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| 30 Sep, Sun |
Not so fast on the feel good stuff. I still feel
great today, but I think I overworked my abdominal muscles. I had
forgotten that I had not been able to work out for the past 4 - 5
months. Lots of stiffness and soreness, luckily the pain medication
works good for that also. |
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| 29 Sep, Sat |
Woke up feeling great this morning. Elizabeth and I
went to the gym and worked out. I just walked a few miles on the
treadmill. It was also the one of the most beautiful days as far as
the weather goes. Had a great lunch downtown with Elizabeth, the
twins, and my in-laws. Then I thought I would take the opportunity
of my good energy, and the good weather, and washed both of our
cars. This is no small project when one of them is a
Suburban. |
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| 25 Sep, Tue |
Went to work again today, for a little longer this
time. Everything is about the same at home. Nausea still
making it hard to eat as much as I want, but I need to get as many
calories as possible. Not a fun predicament.
Had a bit of a problem last night. My temperature got up to
100.6 degrees. Called Dr. Whitecar and he had me take a
Tylenol. About an hour later my fever broke and I had to lay in bed
and sweat for a while. After that I slept pretty well.
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| 24 Sep, Mon |
Went into work for a while today. Good to see
everyone, but still hard to concentrate for long periods of time, just too
tired.
Had an appointment with the hospital's registered dietician.
Trying to learn what I can do to stop my weight loss. I use to run
between 230 and 235, at my lowest I was 205. Right now I am around
210, but trying to get it higher. |
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| 21 Sep, Fri |
Went to a class offered at the Cancer Clinic entitled
"I Can Cope." It provides a lot of very good information
about what the patient should expect, and what the family can do to
help. It was a good class, and I came away with a lot of helpful
information. |
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| 20 Sep, Thu |
Really not much to report. I get up several times a
night and am still having night sweats. The nausea comes and goes in
waves. Last night it set in about 4 AM and made sleep very difficult
until my medication kicked in.
As for future treatments I will not get any more chemotherapy until
Friday, 5 Oct. At 8 AM that morning I will go to the Cancer Clinic
and start the day with a CT scan. This will let Dr. Whitecar know
how the treatments have been going. If everything goes as planned
then I will begin my second round of chemo that morning at about
9:30. Between now and then it is just a lot of resting and
waiting. |
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| 19 Sep, Wed |
Went into work for a while today. It is amazing how
winded I get just walking the distance from my car, up a flight of stairs,
and to my office. After that I came home and took a long afternoon
nap. |
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| 15 Sep, Sat |
Okay, today the side effects of yesterdays chemo have set
in. Lots of fatigue, nausea, and a metallic taste in my mouth.
None of which are unexpected, but none of which are fun either. I
have spent most of the day napping because I did not get a lot of sleep
last night.
They are pumping some fairly toxic stuff into my body so some side
effects are to be expected. The only difference is that this is the
first time I took chemo on an out patient basis. The previous two
times I believe the morphine helped gloss over some of the side effects. |
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| 14 Sep, Fri |
Received
To clear up a little confusion last week I said my white blood cell
count was at 696, thus I couldn't get chemo. I found out today that
in fact last week my white blood cell count was 2900, but my Absolute
Nutrifil Count (ANC) was 696. There several different kinds of white
blood cells and the ANC is what they measure to determine if I can receive
chemo. So this week my white blood cell count was 5800, and my ANC
was 3190 (it needs to be above 1000).
The chemo went great and I came home and had a nice dinner with
Elizabeth, my folks, and the kids.
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| 13 Sep, Thu |
Things are still going as normal. Not much to
report, except that I am anxious to go in for tomorrows chemo.
Hopefully my white blood cell count has rebounded so I am able to receive
another chemo treatment.
On another note, obviously after Tuesdays cowardly attack they
stopped all flying here at Columbus AFB. Since we are a pilot
training base then not much happens when we are not flying. This
afternoon the planes were back in the air as we heard the repeated sound
of jet engines as they fly over our house on the downwind leg of their
landing pattern. It is good to once again hear the jet engine noise,
or as we in the Air Force refer to it, the "sound of freedom." |
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| 11 Sep, Tue |
My little cancer problem does not seem quite so bad
today. Spent most of the day resting and watching the news. |
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| 9 Sep, Sun |
The entire family got up for church this morning.
