John and His Drugs (by John)

Folks:

It occurred to me this morning that I need to update people on what's going on with me, especially since it's been an adventurous past few days.

I went in last Wednesday for my normal chemotherapy, and blood work discovered that my potassium was quite low. I wound up staying at the hospital for about 9 hours while some IV potassium ran in.

But Dr. Suh (my oncologist) also showed us a CT scan of my chest which showed a 1.1 cm. x 1.2 cm. nodule in my lower left pleura. Without doing a biopsy, we don't know for sure what that nodule is, but she had to go on the assumption that it was cancerous, even though I am doing much, much better than I was before chemotherapy. Dr. Suh decided to switch one of my chemo drugs from Alimta to Taxol. Taxol has a different mechanism of action on cancer cells than Alimta, and she thought that the difference would be something to try. So Friday last I got my first infusion with the Taxol. Turns out that the emulsifier for the Taxol causes an allergic reaction in about 30% of people, and I was one of them. So I got to spend the rest of the day stoned on Benadryl, and slept real well Friday night.

The upside of the Taxol is that I don't have the crushing fatigue that I did on Alimta. I bounced back pretty quickly, and was able to go to church on Sunday, something I would not have been able to do on the Alimta. There is some joint pain associated with the Taxol, but it's nothing I can't live with.

That's it for now. Thanks again for your prayers and thoughts.

John

John Has PET Scan - Jethro Wonders Why He was Left Out

Folks:

I had that PET scan on Wednesday. The results were, well, rather neutral. The lesion in my left lung has decreased in size, but there it still evidence of cancer in my left ribs, and right hip. Also, there is a lesion (1 cm. by 1 cm.) on my left pleura, which my oncologist, Dr. Suh, is trying to decide what to make of. She is consulting with the Goshen Hospital radiologists, and her former colleagues at the University of Houston (where she did her fellowship) to get some answers, and possibly some new direction for my chemotherapy.

Joan also has an interesting thought about all this. I had X-rays of the chest done in February before surgery on my throat, and there was no evidence of anything growing in my lungs. Yet by April, I was definitely symptomatic for cancer. This says that the cancer was pretty fast-growing. Since there was a six-week gap between the diagnosis of my cancer and the beginning of my chemotherapy, who knows how much the cancer had grown? In other words, the cancer my be responding well to the chemotherapy, and what we are seeing on the PET scan on Wednesday is actually a great improvement over what was really there in August. We'll never know, because the gap between my PET scan in July and the start of treatment in August was too great.

One last thing: as Joan puts it, Dr. Suh is confused by the PET scan, but happy with the organism! The organism is, of course, me, and she (and Joan) are happy with the progress I have made in getting back to work, getting some strength back, and overall improving every week. It seems that no matter what the PET scan shows, I am getting better. And that's great news.

Thanks for your prayers and concerns. I just wanted to give you all and update.

John

John Goes to Work (by John)

Folks:

Just wanted to let you know that I was blessed to get to another milestone in my recovery from CHF and cancer: I went back to work at Panera yesterday! I did well, even though due to a few call-offs and something the AM needed to do, I wound up staying 2 and 1/2 hours extra (total of 7.5 instead of 5). It went well, though I was tired when I got home last night.

I am only working 3 days per week, and about 15-16 hours total per week until I get my stamina back, But getting to work at all was a first big step, and I am looking forward to what will happen as my strength at work grows.

The next big event will be October 12th, which is when I will be receiving a Positron Emission Test to check what the chemotherapy has done for me (or, conversely, not done). I will let everyone know the results soon after I do.

Thanks for your continued prayers and support.

John

John Speaks for Himself (by John)

Hello, all:

This is John. Just a brief update on me tonight, as there is not a whole lot to say.

What is happening right now is slow recovery. The mild congestive heart failure and the chemotherapy have made me weak (starting in July), and recovery is a slow process. I'm just working on gaining strength, and as you all know, that's slow, tedious work.

