A day in the office

Yesterday, I went into the office for the first time in two months to shave a friend and work colleague's head. Dean found inspiration from all the head shaving parties that my friends and I participated in over the last month and wanted to do it as well. He came up with the idea of raising money to shave his head. At Wells Fargo, during the month of September, we have the Community Support Campaign, where team members donate money and their volunteer time to their favorite charities through various fundraising activities and community service events. It is the largest employee giving campaign in the U.S. Dean decided he would help raise money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society on my behalf. Word quickly spread throughout the office and everyone to contribute to not only a worthy cause but to also see Dean with no hair! He was able to raise over $1,000 and so yesterday, I went into the office to do the honors. I bought new clippers just for the occasion!

Dean and I pose after his head shaving.
You can view the video of the head shaving at the link below 

When I arrived at the office, everyone was there in a conference room to greet me. It was such a nice surprise to see everyone. They had turned out to see this "historic" event and to see me. Although somewhat strange to be back in the office after so long, it was really good to see everyone and I got the opportunity to catch up with some of them.

Although I have missed being at work and missed seeing my work colleagues, I have decided that it's in my best interests to continue my short term disability. I have come to this conclusion after much considerable thought. I'm not even half way through my chemo treatment yet and I still have no idea how well it's going. I think it's going well- I feel fine, my doctors tell me I'm doing well and I've had relatively few side effects from the chemo treatment- but we don't know if the tumor is shrinking or not. It won't be till after my fourth chemo treatment (I'm doing my third one this Friday) that they'll give me a PET scan to see my progress so right now, that will happen towards the end of October. I think it would be better to wait until my scan results and reassess from there if I'm ready to go back to work. I figure I'll be working for another 20 years (hopefully only 15 if all goes well), so why try to rush back in after only a few months when my treatment isn't over yet. I do feel guilty about not going back especially after I told my boss I thought I was well enough to go back but I reminded myself that it's a time for me to be selfish-- my health is my #1 priority and there really should be nothing selfish about focusing on one's health! My treatment has been going well it seems because I have a good routine going and I want to be able to keep that up and continue to focus on my health.
Fortunately, I work for a really good company that values its team members and I have a great team that's been very supportive. After I told my manager this, he was very understanding and agreed that we should reassess things after my scan and go from there. 
So...as I have another month to go, I hope I'll continue to have walking partners and lunch buddies to keep me company as I reach almost the halfway point of my journey.

Link to head shaving:
https://plus.google.com/u/0/photos/111698211915376682526/albums/6200153795931289473/6200153798735427058?pid=6200153798735427058&oid=111698211915376682526&authkey=CMnfy6Tx4NWDlQE

V for visitors, diet choices, and Light the Night walk

It's been almost two months since I first went in to see my doctor for my stomach symptoms which then set off the chain of events but it doesn't feel all that long ago. Sometimes I still catch myself looking in the mirror at my bald head and slimmer face and think wow...I can't believe I have cancer. It's still surreal to me that this is what I have and it seems the last two months have been just a dream. But it's only a fleeting moment before reality sets back in. This is what I have and this is what I have to live with for the rest of my life. But I try to keep positive about it and remind myself that there are thousands of people living with lymphoma who've been able to put it into remission and live quite normal lives and when the disease comes back, they just go in and treat it again with other treatment options. The good thing about my disease is that 1) there are a variety of effective treatment options available ranging from chemo to radiation therapy and 2) I have time on my side and there's so much research being done on lymphoma and many clinical trials occurring right now so that by the next time it comes back, I'll have hopefully even better treatment options. Al I can do is hope and staying positive and having the right attitude goes a long way in beating the disease.

