Almost Back to Normal

This past Monday, I took a normal shower for the first time in 4.5 months and it felt great! It felt great just to be able to stand under a shower head and not have to worry about covering parts of my body up. Last Friday I had my nephrostomy tube removed which allowed me to take normal showers again. It was a simple and quick procedure and lasted all of ten mintues. I was really happy to be rid of my tube and "pee bag". The urologist was almost recommending that we keep the catheter in and just put a cap on it in case there was a reason to put the tube back in but I was adamant about taking it out. I was all done with chemo and my "plumbing" seems to be working just fine so it was more than time to take the tube out. I was happy that it served a vital part of my chemo treatment and helped my kidney process the drugs and what not but I will not miss having the tube in my kidney. It really does feel good to not have an extra appendage and not have to worry about sleeping awkwardly on it or worry that the bag might leak (I've had a few horror stories about leakage most notably on the flight back from Cancun and I feel bad for whoever had to sit on my seat on the next flight). With the tube and bag out, it feels like everything is almost back to normal. My tumor is gone, my chemo is done, my bag is out, and my hair and eyebrows are starting to grow back out. I'm back to work full time and it feels like I haven't really left at all. I guess there's really nothing wrong at all with getting back into the routine of things. The first thing I wanted once I started treatement was for everything to be normal again and I think I'm almost there now...

I saw my neprologist today and he was pleased with my progress. The kidney is fine and I really don't have to worry about it anymore. I just need to maintain my healthy and strict diet and get plenty of exercise and I'll be fine. Just one more visit on Jan 14 for my bone marrow biopsy and that should be the last of the hospital visits and then it will be just routine check ups from there.

2015 was not the greatest year for me but despite my diagnosis and the challenging treatment I went through, I'm still thankful and grateful for everything that I have. The thing about cancer is that it makes you realize that it can take everything away from you that you hold precious and it also makes you appreciate everything so much more. I am thankful that I have good health, my family, my friends, and everyone else that has touched me on my journey. Without everyone's support, I don't think I would have fared as well as I have. Thank you everyone...and I mean that sincerely from the bottom of my heart.

All done!

Last Friday, December 11, I finished the sixth and last cycle of my chemotheraphy. It was a rough one as I've been nauseous the last few days. They say that the side effects are cumulative and gets worse after each session and I think there's truth to that as I ended up in the hospital after my fifth session and now I'm experiencing more nausea than normal (I've actually had to take my second anti-nausea medicine for the first time...never had to use it before this past session). But you know what, some nausea is not going to dampen my spirits because I'm all done!!! No more chemo sessions after this and hopefully for a very very very long time! I'm really relieved that I'm all done with my treatment and aside from a few daily injections of neuprogen to boost my white blood cell count, I won't have to sit in that reclining chemo chair anymore.

It's such a huge relief, but that might be an understatement. It's been a grueling up and down roller coaster journey the last 4.5 months but I am finally near the end of my cancer journey and can finally see everything winding down. Fairly soon, I can get back on track with living a normal life. There are just a few more steps I have to take...the first being getting the nephrostomy tube out of me (which will happen this Friday) and then getting my bone marrow biopsy around the first week of January to confirm that the lymphoma is also gone from there as well. Taking the tube out will be another milestone in and of itself as I've had that thing in since end of July and I am excited about my procedure on Friday. After that, I'll be able to take my first shower in almost five months!

Now that I'm all done with treatment, I'll be celebrating this Christmas and come New Year's Eve, I'll be able to have my first glass of wine. I'm really looking forward to that! My wine fridge is stocked so anyone want to celebrate with me, just drop me a line and come on over!

Thank you everyone for your love and support! I have many more thank yous to write but will save that for another post.

