path I was .  The only thing they suggested I hadn't been doing was drinking cranberry juice.  I strated drinking that later this evening.  If by tomorrow I'm still not feeling well they want me to call and come in.  This will mean they will likely push my treatment out a week.  

So until tomorrow....

Please pary for Physical strength and Emotional strength to.  Pray the whenever my next treatment is that I can tolerate it and get back to "normal" quickly

~Kent

I got a letter. Wonder who it's from?

After the last post I felt you all needed an update before we get to "doing this all over again".  Today is Thursday, 1 week from the treatment cycle I had.  Yesterday and today I held food down but the primary side effect of the Chemo drug (diarrhea ) has taken over so my body is desperately trying grab any nutrients from the food as it goes flying by like an energetic 2 year old.

This is a space I try to be honest about what life as a cancer pateint feels like however for most people, until you experience cancer in you family many of the terms like chemo or what it makes you feel like come with a vague understanding.  

When you read the title you may have been wondering the refference.  This is a song which was in Blues Clues that Steve sang when he got mail.  One thing you must understand is we have a service where we see most of our mail prior to it reaching the mailbox.  For someone who likes opening things this creates a little excitement especially if you don't immediately recognize the return address.  One of today's letters was from a friend who is also a cancer survivor.  There is a shared understanding from people (in the club) about what you feel and think about the different facets of cancer.  This particular card (as most are) was full of wonderful sentiments, encouragement and a promise of continued prayer.  I read through this card  several times today and will continue reading it many years into the future.  A similar thing happens for me with the comments on this blog.  I love reading the thoughts, encouragement, and prayers,  Again I read them many years into the future.  This becomes a stamp in time where I can go to look back at God's mighty work.  

To the sender of today's Card. "Thank You so much!"  To the sender of any card I get, Thank you also!  To those who comment on the blog.  Thank you even though it doesn't get mentioned often.

The real story....

Many people give facts on care pages or blogs. Facts of all the medical things that are going on, what doctors have been sharing in all the appointments of what is exactly happening with your loved one who is struggling health wise.  I will share a little of that at the end but what I want to share with you now is the real story that is happening in our home.

Thursday through Tuesday were tough.  Mentally, physically and emotionally.  We started with treatment on Thursday.  Kent had so much going on mentally, physically and emotionally the moment he walks into the Chemo treatment center.   The sights and smells, the dispair and hopelessness, and the shared thoughts of each person you walk past . Those same people who are given a simialar diagnosis as you...Cancer.  Different drugs but same vision a fight to cure this awful disease that destoys their smile and their happy spirit.   

This treatment..... The real story is that we are plain exhusted. Mentally & Emotionally Kent is struggling to make it though each situation that has been presented to him. things like a doc appointment or test. Phsyically Kent has has no strength to even do routine tasks in our home, like to eat, to walk or work.  Thankfully Kent's supervisors have been very supportive and understanding.  To you we are very thankful.

I am trying my hardest to hold it together but seeing Kent go through this and the toll it is taking on him has me in tears often.  There is nothing more that I want to do is to take this all away from him.  Seeing him not be able to do as much he would have done before treatment just breaks my heart.  The real story is he is the person who just does so much for everyone and never says anything he just does it.  The real story we all miss his ability of helping.  We will keep trying to do what we can while he gets stronger.  

The real story now on the Medical update.   I will try to share all of what I know in the best way to Update you, 

Kent is improving daily in strength but he has a long way to go.  His next treament Chemo day is June 29.  We will first meet with a Nurse practioner on that day as our doctor's schedule was full and we were not scheduled for doctor's visit that day.  We will alter the Chemo regimine, that he will have after we meet with the nurse Practioner. They will give him fuilds several days in that week and we will be adding a nuasea med in addition to what they have put in place already.  We will ask MANY questions as we can when we meet so we will have reassurance as we go home we are doing the right things.  

Here are some of the blessing we are so thankful for as we head into Chemo treatments.  We are thankful for our new nurse who is a Christian and shared with us that her Husband is a local pastor in our area.  Her carefully thought out medical care has been so wonderful and the way she treats Kent is so wonderful.  Thankful for a new Doctor that is similar in demeanor to our old doctor and has done a wonderful job caring for Kent's needs.  For an old PA and old Chemo nurses that fill in when our new nurse isn't there.  Familarity when you are going though cancer is calming and much needed in the cancer walk.  

Last but not least today Kent was ordered to have an ultrasound.  He had a PET scan earlier this month and it showed some concern for a nodule on Kents thyroid. Todays results were that it was negitive for any metastatic colon cancer.  

The Real Story is ...... We could not do this fight without all of you praying! We could not do this without all of you standing by us and we could not do this without the Love of our Heavenly Father! 

Continued prayers requested for calm and clear minds.  Also prayers for chemo symptoms to subside (quickly)

~Leah

 

What comes first?.....