Since my diagnosis, I've been off of work on short term disability. During this time, I've had a lot of time to really focus on my health and taking care of my body by exercising and eating right. I've enjoyed the time off as I've kept myself extremely busy and I've had visitors come by almost every day to be my walking partner or to go to lunch with me. On a side note, my lunch options are somewhat limited due to my restricted diet of no sodium, no fried food, no processed food, no foods high in potassium and phosphorous, and no dairy, so it's a lot of salads and plain grilled chicken and fish. It's funny-- now that I've cut out sodium almost entirely from my diet (it's almost virtually impossible to cut out sodium unless you cut out every food option available in a supermarket...even bread and cereal has sodium in it!!), I can totally taste the salt, soy sauce or fish sauce in any dish now even just by trying a little bit of it. My taste buds are used to just eating bland food! It kinda sucks as I do miss eating regular food-- a slice of pizza or a nice, big fat piece of prime rib-eye-- but I've been very good at sticking to my diet regimen. While people make good lifestyle choices to eat healthy like being a vegan or a vegetarian, I simply don't have much a of a choice as I only have one kidney and I want to keep that one remaining kidney as healthy as possible. In the long-run, I know it's good for my overall health, but it's definitely not easy maintaining it especially when we're going out to eat at a restaurant. This is why I eat a lot of home cooked meals. More recently, I discovered Munchery.com as a good friend gave me a gift card and I tried it for the first time this past week and the food was really good and healthy. For people looking for an easy healthy meal without having to go through the hassle of cooking, I really recommend it. Hmm...perhaps I should reach out to them and ask them for a cut or at least a gift card for promoting their services?!

Anyways, back to the visitors. I've appreciated every person that's come by to visit- whether to say hello to check up on me, drop off food, or be my walking partner, it's great to have all this support and makes my day go by a lot faster.

As my treatment seems to be going really well (as far as I can tell), I've decided to return to work following my third chemo treatment next Friday. By then, I'll have been through halfway with my cycles and as the first two's aftermath went well, I feel going back to work will bring back some normalcy to my life. I've already told my manager of my decision but also told him that I had to have some flexibility with my work schedule and be able to work from home a couple times a week and avoid commuting following chemo on days where my immune system is at its weakest. The thought of being on the ferry or wedged in on BART with hundreds of other people is fairly scary-- any sneeze or cough could be detrimental to my health. So some people ask why risk it at all? Why not take the whole time off until your treatment is over with? I know I do have that as an option as I could go on short-term disability for the duration of my treatment (you can get up to 6 months of leave) but again, I think going back to work will bring back some normalcy to my life. Who knows...maybe I'll find that I just can't handle the stress from the madness of work (and it really is madness...some of the things my partners and the people I support ask of me) but the good news is that I can go back on disability if I find out that I can't handle being back. So I'm gonna give it a try and see how it goes...

Last update for today and this is a shameless plug for supporting my campaign-- I made a vow to myself that once I was done with my lymphoma treatemnt that I would get involved with the Team in Training events sponsored by LLS.org but since the earliest one until next year is the Nike Women's Half Marathon which I shouldn't be participating in not because I'm a male but because I'm not supposed to be running at this time, the closet thing I found which I'm able to do is the Light the Night walk in San Francisco on November 12. I'm looking for any support--whether to donate to my modest total fundraising goal of $1,000 or to join my team and walk with me that night-- any help or support is much appreciated. You can learn more about the walk and support me here: http://pages.lightthenight.org/gba/SanFran15/DLou Thanks in advance and I hope that some of you can join me on that day and walk to raise more awareness about lymphoma.

Cycle Two done- one third of the way through

I completed my second cycle last Friday and this time, it went fine with no incidences. It probably helped that I had a different nurse this time around and she said that she would make sure that nothing would happen on her watch. To counteract the pain I had experienced the last time around during chemo, she gave me pain and antihistamine medication upfront and so this time around, I did not get the chills and lower back pain as before and everything went smoothly. The only "pain" I experienced was being on the phone with Comcast and trying to get them to turn on my Red Zone Package for the start of the NFL season!

We also ended much earlier this time around too and I got out at 230pm. After the chemo, I felt very foggy which I contributed to all the different drugs that had been pumped into me. They pump so much liquid drugs into my system that I usually gain about 5 lbs after my chemo session. (I weighed in at 146 pre-chemo and was at 151 later on that day. Today I'm back at 146).

The morning after my chemo (Saturday), I woke up and felt fine. Like the first cycle, I did not experience any nausea (thank goodness!) or any headaches. I did have some fatigue but I just forced myself to wake up and try to go about my daily activities. I guess I'm one of the fortunate ones that do not have to experience the negative side effects of chemo following each session. I still have yet to take my Compazine medicine (drug to alleviate nausea) that they gave me after my first cycle. So, all in all, I would say that I've been responding well to my chemo treatment and I'm now 1/3 of the way through with my treatment regimen. I just hope that it continues to be this way where I have little side effects, I have strength to walk and exercise every day and I don't get sick from having a weaker immune system. I worry about when the weather turns colder and flu season comes around but I will just have to be extra diligent about not being exposed to people who may be sick.