Later this week should provide a good test of how far I've come. Joan and I will be flying down on Thursday afternoon to see our foster daughter, son-in-law, and grandkids in Key Largo, Florida. This visit will involve the longest time I have been away from home since I was in the hospital in late July, and will be full of activities, interpersonal interactions with someone other than Joan, and a good deal of walking. I'm interested to see how I will do with all this. We will be returning on the 20th.

That's about it for now. My second chemotherapy went well last week. Thanks for all your continued love and prayers.

John

John Comes Home to His TV (and his wife)

John got home this evening and is looking forward to sleeping off his time in the hospital. He came home on oxygen, and the nice set-up man just left. He has an oxygen concentrator (which pulls oxygen out of the air instead of using a tank of liquid oxygen), and can fill 2 small tanks from that. Each will give him 2 hours worth of oxygen, so he can leave the house for 4 hours at a time. The oxygen should be a temporary thing. He's still holding over 15 pounds of water - as that comes off, we expect him to breathe much better. So he's on Lasix to get the water off.

Biopsy results should be in any day now; as soon as we have it chemo will start. In the meantime John's job is to get rested up. Jethro will stay at the vet until Friday, when we will begin the adventure of having a puppy and oxygen equipment in the same house. We have lots of extra tubing in case he decides to chew it. And there's always duct tape. He'll be so absorbed in Daddy that it may take him a while to notice anything else; John will have a lap full of 50 pounds of excited dog!

What John is most excited about is having our home satellite TV and his own bed. He's enjoying the first and is ready to try the second. So we're off to sleep. Have a good night, everybody!

The Burg Cavalry Arrives Just in Time

Hi, everybody!

Sorry about the news gap - there just hasn't been any news until today. John got his chest tubes out today, got up and walked in the hall 3 times, and will go home tomorrow if his chest X-ray is okay in the morning. His left pleural space seems nicely cleaned out; we hope this will put an end to the twice-weekly pleural effusions. We don't have word back on the biopsy yet. Results should come in some time this week, but may be as late as early next week. I'll pass it on as soon as we know something. When we find out what we're dealing with they will start chemo ASAP.

For those of you that have been worrying, I'm doing fine. I'm not staying at the hospital too much - for one thing, John won't take naps when I'm there. It seems he likes to talk to me. Who knew. ;) So I've been ducking in and out so he can get rested up a bit. I'm eating and sleeping and all that good stuff, and feeling fine. The Goshen Hospital food is very good, and they have a by-the-pound salad bar. Today they had cookies, jigsaw puzzles, and conversation in the lounge for families, so I met a few people and got some puzzle time in. And ate a sugar cookie straight from the oven.

Thanks so much for all your messages, calls, and cards. They help more than you can ever know.

And special thanks to Jim & Audora Burg, who came over today and mowed the lawn, trimmed some bushes, and rescued the flower beds from the weeds. (I can't mow for the rest of the summer because of the broken collarbone.) It took a lot of courage to face our yard. It was a mess. And gluten-free chocolate cake is wonderful; Andy is right. Thanks so much!

I'm off to bed, so to all a good night. Love you all!

John Will Finally Get Fixed

Good evening! I'm here at a more reasonable time today.

John was admitted to Goshen Hospital this morning with another pleural effusion, had a liter and a half drained from his left lung, and feels much better. He still has a good bit of left-over blood and clots from the biopsy, so on Friday he'll have surgery to get it all cleaned out. This should put a stop to this cycle of going into the hospital twice a week, which would be very good.

He will be taking a LOA from work, since he may have to take a few weeks off to recover from the surgery. If we pick up the extra cost during the LOA he will keep his insurance - a clear priority right now! The financial picture isn't so good. But none of us have had good financial news in ages, so we're used to that, right?

John will be in the hospital for about a week this time, so I'll call the vet in the morning and get Jethro boarded for that time. Then I won't have to worry about getting home before his bladder reaches it's puppy-limit, and he won't be depressed about why Daddy's not home. Being boarded is vacation time for him. (June, if you read this tonight, I'll be calling you in the morning!)

I'll keep you all posted. Have a good evening!