Today is my first treatment day after 9 years of being off from treatments.  Last night I spent time getting all our I's dotted and T's crossed in preparation for effectively a 3 day Nap.   Today we got to the cancer treatment center pretty early. I got labs done right away and then was brought back to a new pod for treatment.  First introductions were done and going over case with my nurse followed.  She's nice and I'm pleased how she cares for me and I am sure the relationship will go well to follow.  In the words of a friend, I don't see her taking her broom into work. First item on the business was port access.  I had that placed on May 25 just 3 weeks ago today.  She cleaned it and I kindly told her to give me a warning when pushing the needle.  She said on 3 take a big breath.  She got to three and I didn't have a chance to breath.  That took all my breath away!  It hurt quite a bit.  I know people say your port is your friend.  I still haven't gotten to the point where I feel the same.  Not to long after port was accessed she hung saline and the pushed 2 meds. One was a steroid and another being an anti nausea med.  They ran that through for 25 minutes and then they hooked up my Avastin which is the drug that helps the Chemo be effective in stopping cell growth.  After my 90 minutes here then Chemo (Fol Furi) a common drug when treating Colon Cancer. 

Back to that title.  If you read it the next thought in your mind should be "the Chicken or the Egg".  I'm not referring to Chicken's or Egg's here rather Chemo or Pet Scan results.  My nurse nudged them and said they are not finished with my Pet Scan results yet. ( at that point in me  begining in writing the post.) She said she would check again before the end of treatment to see if they have come in by then.  So obivously Chemo comes first.  Not exactly the order I had planned things out in my mind. Roughly a half hour to forty minutes later I was notified through My Chart of the results of the PET Scan.  So here we go.... Many of my organs are not affected, here is the low down on what was lit on the scan.  In my first battle with cancer it was found in the Liver and Colon.  I had a surgery back then on both Colon and Liver, on the current scan  the resectioned part of the Liver they found at the resection site it showed some growth or it was lit and that is evidence of reacurence.  They feel with the Chemo that I am on that they will be able to attack that.  The second part of the scan showed a few nodules on the Thyroid.  It is a very slim chance that this area could be cancer but it did show concern and so I will be seeking further advice on what we need to do.  On Tuesday, June 20 I will be having an Ultrasound to determine what I need to do to address this.  Then there is the mass that they found below my Liver sitting surrounding the Portal Vein.  As all this is hard to hear, we are hopeful that much of this will shrink with the Current Chemo plan.  

As many of you are aware after Leah's facebook post, we have had quite a few hurdles in this first round of Chemo.  I have had a total of 3 Hydration treatments over the last three days.  I have battled several days of being sick and trying to figure what my body can handle with food and drink so that I do not need to make a return trip to the ER this weekend.  

I can not thank you all enough for your Love and Prayers over my recent diagnosis.   We would love to ask as we antcipate the next Chemo for all your prayers for calm minds, the right way to hydrate before Chemo and that I have very few side effects in the next round.  

I hope all of you have a wonderful Father's Day.  Lydia just had her 1st week of campers at Camp Geneva and I will be seeing her this evening and a bit on Sunday before she retuns for a second week with more wonderful campers who can't wait to meet their new counselor......Lydia! 

~ Kent and Leah too.

I got this!

It's been a bit since I last wrote here.  A fair amount of normal life and family things happend but very little when it comes to the medical journey.  There were just two medical events that are worth noting.

The first event was my primary doctors appointment on Thursday the 8th.  That was a follow up from my visit in the hospital.  This was bumped out one week due to the first scheduled day was on the day they did my port placement.  My meeting with him was fairly uneventful.  We talked about a few things as I head into treatment. He was disappointed to hear my cancer returned and told me he would be praying for me.  Not something you hear from doctors often but I'm glad my doc is bold enough to share it.

Friday was the day between my doctors appointment and My Pet-CT.  For the pet scan you literally starve your body of sugars by going on a very low carb diet.  It looks like eggs and cheese to your hearts content.  You can have a few veggies like green beans, broccoli and mushrooms to name a few (at least the ones I can stomach)  I get meat like chicken or ham just easy on the ham due to it being cured with Sugar.  I didn't strarve on Friday but missed the carbs in my diet. 

Saturday the 10th before most people are up, Leah and I were leaving the house to drive downtown to Lemmon Holton for the Pet Scan.  There was no valet or even people to check you in so we had to walk to the desk and call a specific number for the Pet scan people so they knew we were there.  They get you in a room and start an IV. That took some fanigalling since they got blood but had a difficult time pushing fluids.  Luckily they managed to use the IV but each time someone came and held my arm with my IV to insure fluids would go through.  How often when you are in a scan is a Nurse holding your arm asking you if you are feeling warm.  Yep that happened.  A little wierd but at least it told them the contrast was flowing through as it should.  Before the scan they inject you with an isotope infused sugar.  The tumors feed on sugar so the isotope bound to the sugar will make those tumors glow on the scan. They also have you drink oral contrast before the scan.  This all went fine and other than the nurse holding my arm in the middle, the scan went fairly normal.  One thing we got to see is the Sunrise from the second floor of Lemmon Holton.  Photo courtesy of Leah who was out in the lobby.  I cought the view of it during my scan but couldn't move my head to get a good look due to needing to be still.  Maybe this was God's way of saying it's o.k., I got this! 