The other big highlight from last week was that I got my nephrostomy tube exchanged. I had a tube inserted into my kidney (which started the whole process which led to my diagnosis) due to the tumor growth which blocked my ureter and caused my bladder to not function as well. The nephrostomy tube helps me pee and I have to get it exchanged every 6 weeks. So, I haven't really had the urge to go pee at all since the tube was doing all the work so for the couple weeks, I had no use of my bladder at all. Well, after about 1.5 weeks after my first chemo session, I found that I could actually go to the bathroom! I know none of us would ever think such a trivial thing as going to the bathroom to pee would be a great feeling but if you haven't been able to pee for about two weeks, let me tell you, it really is a great feeling! It just felt natural to once again go to the bathroom the normal way! I was overjoyed that I could once again pee but that joy didn't last too long as I then got the UTI. Probably from not having much use of my bladder and also it's a common side effect of chemo as well. But since being on antibiotics, I'm fine again now. I still have the tube- even though I'm able to pee again (which is a great sign that the tumor is shrinking and causing less blockage of the ureter) the doctors recommended that I keep the tube in for the entire duration of my chemo treatment so that my kidney can continue to heal further. I don't mind having it in there; it's just an inconvenience (especially when I have to take a bath) but I'm used to it now. A small inconvenience and a price to pay on my road to recovery.

I wanted to recognize that today is World Lymphoma Day and September 15 is a day dedicated to raising awareness of lymphoma. Before I was diagnosed with lymphoma, I did not know much about the disease at all and I'm not alone. From Wikipedia:

"Lymphoma is increasing  in incidence and is a potentially life-threatening disease. One million people worldwide live with lymphoma and nearly 1,000 people are diagnosed with the disease every day, but there continues to be very little awareness of the signs and symptoms of lymphoma.
New international survey results show that:

• When asked if they know their nodes, only half (49 percent) of people said they know what nodes do
• Although most respondents have heard of lymphoma, 52 percent of people know very little or nothing about it
• Two-thirds (67 percent) of respondents did not know lymphoma is a type of cancer and that it has one of the fastest growing incidence rates worldwide
• 90 percent of people do not think enough is being done to fund lymphoma research

Increasing awareness of lymphoma will allow people around the world to better recognize its signs and symptoms, leading to earlier diagnosis and more timely treatment. Greater awareness will also empower patients and their families to demand specialist treatment and care from qualified lymphoma physicians as well as gain access to the most up-to-date information, support and treatment."

Every day, I learn more and more people have been diagnosed with lymphoma- a high school friend, a friend's coworker, a coworker's husband, a friend of a friend, etc. Lymphoma is on the rise and is affecting younger people too and the more we know about the disease, the better we can recognize the early signs and combat it. You can learn more about lymphoma by visiting the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society http://www.lls.org/ or the Lymphoma Research Foundation www.lymphoma.org

I am going to my support group meeting tonight and we're all going to wear red to celebrate lymphoma day. I'll post pics later on.

Updates since last week

Last week, I continued to make really good progress on my treatment but I also experienced my first minor setback. First, the good news. I went in to see my oncologist last Tuesday. He wanted to schedule a visit being that it was my first chemo session and he wanted to see how I was doing following the first cycle. They told me that 8-10 days following chemo is when my white blood cell count is at its lowest meaning my immune system is at its weakest and I could be easily prone to infection (this is the reason why we flew back from Cancun a day earlier and I wore a mask on the plane the whole time). I drew blood work the day before my visit and we reviewed the results together. Based on my test results, my oncologists was very pleased with how things were going. He said that while my white blood cell count dropped, it dropped just below the cusp of what the lowest normal range should be. That means I was not losing that many white blood cells or they were able to recover faster. My red blood cell count was normal and so were my platelets count. Based on that, plus the minimal side effects I've experienced, he said that my treatment plan is going better than he expected! This was really good news and a small minor victory in my journey.

