Welcome to the Geller House of Germs

Admission: Two.

Hello all! I know it's been awhile since we checked in, so I wanted to say hi and give everyone an update. Scott is hanging in there, but as the title implies, he's been sick. He caught a cold back on the 11th and is still fighting it. I caught his cold several days after him, and as it goes with me, It promptly moved into Bronchitis. I was able to get better after several days, but Scott isn't so lucky. With the chemo, he doesn't have the immune system to fight a cold like the rest of us do. So here it is, day 11, and he's still coughing all the time. I feel horrible for him - it hurts so much to keep coughing like that. He's going to see Dr. Fernandez in the morning, but will be postponing next week's inpatient treatment for a week. He's barely gotten more than a few hours of sleep at a time since getting sick and he really needs to get better before more chemo. I'm really hoping Dr. F can give him something much stronger to help him fight it. He says he's taken Tylenol with Codeine cough syrup once before and it knocked him out so much that his then roommates all had to pick him up and carry him into his room - God help me if that happens again!

Please say a prayer and keep your fingers crossed for him that he feels better soon.

One of us will update again after tomorrow's doctor appointment.

As always - love and appreciation to you all!

Amy

Treatment 11 has come and gone

Good very early morning everyone.  Treatment 11 is now completed.  Normally, I'd be in bed by now, but this treatment ran longer than normal so after a very refreshing shower, I'm wide awake, so I thought I post. 

11 treatments are now complete and only 6 more remain.  I gotta say how over all of this I am, but still, 6 left.  Hard to believe how much I've already completed.  Well, I am feeling fine, tired (but still wide awake) and a bit queasy (the car ride home after a treatment never really sits well, even with the anti-nausea meds I have), but overall ok.  Tomorrow should be good to rest up and get ready to go back to work on Wednesday.

The only thing new with my treatments is that on my outpatient treatments, they are swapping one of the drugs called the "Red Devil" (Andreomycin) for a another one (can't remember how to spell it).  This is because I have reached my LIFETIME limit of the drug.  If I ever have a recurrence of the cancer (of any kind) and have to have it, I can't; ever.  But that's ok.  The new drug doesn't cause any kind of strain for my heart, so that's good.

The other new thing is that went I go in for my bloodwork next week, I will also be going in for a CT scan.  They want to check the progress on everything and compare it to the one I had about 2 months ago.  So hopefully the next time I go to see the Docs, I will see if there is more/better bone growth and maybe the tumor decided to stop be stubborn and start shrinking.

Anyways, that's about all from me here in Chemoland, so I hope you are all having pleasant dreams as I write this and that all of you are always in my thoughts.

Love you all,

-S

Radiologist Update

Hi Everyone! Sorry for the delay in posting. I promised y'all an update from the Radiologist appointment on Friday, so here it is. :)

We met with Dr. Keish, who we liked a lot. Dr. Adams-Conway had told us that he is the doctor she wants Scott to see - so much so, that if he can't logistically get down to Miami everyday for radiation, she'd rather do the surgery than have him get radiation from anyone else. This is so critical because she wants to make sure the radiation is targeted and the rest of his body is protected. Radiation damage to his bowel and bladder could cause lifelong problems, and could damage the area so much that surgery would not be a good option as a "back-up" if needed. Plus, his skills would minimize side effects from radiation, which is more good news for Scott.

So, we met with Dr. Keish and he pretty much confirmed everything Dr. Adams-Conway told us back in this post, but we did get a bit more information. Radiology is still the likely option over surgery, but it's not definite yet. The doctors and Scott will make a final decision after chemotherapy is done. They still feel that surgery is going to be a very hard recovery for Scott. The doctors want to keep monitoring the progress of the tumor and see where he's at come November. If radiology becomes definite, he'll get a three week break after Chemo before radiation starts. It will be every weekday for 5 - 6 weeks. This is going to very hard on Scott to drive an hour or more to downtown Miami, to get radiation for a half hour, and then drive back to either home or work (depending upon the time of day), but it's the right thing to do and they'll work with his work schedule. Dr. Keish advised he'll feel tired for the last few weeks and for the few weeks after, but other side effects should be minimal. (yay!)

Scott's still recovering from last week's inpatient stay, but he's feeling pretty good and his spirits are still good. He'll be back in Monday the 8th for his next outpatient (provided his counts look good). This biggest issue for him lately, besides being so tired, is beating the heat - the poor guy is a walking oven. We're happy we got to finally meet our adorable Godson Wade the weekend before and see our good friend Megan - now we're looking forward to all this being done and flying out to Indiana to meet our Nephews. Here's a happy picture for you guys!