After the scan we resumed a much normal diet including the things I couldn't have on Friday before the scan.  I spent some time varnishing some chairs we got for our deck.  Later at night we got ready for today and relaxed a bit before heading off to bed.

Today is a busy day.  We started by heading to the church service at Camp Geneva.  The service was one where they were comissioning the summer staff one of which is Lydia.  It was a very good service and besides seeing Lydia we also got to see and talk to some friends and extended family.  It was good to see all of you and talk with you.  We got to see Lydia's cabin which will be her home for most of the summer.  We even snapped a few photos here.  From there we needed to get Lydia's laundry in the wash, get lunch, finish laundry, drop Lydia and laundry back at camp (waiting to see campers tomorrow morning), and then head to Benjamin's Hope for church.  I play drums which I always enjoy doing and this Sunday should be full of good songs.

At this point I still don't have results from the Pet Scan and will update them here when I get the news.  The other thing I have this week is my first chemotherapy treatment. That happens Thursday morning and will continue through Saturday morning.  I'm anxious about it since I didn't love the side effects 10 years ago.  You may see a post or 2 from Leah as we get into treatment especially if I'm not feeling good. 

For this week if I could ask prayers for clean test results and for calm minds as we head into my first treament.

~ Kent

P.S. A small house keeping note.  I love seeing the posts and read them all (often). If you are posting anoymously I would love a name at the end of your message to help me know who's writing.  For those of you logging in I see your name already so we're good there.

The Tale of Two Trips.

Here starts the Tale of Two Trips.

Since we have the upcoming plan of chemo and our family will be in different places for much of the summer, we decided to hit the lantern festival at John Ball Zoo.   We drove into town after our nephew's 8th grade Graduation. Our tickets were for the entry time between 9:00 and 9:30 p.m.  We walked in and saw the many sights there were to see.  This  event ends June 11 so if you haven't been to this event I would suggest you go to see this after dusk.  It was worth going.

We walked through the lantern festival in roughly an hour and half. We then headed the 20 minute drive from the zoo back to the house. 

Lydia will be spending all summer at Camp Geneva with girls in 3rd through 6th grade. When we got home from the zoo we we gassed up my car and Lydia's car and then hauled up all of her  packings she designated for Camp Geneva. By late, we finished packing the car (packed to the gills I may add) and then went in to help  her come up with some  questions for her to put on a beach ball for an icebreaker game with her campers this summer.  After being way to tired we stumbled off to bed.  

Today (Thursday) started per usual with meds, coffee, and work.  Lydia came up mid morning and the pictures on the porch began before she left for camp.  Lydia has been a big support for both me and Leah for the last month, so while we will talk with her on weekends it will be difficult not to be able to chat with her each day.  Those girls will love you Lydia! Have a great summer! She left and I went back to work.

Just before 2 p.m. Leah and I headed back out to GR on our second trip in 2 days.  This time was to meet my new oncologist.  The time was scheduled for 2:45 p.m and we headed into the Doctors room right around that time.  It wasn't to long and my oncologist walked in the room and introduced himself.  He was very friendly and caring.  Pretty early on he asked why I was switching doctors. Primarily this was to check and see if I was o.k. with the treatment plan the previous doctor set in place.  When I told him it was a personality issue I had with the previous doctor he was understanding and clarified I was indeed o.k. with the treatement plan.  Then he went on a pretty detailed conversation of my journey history.  We talked about my Pet-ct shedule, my colonoscopy schedule, and the beginning of chemo.  He said, It's easier to move chemo than it is to move a Pet scan, so we'll use the Pet (on June 10) as our base scan.  Then we'll begin treatment 2 weeks from today (June 15) as our first chemo treatment. Our schedule will be chemo on Thursday, pump home for all of Friday and Pump removal on Saturday morning.  This will repeat every two weeks.

After walking out of our meeting with my Oncologist we all felt  the appointment went very well. This is truly an answer to prayer and while nobody wants chemo this is about as excited as I can be for havng a great Oncologist again!  Long story short is advocate for yourself!  Get the doctors you trust, because you are placing your life in their hands.

We left the doctors office after waiting what seemed like forever for our valet'ed car.  We drove home from GR and I finished up my work for a little while.  When I was  done with work we headed over to Leah's sister's house.  Today is June 1 and we were part of a larger group of people there for a rememberance of Leah's Dad who died 10 years ago today.  Many of those people are dear friends of ours and it was good to talk with them and get hugs and talk about my journey so far.  Many of them have been and continue to be so supportive in many ways.

Thanks to those of you who have prayed whether on your own or on the phone or in person with one of us.  Also thanks to Leah's coworkers for the thoughtful gifts.  They mean a lot.

Prayers for minimal to no effects from the chemo would be appreciated as I begin that process.

~Kent