It was great to see everyone at Prince of Peace Lutheran Church.
They all had great words of encouragement and support.
Not much else going on today so I thought I would show everyone my
Vein Access Devise (VAD). This is a tube that is installed in my
upper right chest. It is very handy for taking blood samples out, or
putting saline, morphine, antibiotics, and chemotherapy in. With
this VAD there is no need to keep sticking me in the arm, which is a
welcome relief.
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| 8 Sep, Sat |
A quiet day of watch college football. Elizabeth
and I went out to lunch. It is nice to have the grandparents here to
baby sit while we get a little private time. Looks like Erik is
getting his third tooth while Katherine is just getting her first. |
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| 7 Sep, Fri |
Sort of a let down today. I went in for my third
round of chemo and they start off with blood tests. The blood tests
came back showing that I had a white blood cell count of 696. That
needs to be above 1000 before the doctor will give me chemo. If it
falls below 500 he will put me on stronger anti-biotic medicine.
This means that my third chemo treatment has been postponed until next
Friday afternoon. While talking to the doctor he still seemed very
up-beat, saying that I look the best that he has seen me. So that is
always good to hear. |
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| 6 Sep, Thu |
Quiet day of resting. It is amazing that I can get
a full nights sleep and still take a two hour nap in the middle of the
day.
One good thing is that my medicine list has been dropped to only
two. The first pill continues to try and control infection and
fever. Because the first pill is so strong the second pill protects
my stomach from the first pill. This is much better than when I was
taking 5 different pills which were all on different schedules (take every
four hours, twice daily, every six hours, etc.)
Headed for my third chemo treatment tomorrow. This will be the
first time that I take chemo on an out patient basis. It will be
interesting to see how that goes. |
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| 5 Sep, Wed |
Fairly good day, except one of the unfortunate
side-affects of chemo is occasional diarrhea. At the first sign I
have a very strict regime of Imodium AD that I must take. This
includes setting my wristwatch alarm to wake myself up every four hours at
night to take more medication. |
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| 4 Sep, Tue |
As of 9:30 AM this morning I have gone over 24 hours with
out an abdominal muscle spasm. Nights are still not restful but they
are getting better. For the first time last night I laid on my right
side. Due to the pain this had been completely unthinkable just a
couple of days ago.
Still do not have a lot of energy, but even that is returning
slowly. |
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| 3 Sep, Mon |
Well, I (Lars) am back home from the
hospital. So I can help Liz out with the page updates. In
helping out have broken the pages into "August" &
"Latest Info." This way the pages will load more
quickly. I have also gone back and added several photos to the
August page, so check back there for those updates.
Dr.
Whitecar said that blood tests show that I am no longer malnourished.
There is something in the blood called Albumin, which should measure "3" showing
a person has normal nourishment. My Albumin had dropped to 1.8.
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| 2 Sep, Sun |
Dr. Whitecar stopped by the hospital room and reported
that Lars' liver enzymes were dropping back down towards normal. The
enzymes were never abnormally high, but high enough to be concerned
about. This means the liver is slowly returning to normal function,
which is another good sign.
Muscle spasms are fewer, further between, and with less
intensity. Also, for most of the day my temperature has been in the
under 100 degrees. I took the kids up to the hospital to visit
with Lars. Seeing them always seems to raise his spirits.
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| 1 Sep, Sat |
Lars had a good night. No side effects from the
Chemo. He is still experiencing muscle spasms.
1100 Dr. Whitecar makes round and informs Lars that he finally got a
chance to review the CAT Scan results this morning and the tumors look
smaller than last week. WONDERFUL NEWS Drew more blood for
analysis.
Dr. Whitecar said that this chemo will either work fast or not at
all. It appears to be working. Keep praying that it works.
Still don't know why Lars has a fever and are still trying to
control the spasms. Dr. Whitecar is not going to release Lars until
the spasms are under control and he knows what is causing the fever. |
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