Pain in Nick's A**: Phase 1, Halfway Point

So today marks the halfway point in my chemo/radiation portion of my treatments. So far so good. Feel a little sick and a little tired, but overall it's not to bad. I was able to walk 9 holes last Wednesday, didn't post my best score and was a little tired, but it was good to get out. I plan on trying 18 holes on Saturday. It's just good to get outside and stretch the legs. I've also been trying to get a little workout in a couple times a week consisting of a bunch of push-ups and pull-ups. Oliver absolutely loves riding on my back while I'm doing push-ups.

 Oliver providing a little extra resistance

I was hoping to be off on a little break from the Chemo this week, but my Medical Oncologist likes to keep the Chemo in the system the whole time throughout the radiation treatment. Which makes sense as the chemo radiosensitizes the tumor (i.e. makes is easier for the radiation to kill the sucker). I get Thanksgiving off for radiation, which is fine I guess, but it means I'll have to double up next week.

Overall the first week wasn't fun and I lost a little weight, but the last week and a half has been pretty good. I've found that if I eat stuff I like I'm able to get it down. I was in Redwood City last week for a CT scan around lunch and decided to hit up the Woodside Deli. For those who have never experienced the Woodside Deli you're missing out. I use to go all the time when I worked up in the RWC. They have a sandwich called the Godfather, which has various Italian meats and cheeses, pretty phenomenal. Anyways the Godfather was as awesome as I remembered.

We'll see how the next couple weeks go. There are some cumulative side effects to both the Chemo and Radiation, so it will be 'interesting' to see what happens and how bad. But I was expecting worse, so it's nice to be beating my expectations again.

Halloween

Well enough about the pain in my a**. How about some Halloween pictures of the Monkey. We did the pumpkin patch thing and then Oliver went trick-or-treating with Brendan and Cameron. He finally seemed to grasp the whole trick-or-treat thing by the end. One of these days we'll get this kid to smile for the camera, but right now it's all serious business.

Walking around with a little pumpkin

Found a larger pumpkin

Clowning around with Mommy

The Monkey in his monkey costume

The Monkey with Mommy and Meme

Stopping at a house with Poppy and Meme

Looking for a plane or the moon, he's been obsessed with the moon lately

The trick-or-treating crew.

Pain in Nick' A**: Day 1

Well today it started. Started popping pills and started getting a sun burn from the inside out.

Met with the Radiation Oncologist and he walked me through the PET scans and the planning of the radiation treatment. He knows I'm a big nerd (he seems to be one as well) so he showed me the software they use program the machine, treatment fields, and all of the PET scans. I guess the family jewels are going to be spared, but my bladder and prostate will get a bit of radiation. Such is life...in the words of the radiation oncologist, "We're going to treat the cancer we know you have." I appreciate the straight talk. One interesting thing to note is for what ever reason the enlarged lymph nodes did not light up on the PET scan which had him, "scratching his head." Docs scratching their head may concern some, but in my world I know it's par for the course.

Also met with a geneticist today to find out if there's a genetic component to my cancer. I'll write more on that later.

As for the drugs, they're going down. It's going to take some time to find out what best balance of chemistry will be, but today hasn't been horrible.

Pain in Nick's A**: Chemo/Radiation, Phase 1

So what I'm going to call Phase 1 of the Pain in Nick's A** Removal Plan (PiNARP...If the Military can use crazy acronyms so can I) starts on Monday 11/5. Phase 1 consists of  a total of 25 IMRT (Intensity Modulated Radiation Therapy) treatments (5 days a week for 5 weeks) and two cycles (1 cycle is 14 days of two pills a day and 7 days off) of Chemo drug called Xeloda (Capecitabine).

Lets get a look at what we're aiming at, shall we. Below is an image from my CT and I've highlighted the approximate location of the PiNA (Pain in Nick's A**). So this CT scan is an image of a transverse slice (What you'd see if a magician cut you in half and you looked at that cut. Luckily I didn't have to be cut in half to get these images) of my pelvic region. The bright white U shaped thing is my pelvic bones. The tumor look like much, other than some gray blob, But I guess since I drank contrast it's suppose to be more white than gray.

 Approximate location of tumor.

Here are some images of the three enlarged lymph nodes that they suspect have cancer in them. These CT slices are slightly higher (closer to my head) than the previous one of the location of the tumor, with the image on the left being the highest.

Location of enlarged lymph nodes.

Since I love pictures so much how about another. These are two other CT slices along the length of my body (sagittally). You can see the suspect lymph nodes in red and the location of the tumor in yellow.

 Location of the enlarged lymph nodes and tumor.