More Photon Torpedoes

Hello friends and family.  Much has happened in the last month.

The first exciting news is that I had more Brain Surgery, this time with Radiation (Photon Torpedoes).   That was yesterday.  It was forty minutes with my head strapped down unable to move more than 1/2 mm.  There were masks on both my face and the back of my head attached to the machine.  I had 2 mg of Adavan to help as I'm somewhat claustrophobic.  I expect that it blasted this new tumor and completely destroyed it.  I expect to recover from this as I did the 30 rounds of radiation therapy I received back in July and August. It took 2 to 3 months to feel I had my brain working again.  This new cancer was confirmed after chemo 5 and is likely the cause of my language difficulties as it's next to the original tumor on the left side that controls language among other things. With it gone there's some hope.

The second change is that I'm on a different chemo treatment.  The first is no longer considered effective as it allowed a visible (to an MRI) tumor to return.  I'll have to get the new medicine name from Melody. It's not oral any more.  I get it into an IV for and hour and a half to two hours every two weeks.

I ended up in the ER at TMC on Mother's day. Sorry Melody! I had pain and sensitivity in my legs that started on the trip home from Utah visiting our children a week earlier.  A week or so later, gross sores appeared along the left side of my legs and the small of my back.  It turns out I have Shingles! I laughed when our chemo doctor diagnosed it and said it's fairly common for old people :-) Warning: if you haven't had chicken pocks or your children haven't, stay away from me. I'm contagious.  I won't be at church for a at least a few weeks or longer until the sores are closed up.

Up until this second tumor appeared I was feeling like I would recover well enough to go back to work for a year or so.  I no longer see this as likely.  I enjoy work, the people, and the challenges we face and hoped I would live long enough and be healthy enough to return.

As always, I'm taking things as they come.  I'm grateful for all the love and support and visits I've received from friends and family.  I'm still up beat and seem to have my sense of humor.

Today I read aloud page 273 of 531 of the Book of Mormon. Ammon praises the Lord for their mighty success in converting many Lamanites to Christ.  Ammon's brother Aaron rebukes him for boasting.  Ammon answers by saying who can glory too much in the Lord. I've always found this interesting that after 14 years as missionaries, brothers are still brothers, and may point out perceived faults.

Cortizone

Cortizo-oo-oone.  "Gives us the niiiiice bright colors. Gives us the gree-ee-eens of summer. Makes you think aaaaaall the world's a sunny day oh yeah" (for my children and other youngsters, Paul Simon, Kodachrome is the song).  Last Friday, I got a shot of Cortisone in the cheek. One more item on my bucket list complete.  Wow.  This is good stuff :-)  My legs, knees, hands, and shoulders feel great!  I'm going to go trim the trees. I got the shot from a lung doctor, but who knew a shot in the bum affects more than your lung?

One lung is enough!  My lazy lollygagging left lung languishes.  It no longer works with my diaphragm. There is no fix. So that marathon I never wanted to run is now off the bucket list.

A good friend asked me what I wanted to do before I move on. I don't have a bucket list. I've lived a great life and am happy with the variety of places I've been. I hope to spend time with family and friends and to help others until I'm 95 years old. Except for the 95 part, I can still do it.

Today I read aloud page 242 of 531 in the Book of Mormon. It talks about the high priesthood of God and the need to humble ourselves to be pure and look at sin with abhorrence.

Chemo Five

My white blood count exceeded 3.0 on the third week of vampires poking me. We'll start the fifth round of chemo soon.

We finally saw a lung doctor about my wheezing.  The left lung is not working that well. I took a breathing capacity test and doctor Don (me) and doctor Melody (my sweetheart) evaluated the results on the screen and it looked like I wasn't breathing enough. The doctor's clinic is filled with signs encouraging me to quit smoking! Really, I never smoked even once. :-)

I'm slow recalling some words. It's different from right after the brain surgery where once I remembered a word (created a new path in my brain) it came back easily.  Now, it can take minutes to recall a word (like "alternator" or "clay") and the next day I don't remember it quickly.

My left shoulder now has most of it's range of motion back. This is an injury suffered during the seizure last June.  It still hurts though. I've been doing light weight lifting trying to strengthen it.

I'm still having trouble completing a one mile walk. My feet, ankles, or knees hurt and I go home short (the distance, not my height).

Despite these troubles, I am happy. I love my wife, my family and my friends!  I have faith that we'll be together on the other side.

Since my last post, I did catch up and read aloud the 57 pages I missed of the book of Mosiah. I'm not a complete slacker :-)

Today I read page 229 of 531 of the Book of Mormon.  Alma and Amulek continue to preach to the Nephites, returning to the land of Ammonihah where the people of that city are not taking it well.

Nan encourages Don to post to blog

My brother Jim, Nan and Jimmy are here visiting and encouraged me to update my blog. I guess it's been awhile.

This week we completed the 4th round of chemo consisting of five days of 400 mg Temozolomide. After the 2nd round, it took many weeks to get my white blood count above 3.  The dose was reduced to 300 mg for the delayed 3rd round. It took only one extra week to get my white blood count above 3 after the 300 dose.

My shoulder is doing much better after a loud crack (of internal scar tissue?) during physical therapy. I was able to help take down five trees/bushes at a friends house.  That was fun.  So long as I work my arms from my waist to my head height, I do ok. Doing any work at ground level is difficult.

