Hooray!! Today is the last chemo treatment!

Hello friends and family!

The last chemo treatment is underway!  Today is an outpatient treatment, so we should be done by about midnight.  I'm amazed by his strength and courage - he's been so brave and such a fighter.  I'm more proud of him that I can put into words.

Scott has plans to write a big post in the next day or so to close this chapter of his journey.  In the meantime, a quick update about next steps:

We have an appointment with the surgical oncologist on 11/14, where we will hopefully make the final decision to proceed with radiation.  We meet with the radiologist for another consultation on 11/18.  We'll be able to update everyone around that time.  Radiation (if that's what he's going to do) won't likely start until the first week of December, so he is looking forward to going to a break.  I guess we'll have to rename the blog to "Scott's Radiation Adventure" at that time.  :)

I can tell you one of the first things he's going to do (after a couple weeks and his counts are up) is go to a Movie!  He's had to refrain from going to Movie Theaters since starting chemo.  I forsee a Thanksgiving movie (or two) in our future. 

We hope all is well with all of you.  Talk to you soon!
Amy

Hello from the last inpatient treatment!

Hello everyone - I'm happy to say that the last inpatient treatment is under way. It's very bittersweet because we love to see our friends here at 11 North. They really are Angels! Scott is so happy to be almost done.

We met with his Dr. & PA this morning, and things are fairly "status quo". Scott is having some pain again in the site of the tumor, and because of that, he had a CT scan last week. There are no changes in the tumor or the bone, so they aren't sure what's causing the pain - it could be the tumor is inflamed or aggravated in some way. They aren't worried about it right now, so we'll see how radiation goes.

Speaking of radiation, they said we'll schedule an appointment after his last chemo treatment on 11/7 to discuss the plan - radiation or surgery & if radiation is still the plan, how that's going to work. So, we'll probably have more information on all of that in mid November.

You know I like to leave you guys with a smile, so here are some pics of the hat Scott has been wearing in the hospital - his Spock hat! Our friend Maevan made this for him. All the nurses get such a kick out of it & I thought you would, too.

We hope everyone is doing well - love & hugs to all!

Amy

 

Just Keep Swimming

Hello all,

Scott is having his 14th chemo treatment this week - only 3 more to go after this! He's inpatient at UMH this week and getting to see the nurses he likes so much. His Beloved Brenda has been his Nursing Assistant for the past two days, so that made him happy. When I saw her tonight, she reminded me I still have to share Scott with her. :)

Whenever I leave after visiting him during an inpatient treatment, he walks me to the elevators (IV pole and all) and I give him one more kiss before I leave. If the nurses are at the station when we walk by, I usually make a joke about trying to bust him outta there.

Tonight, though, when I got into the elevator, there were two woman already in it and one of them was clearly trying to fight back her own tears from saying goodbye to her loved one. She watched me kiss Scott goodnight and get into the elevator, and I glanced at her sympathetically. Even through her pain, she said to me "everything is going to be ok". I smiled and said "I know", and I told her that Scott and I say "Just Keep Swimming". I asked her if she'd seen the movie Finding Nemo and was familiar with the part where Dory sings "Just Keeping Swimming" and she yes. She said "It's funny, I never thought of it that way before". We were riding down 11 floors in a hospital elevator - and that takes awhile with all the stops - so we were silent the rest of the way. I got off on the floor above hers and we both looked at each other as I walked out and she said "Thank you and God Bless you". I said "Same to you and remember to just keep swimming" and that was it - we went separate ways.

I will probably never cross paths with that woman again, and can only hope and pray that her loved one has the good prognosis Scott has, but that moment was such a profound little moment that had a big impact - an understanding between two people caring and hoping for their loved one to recover and how important is to be strong and share at least a little piece of encouragement when you can. It struck me so much, that I didn't start crying until I walked out of the elevator, and that little profound moment reminded me of the levity of this situation. It's become so routine in many ways - it's been almost 8 months and Scott has made it so far - I sometimes forget that he's fighting for his life. He's so lucky to have the prognosis he has, and it's overwhelmingly humbling when I think about the people that don't. I cried for all those people, and us - but only for a little bit - because I know things will get better soon.

Just a little reminder to everyone to appreciate those little profound moments that are moving - and to take a minute to smile and be encouraging to someone - it can make a bigger difference than you think.

And with that, I'll leave you with a video clip on Dory's view of what to do "when life get's you down" - Just Keep Swimming :)

Love to you all,

Amy

Only 4 more to go!

Hello all,

Sorry about being a blog slacker, but there’s not much going on with Scott’s Chemo Adventure right now – and that’s GOOD news! He’s hanging in there with his chemo treatments – only 2 more inpatient and two more outpatient to go. He did fine during his last inpatient stay and he was happy to be at UMH hospital instead of Jackson. He got to see almost all his favorite nurses (except for one who was on vacation) and was much more comfortable. He still has his cough, but he saw an ENT today who said everything looks fine and to continue to keep an eye on it.

He also had another CT scan a few weeks ago, along with an x-ray. The tumor is continuing to shrink just a smidge, but there continues to be a small amount of bone regrowth, as well – so all-in-all things are going well.

We don’t know anymore about radiation versus surgery yet – we’ll know more when his chemo treatments are over, which right now, is scheduled to be early November. His last actual treatment should be on November 7^th – whoohoo! If radiation is the way they go, he’ll likely start radiation three weeks later (or so). (I wonder...will we have to rename the blog to Scott's Radiation Adventure at that point?!??)

We hope everyone is doing well. I know you guys are checking the blog because I’ve been getting in trouble for not updating it :) so I wanted to send a quick post.

Love,

Amy

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