Three Days in the Hospital

So I spent my Thanksgiving weekend in the hospital at Kaiser Oakland. Not quite how I envisioned I'd spend my Thanksgiving weekend. It's not that I was looking forward to spending it on a shopping spree and partake in Black Friday and Cyber Monday in all its glory (I stay as far away from any shopping until 2 days before Christmas) but being hospitalized wasn't also on my agenda. Rewind to the Wednesday right before Thanksgiving. It was my first week back at work (yes, I am back at work) and I had been in the office the first two days. I decided to work from home on the third day given that Thanksgiving was the day after and also, being only my first week back at work, I wanted to take it easy and not overdo it. Well, I started experiencing some pain in my lower abdomen and that pain progressivley got worse to the point that by Thanksgiving Day, I had trouble moving around. It really hurt every time I got up to walk around or move my body in any way. I suspected it might be something bad because I had not experienced that much pain before but I just tried to deal with it. We had Thanksgiving dinner at my friend's inlaw's place ( I have been celebrating Thanksgiving with my friend since junior year in high school and now we celebrate it with his inlaws) but by Friday morning, the pain had gotten worse. I called up my doctor and went in to see her the same day.

She wasn't sure what was wrong with me so she had me do a series of blood tests and while we waited for the results, she ordered a CT scan to be performed on me. By Friday evening, we got some of the blood tests back (it showed that my white blood cell count was almost non-existent) and the CT scan cambe back normal, yet they still were not sure what was wrong with me. By this time, in addition to the lower abdominal pain, I had also developed a fever. My temperature was 101. Because of the combination of those two things, they didn't want me exposed to any more germs or infections due to my very weak immune system so my doctor recommended that I be admitted to the ER and hospitalized. Just great. I was admitted at 530pm Friday evening and after another round of blood tests and two IV lines (they couldn't get the first IV line to work- suprise, suprise) later, I was moved to a regular room. They told me that I would be staying overnight at the least until they figured out what was wrong with me. They suspected I had some type of infection and therefore, I was put on antibiotics and pain medication. The pain medication was to reduce my fever. They also gave me neupogen shots which would help boost my white blood cell count and heparin injections (blood thinners) which they shot into my stomach. I've never been injected in the stomach beofore and it was not pleasant at all (it hurt like  hell).

It was my first time ever staying overnight in a hospital. I wasn't really sure what to make of it except to think that there were probably far worse reasons to be hospitalized other than an infection and a fever so I probably should consider myself lucky.

The next day, they ran more tests on me and drew more blood. They also told me that it would be at least Monday before I was released. I still had my fever which kept on coming in and out. However, by Sunday morning, it was all gone. I tried to make the most out of my hospital stay...it did give me an opportunity to watch all the football I wanted-- colllege on Saturday and NFL on Sunday, so I guess that was a silver lining. The hospital food was crap (has anyone ever had good hospital food??!), so I had to ask my wife and friends who visited to bring me food. By Sunday evening, they confirmed that it was indeed an infection and that it was a bladder infection. I was still on antibiotics but now at least, it was more targetted towards my specific infection. They prescribed me a take-home antibiotic which I would need to take for the next two weeks.

During my entire three days stay, I was pricked a total of 14 times- between the IV lines, injections, and blood draws. I could literally (and visibly) count all the pricks on my arms and stomach! I'd be lying to say that my hospital stay was pleasant but at least, they found out what was wrong with me and had a plan of action to make me bettter. The nurses and doctors that took care of me were all very nice, so all in all, it wasn't a terrible experience.

I'm just glad to be back at home now and recovering. The only sucky thing was that because I was hospitalized, my oncologist (who by the way, was one of the doctors that visited me in the hospital. Apparenntly, he also does hospital rounds and this explains why he's never there during my chemo days!) recommended that I postpone my last chemo session to the following week just so that I could heal a bit more. It wasn't the best news but what he recommended made sense to me. It's just a small hiccup in the road but I really can see the end of my journey nearing. One more session to go! I've got my calendar penned in for December 11 and I'll update my blog thereafter.

My hospital bed and room which I called home for 3 days