As always, thanks so much for all of your love and concern - we're so grateful for it!

Love,
Amy

Checking in from treatment #10

Good morning everyone! Just wanted to check in and say hi as Scott is working through treatment number 10. Can you believe it’s number 10 already? We can’t – sometimes it feels like it’s gone fast, other times it feels like it’s been an eternity (especially for Scott). He’s inpatient again this week, and unfortunately, at Jackson again. At least this time his room is not directly across from the ice machine and nurses station. I’m working, so I’ll be going down to see him tonight. He’s going good – bored and tired, but at least nothing eventful is going on. He tries to sleep a lot because he can never get a good long “run” of uninterrupted sleep. They come in often to give him more medicine, or to take more vitals, and the IV beeps all the time.

The Dad’s are helping and are there for us – Scott’s Dad is still spending nights at the hospital with him and my Dad is down from NJ to be at the house at help me with the dogs. We’re very grateful for the help!

Friday is the appointment with the Radiologist, so we should have some updates then. I hope everyone has a great week!

Love,
Amy

Happy Birthday Scott!

Hi all! Tomorrow is Scott's birthday, and he's enjoying a quiet week off from Chemo. His next inpatient is Monday, but between now and then, he'll be relaxing and celebrating his birthday. His counts look great and, overall, he's still doing very well!

Scott: Happy Birthday, Babe. I love you!
~Aim

More Behind Me than in Front of Me

Hey everyone.  It's Scott this time.  I know it's been a while since I posted, but this is a milestone I wanted to share with you.  First I need to thank Amy for keeping up with the blog.  She does a fantastic job with it.

Well, my 9th treatment is now complete.  That is a lot of treatments, especially considering that a lot of cancer patients would have been done by now.  And I still have a lot left to go (8 more treatments).  But the great thing is that there are more treatments behind me than in front of me.  I still can't believe that I've made it this far.  It seems like it was just a couple weeks ago that my oncologist was telling me "17 treatments" (that got me to cry more than hearing I had cancer!!), and now I only have 8 left.  I can't tell you how happy that makes me. What makes me even happier is knowing all the well wishes and prayers I get from all of you.  It's what keeps me going.

As Amy said in the previous post, we don't know about radiation yet.  We will be meeting with the radiologist before I am admitted for my next treatment, July 25th.  At that time, I am assuming I will find out how much radiation therapy I will need.  My guess is a minimum of a couple of weeks, but hopefully less.  When I find out, I will let you know.

Also, as Amy said, my next treatment needed to be postponed 1 week, which I guess is a good and bad thing.  I didn't want to postpone it, but I have to admit it will be nice not to have to spend my birthday in the hospital.  I really don't want to push any treatment out so I can be done with all of this that much sooner, but what can you do.  The thing that sucks now is that my next outpatient will be on Amy's birthday.  I hate that and do not want her to be thinking about it on that day.  Maybe I can see if I can do it on Tuesday instead.  Will have to ask about that one.

Other than that, I am feeling good.  Got some sleep today, which was great, but I am looking forward to going back to work tomorrow.  I hope you are all doing well.

Scott

Checking in from treatment #9

Hello all! Just a quick check-in - Scott's chemo was postponed from Monday to today because of the 4th of July holiday. All is going well and he'll be home before midnight this time! I'm a bit heartbroken today because this is the first treatment I'm not there for. :( I got a new job, which is a great thing, but bad because I am no longer consulting and have the flexibility to be there as I once did. I knew it was going to be hard, but I didn't think it would be this hard. Of course Neil is there with him and that makes me happy, but I miss him terribly. (He's actually probably grateful for me not being there to nag him! lol) My new boss is kind and understanding and I will still take time off for the really important appointments and happenings. I will also still be keeping everyone updated as best I can via the blog.

He's going to post next, but not tonight. The next inpatient treatment is also being postponed a week because of this one being rescheduled, so I will be changing the calendar. We're a week behind now, but still going strong - he's still on track to be done with chemo on Halloween (that is if he doesn't get bumped again for Labor Day). I'm hoping that even radiation will be done by the end of year so we can just cross 2011 off the list and move on to 2012! We still don't have an update about the radiation schedule - we'll know more about that in a few weeks.

As always, we hope everyone is doing well and that they had a great 4th!

Love,
Amy