Cuck Fancer

So it’s been about a month and I want to start off with good news. We are on pace to have the stem cell transplant around mid march. Isn’t that great!!  I just had a Pet/CT scan done yesterday and the results were fantastic! I do not have to complete my third treatment of ICE ICE BABY! The standard protocol is a minimum of 2 cycles to put you into remission and a 3rd one for good measure. Some people must do a 3rd and a 4th   just to get them into remission this is not true for me! Apparently my scans show no visible signs of cancer and thus no third round of ICE!! Yay!!  Dr. Forman thinks I am in good shape and can move forward without this last treatment.

Taking a step back, the last 6 weeks or so have been up and down. The 1st cycle of ICE was not too bad. I was out and about after 3 days of rest. But that 2nd cycle of ICE, oh no, It kicked my ass, like Angelina Jolie kicked Brad Pitts in Mr. and Mrs. Smith, I was sweating like Mike Tyson in a spelling Bee and vomiting like one of my moms clients (sorry mom). Simply, I was miserable. I threw up for the first time. I couldn’t get out of bed for 2 days. I lost 5 pounds and thought the feeling was never going away. It took about 9 days for me to feel up to par again and to start doing things on my own. The highlight of the week was a tuna melt I was able to keep down. The scariest part of this was that I was actually living and having to look at some version of myself in the mirror that I didn’t even recognize. I truly didn’t look like me. I did not like that! For the record, chemo sucks. Period.

So now it is Wednesday, February 24th, and I will have a minor surgery this Friday to insert the Hickman catheter in my chest. At the time this catheter will be inserted, they will also be testing my bone marrow one more time, but this time not for Hodgkin’s. This time they will be looking for any chromosomal defects, like the ones that cause Leukemia. Apparently all this chemotherapy may kill the Hodgkin’s cells, but one of the side effects has been leukemia. It is highly unlikely any abnormalities will be found. However, if they were I would be looking for a donor transplant versus donating to myself. But again, this happens in very few cases. So after the insertion of the catheter I will be given a drug for several hours called cytoxin. The only reason I am getting this drug, as it has been explained to me, is in order to prepare my stem cells for harvest we must ‘trick’ them a bit by using a drug they think they have to fight or get “pushed” by, thus producing more stem cells. Doing this along with being given daily shots of 750mg of Neupogen for 10 days (a big blood building drug). I should have enough stem cells to harvest by the 8th of March! I will stay overnight this weekend, but I will be out early Saturday morning. Following this minor treatment I will be giving myself a shot of Neupogen (white blood cell boost) everyday until my stem cell harvest.

We now know that the date of my stem cell harvest will be on Monday, March 8th. We are hoping to go into the hospital March 15th for the stem cell transplant itself (25 day bubble). This all depends on if there is a bed available. I really want to get started so I thought I’d pull the cancer card, but I don’t think it will work at City of Hope. Ha Ha . However as it turns out the way it does with me, Dr. Forman’s head physician assistant’s daughter goes to UC Irvine with me, and she knows who I am? I think I have met her at a party or two. Also, I grew up with this women’s niece and nephew from camp! So maybe I do have a few connections after all. Dr. Forman is calling me the Ferris Buller of City of Hope. Now where is my Ferrari?

I wanted to make a top ten reasons list of when you know you have cancer, but I could only think of 1.
1.    The highlight of your day is eating.

Anyway, I will blog one more time before I go in for my stem cell transplant. I encourage visitors because I will be bored. Come entertain me. Hospital said no strippers allowed. Be creative.

As hairless as a pre-pubescent teenager with braces trying to get the hottest girl in school to recognize him,

Ben