Good morning folks,
As you can tell by the time stamp on this email, I'm wound up on steroids from chemo last night, and although I slept pretty well, I have a bit of a drug-induced buzz going this morning, so please forgive any incoherence ;-}.
Doctor visit: As many of you saw from my Facebook posting yesterday, we got good news from the oncologist. I had another PET scan (click here for more info) on Thursday, and the results showed that the lymph node under my collar bone now has NO evidence of malignancy -- the previous scan labeled it as a pretty significant site, so this is fantastic progress. The adrenal gland on my left side also showed very little activity; the right side still showed some activity, but had improved since the last scan -- both were low grade activity to begin with. The primary tumor, at the junction of my esophagus and stomach had gone from an intensity of 12 down to a 7: almost half, on the PET scale. The only bit of bad news was a new lymph node that popped up near the primary tumor -- again, it's low grade, and the doctor said we'd just need to keep an eye on it. For now, it appears to fall under the "annoyance" heading.
The further good news is that he wants to do another PET in just a month, and if things continue in the direction they're headed, we may be able to start radiation at that time. That's at least a month earlier than the previous (admittedly tentative) plan. Other tests were also good -- all the blood work came back as really good. My white blood cell counts are still low for a normal person, but the Neupogen has tripled my count (to give you an idea how low it was to begin with), thereby putting me back into the low-normal range. Nutrition tests/weight/etc all look good too. The nutritionist was very pleased that my weight has rebounded and held steady after its initial precipitous decline.
Acupuncture: I've had lots of questions about my acupuncture experience. I have to say that the jury is still deliberating, but 8 of the 12 jurors are leaning toward pronouncing it effective. I had acupuncture treatments before and after my last chemo treatment, and it was the easiest chemo yet. The nausea was less, and it took longer for the side effects to manifest. I also had a lot of other factors that changed from the previous treatment, hence, I'm remaining skeptical, but open minded and continuing to take the acupuncture treatments. Hopefully after a couple more chemo sessions I'll be able to give a meaningful verdict.
Hair: if I'm still losing it, I can't tell -- it's very slow. I still have it clipped to about 1/2" on my head, and it bothers me much less than it did at first. Whereas I didn't leave the house without a head covering for the first couple of weeks, now I routinely forget and wander out in public, sporting my somewhat shiny head. I suspect that when the weather turns chilly, I'll re-evaluate that philosophy quickly. ;-}
In sum, things are moving in the right direction -- the news from the doc was about the best we were hoping for. I'm still working a full schedule at work (albeit some weird hours), and I hope you can tell my spirits are still good. I have a down day every now and then, but for the most part, I'm plugging along, and still snarky whenever I get a chance ;-}
I can't thank you all enough for your encouragement, visits, thoughts, prayers, videos, cards, taffy, cookies, muffins, and support. This is a marathon, not a sprint, and we still have a long way to go, but I'm feeling my second wind, and I'm confident that Coach Marcus and all you folks on my support team will get me to the finish line and the good health that lies beyond. (Did I just use a sports analogy? Oye)
Take care y'all -- much love to each of you,
James
As you can tell by the time stamp on this email, I'm wound up on steroids from chemo last night, and although I slept pretty well, I have a bit of a drug-induced buzz going this morning, so please forgive any incoherence ;-}.
Doctor visit: As many of you saw from my Facebook posting yesterday, we got good news from the oncologist. I had another PET scan (click here for more info) on Thursday, and the results showed that the lymph node under my collar bone now has NO evidence of malignancy -- the previous scan labeled it as a pretty significant site, so this is fantastic progress. The adrenal gland on my left side also showed very little activity; the right side still showed some activity, but had improved since the last scan -- both were low grade activity to begin with. The primary tumor, at the junction of my esophagus and stomach had gone from an intensity of 12 down to a 7: almost half, on the PET scale. The only bit of bad news was a new lymph node that popped up near the primary tumor -- again, it's low grade, and the doctor said we'd just need to keep an eye on it. For now, it appears to fall under the "annoyance" heading.
The further good news is that he wants to do another PET in just a month, and if things continue in the direction they're headed, we may be able to start radiation at that time. That's at least a month earlier than the previous (admittedly tentative) plan. Other tests were also good -- all the blood work came back as really good. My white blood cell counts are still low for a normal person, but the Neupogen has tripled my count (to give you an idea how low it was to begin with), thereby putting me back into the low-normal range. Nutrition tests/weight/etc all look good too. The nutritionist was very pleased that my weight has rebounded and held steady after its initial precipitous decline.
Acupuncture: I've had lots of questions about my acupuncture experience. I have to say that the jury is still deliberating, but 8 of the 12 jurors are leaning toward pronouncing it effective. I had acupuncture treatments before and after my last chemo treatment, and it was the easiest chemo yet. The nausea was less, and it took longer for the side effects to manifest. I also had a lot of other factors that changed from the previous treatment, hence, I'm remaining skeptical, but open minded and continuing to take the acupuncture treatments. Hopefully after a couple more chemo sessions I'll be able to give a meaningful verdict.
Hair: if I'm still losing it, I can't tell -- it's very slow. I still have it clipped to about 1/2" on my head, and it bothers me much less than it did at first. Whereas I didn't leave the house without a head covering for the first couple of weeks, now I routinely forget and wander out in public, sporting my somewhat shiny head. I suspect that when the weather turns chilly, I'll re-evaluate that philosophy quickly. ;-}
In sum, things are moving in the right direction -- the news from the doc was about the best we were hoping for. I'm still working a full schedule at work (albeit some weird hours), and I hope you can tell my spirits are still good. I have a down day every now and then, but for the most part, I'm plugging along, and still snarky whenever I get a chance ;-}
I can't thank you all enough for your encouragement, visits, thoughts, prayers, videos, cards, taffy, cookies, muffins, and support. This is a marathon, not a sprint, and we still have a long way to go, but I'm feeling my second wind, and I'm confident that Coach Marcus and all you folks on my support team will get me to the finish line and the good health that lies beyond. (Did I just use a sports analogy? Oye)
Take care y'all -- much love to each of you,
James
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