Two days later though, I came down with chills and a slight fever. The nurses in the oncology department told me that if I developed a fever to call them right away. However, it was at 2am in the morning. They were closed at that time and the only person around would be the general advice nurse and I knew if I called her, she'd say to go to the emergency room. And if I went to the ER at 2am, I'd be looking at a 3 hour wait time, not to mention all the potential germs I might contract just waiting in the ER room. I decided that it wasn't worth my time calling so I took a Tylenol instead and hoped that the fever would go away. I had a pretty restless night that night but when morning came, the fever did subside and I took another Tylenol. I emailed my oncologist about the fever and he said that if I wasn't experiencing any other cold/flu-like symptoms other than the fever, than it's probably an immune reaction to the cancer cells dying (a good thing he said). Since the fever had subsided, then he wasn't too worried about me having to come in to see him. I also called the oncology nurse and she agreed that it probably was a good thing I didn't call the advice nurse and go to the ER room. But they did tell me to call them (during business hours) if I experienced any other fever-like symptoms. So, while I had one restless night, the fever went away and I was totally fine by the afternoon. I also got a UTI infection (also from the chemo side effects) but I will save it for another blog story. They gave me antibiotics for it and I'm fine now. So, all in all, not bad for my first two weeks following chemo. If this is an indication of how the rest of the cycles will be, then I should be able to breeze through this in no time!

Over the weekend, a few other friends came by to visit me and we had another Head Shaving Party Part Deux. This time, my "poker crew" friends (a mix of college and post-college friends) also wanted to get in the action and support me on my journey. Half of them had never shaved their heads before so to me, it definitely showed how far each was willing to go to show their support and solidarity for me. I totally appreciated it and I must say, that everyone looks pretty good with a bald head. Maybe I can start a new trend?! Since the wives of these guys weren't that courageous enough to shave their heads (I don't blame them at all), they decided instead to grow their hair out so that they can donate it to Locks of Love. What a great idea! It just goes to show that there are many different ways that my friends are showing their support of me going through cancer treatment; whether it's shaving or growing out their hair, coming by to visit or to bring me food, calling or messaging me, or being my walking partner, I've certainly appreciated everything thus far that everyone has done for me. So again, thank  you to everyone for their support. It's great to know that I do not have to go through this journey alone and seeing everyone's support gives me the strength to journey on.

Head shaving party!

Like most other cancer patients, the chemotherapy regimen that I'm on will result in my hair falling out, not just on my head but pretty much everywhere on my entire body. Rather than wait for the progression to happen (they say it usually falls out within three weeks), I have decided to do it on my own terms and shave my head now rather than wait for the inevitable. Since the last time I shaved my head was 6 years ago with my friend Ken (we took turns shaving each other's heads really out of boredom), naturally I asked him again if he wanted to join in with me and maybe we can start a head shaving party. When my other high school friends heard about it, they also wanted to get in on the action. So, this past Sunday, Tommy, Brian and Ken came over my house and we set up shop in my backyard and took turns shaving each other's head with our own brand of design before finishing off the final touches. Another guy, Andrew, lives in San Diego and couldn't make it but we'll be shaving his head this weekend sometime. I've known these guys since high school and we've been the closest of friends since then. We've been through thick and thin; we've been to each other's college graduation ceremonies; we've been groomsmen at each other's weddings; and we've taken family trips together. These guys have always been there for me and continue to be there for me, just like so many of my other close friends. They've been very supportive of treatment thus far, and here now they were willing to shave their heads too to support me. The ironic thing is that I used to see news reports and online articles about friends shaving their heads to support other friends going through cancer, most recently the entire Cleveland Indians team shaving their heads to support a teammate's daughter's cancer treatment, and I would think to myself, if one of my friends was diagnosed with cancer, I would most definitely shave my head as well in support of them. I never once thought that it would be me that would be the patient and that my friends around me would be the ones shaving their heads in support of me.

I'm not afraid to lose my hair. It's the least of my concerns. I've had my head shaved numerous times before so it's not a big deal to me. Just this time around though, it's going to be a little bit closer to the scalp (i.e. completely bald). They say that once you go through chemo, your hair grows back differently; many people experienced curlier and darker hair. Who knows...maybe my hair will go back all black and I can shake this Reed Richards moniker?!

Since I posted a pic of our shaven heads on Facebook (my first post in a year), I have received many emails and texts from other friends wanting to do the same. It's such a great feeling to see how many people care and are so supportive of me! So, this upcoming weekend, I'm going to have a head shaving party part deux with another group of friends. #baldisbeautiful
If anyone else wants to join me, I've got my clippers ready to go, so just give me a holla!