We've got a weird problem with my left lung causing shortness of breath after physical activity.  A part of the bottom is stuck together. The chemo doctor did a CT (CAT) scan and found it (but no CATs, fortunately).

No cancer growth was found in the latest MRI.  I asked the doctor if I would ever be healthy enough to go back to work.  He strongly recommended we wait until after six rounds of chemo were completed to make that evaluation.

We're grateful to all the family and friends who helped fix things around the house since I became sick: front gate, front door gap, freezer, grill, irrigation, rocks, and others.

I'm especially grateful to all my friends who play board games with me! Thanks to the wives that allow them time away to provide service to me!

I've fallen behind on reading the scriptures.  :-( I didn't want to make a post without the reading. I decided to jump to where I should be (end of Mosiah) from where I am (the beginning of Mosiah). I will close the gap this month.  If you've fallen behind, you could do something similar. Or just start on page 202.  See Matthew 20.

I read aloud page 202 of 531 of the Book of Mormon today.  The four son's of Mosiah travel throughout the land confessing and repenting of their sins as well as explaining the prophecies and scriptures. They then ask their father King Mosiah if they can preach the word of God to the Lamanites, who they had been at war with for hundreds of years.

Don's Hair

Melody has offered to cut my hair.  I've tried to get her to cut my hair for 30 years with no luck. Now she wants to cut my hair.  I'm scared!!!  So what should we do with my hair?  Here's a few photos of my beautiful locks!

I like it just the way it is.


On to the less important (after the hair), I just finished another 5 day round of chemo.  It was 400 mg a day.  So we've increased the dosage from 100 mg, to 300 mg and now 400 mg.  What's next?  I spent 3 days in the hospital a few weeks ago.  That was a bummer and no fun.  I had a 102/103 temperature that with my cancer history that wouldn't let me go home with a few antibiotics.  They had to pump it there at 2400 mg of Vancomycin in an IV. I got that three times as well as a handful of other antibiotics. In the end, they determined that it wasn't pneumonia or septic or anything really bad so they sent me home.

I'm doing good mentally and ok physically.  Melody says I've got my sense of humor back. I'm not sure if this is a good or bad thing :-) :-)  Physically, I still have poor endurance.  I've been able to walk a mile occasionally, but I'd be happy if I could walk two to three miles a day. I'm not there yet.

This is for you Sheri Futch. I drink lots of water every day and I pee a lot. My constipation is well under control.  Thanks for your interest :-)

Thanksgiving was wonderful!  We had 30+ people at grandma's house.  It was really fun.

I read aloud page 112 of 531 of the Book of Mormon today.  Nephi writes about the last days how we shall "commence his work among all nations, kindreds, tongues, and people, to bring about the restoration of his people upon the earth".

Chemotherapy Plan

The first pass of chemotherapy medication was 150 MG of Temozolomide every day for 42 days concurrent with the 30 days (week ends off) of radiation therapy.  That ended about three weeks ago. The MRI was as expected with no cancer visible outside the original tumor that was removed.  An MRI does not have the resolution to see the spreading cancer until it grows larger and more dense.

The new 4 week regimen will be 5 days of 300 MG of Temozolomide followed by 23 days of no medication.   An MRI is scheduled every eight weeks.

I've been taking 4 MG a day of the steroid Dexamethasone since the beginning of treatment.  The steroid was to prevent brain swelling.  The MRI showed no evidence of any swelling in the brain, so I'm now off the steroid!!!. I can't imagine why anybody would take this steroid by choice.  You don't sleep.  Your bones are soft so if you tweak a knee, it doesn't heal. Bruises and cuts don't heal. They give you energy, but it's not real in that your muscles get weaker and weaker.  If you work out too hard, you get injured. At least that's my experience.

So, my body is a mess right now. I'm unable to do more than a few hours a day of anything physical. So, I pick and choose what I use my limited energy for.  I'm hoping to remedy this now that I'm off the steroids.

My mind seems to be working fine though.  I seem to have recovered a good portion of my short term memory that I was missing after the radiation ended.  My spelling seems fine again.  I still have lost words, but that's from removing the tumor.  One odd thing occurs as my brain remakes connections is that random and often annoying songs (like old Beatles tunes I'd rather forget) get stuck in my head and won't go away.

I guess that's enough info for today.

I read aloud page 74 of 531 of the Book of Mormon today.  Jacob teaches us about the judgement, the resurrection and the atonement of Christ.  If we will "hearken unto his voice" we are saved because of the atonement.

Constipation

Chemotherapy causes bad constipation.  I have the answer.  Most of the information on the web is not helpful. Ideas like eat lots of fruit and fiber.  Sure, good ideas, but I have the answer.  It's cheap and it's simple.

Wheat Bran.

That's it.  It's cheap, you can buy it in bulk.  A small spoonful on your cereal or on toast a few times a day completely solves the problem for me.  No more prunes or prune juice.  I still eat fruit and other fiber, but because it's healthy, not for constipation.

I want to thank those who encouraged me to post this instead of health status info.  You know who you are :-) :-)

I read aloud page 70 of 531 of the Book of Mormon today.  What are the odds that my last post quoted Isaiah and this post does too? Nephi asked Jacob to teach the people wisdom from Isaiah from the brass plates.  See 2 Nephi 8 verse 3 last phrase is "thanksgiving and the voice of melody".