Fundraiser & Radiation

Sorry, I've been meaning to get back to the blog, my bad to those who check this from time to time. Just a quick catch up:

First and foremost, thank you so much to those who were able to either attend the fundraiser and/or make a generous donation. The fundraiser was a complete success!!! We were anticipating 200-220 people show, I was stunned to hear that 450 were in attendance, so much more than we could've asked for. I had an absolutely amazing time, but gotta say I was exhausted half way through. I lost my voice and actually ran to the bathroom to chill out and get away from all the madness from time to time! The manager told us that this was the biggest fundraiser they had ever had at the Blind Pig aside from a fundraiser that was put together a few years back; it was a day long event. So again, thanks to all those who came out to support. It couldn't have been done without all my close family and friends, and a special thanks to my girlfriend Susan :)

Now, back to the serious stuff. I began radiation last Monday 10/19. The week prior I went in to get myself fitted for my radiation mask. I laid down on the radiation table, the techs then proceeded to put some type of slime on my face, they spread it out over my neck and part of my chest, it was actually kind of cool, felt like I was on Nickelodeons "You can't do that on TV". The slime hardened over about a 5 min span to turn into a mold of my face. I was thinking, "hey, this is kind of cool, I got my Halloween costume (it kind of looks like a Hockey mask, like Jason from Friday the 13th). All was good, until they bolted the mask (with my face in it) down to the table. Talk about claustrophobia, never thought I had it until that moment. Wow, I was freakin out. The techs have to do it this way because any slight movement during radiation will throw off the entire treatment. I'm thinking there's NO way I'm going to be able to do this every day for 23 treatments! Luckily, each treatment only takes about 5 mins and I've gotten used to the mask now, so no worries these days!

I'm about 25% done with radiation, but I'm already starting to feel the side effects. Sore throat, slight difficulty swallowing, and the worst is probably the indigestion....all were expected. I can also expect fatigue, but that hasn't kicked in yet.

So, where's that leave us? Well, according to the Doctors, this radiation should take care of all the residual disease left on my neck and chest. If all goes well, 11/19 should be my last day of treatment!!!!! I'm prayin hard

Finally, I'm going to try and upload some pics of the radiation process, hopefully this works!

NO MORE CHEMO!

Yep, you heard right, I'm done with chemo! Had a follow up appt with my oncologist today and she told me that I've concluded my chemo treatments. I got the results back from the biopsy done this past Monday, and I'm excited to say they came back negative! Yes Yes, it sounds all fine and dandy, but these results aren't 100% accurate. The biopsy that was done was a fine needle aspiration, and similar to the needle aspiration originally done on my neck back in April, that came back negative too. If you can recall, it wasn't until the full removal of the nodes in my neck did the doctors confirm it to be positive for Hodgkins. Sooooooooo, what I'm trying to say is that its still possible that the node in my chest is still cancerous.

So, whats the next step? Well, for the time being I'm just soaking up the good news, its been awhile since I've gotten any!

My oncologist mentioned I have 2 options:

Option #1) We can head straight into radiation. 20 years ago Hodgkins was treated solely with radiation and the cure rate was pretty good with that plan of attack, so radiation to this node will hopefully knock it completely into remission. PET scan will be taken afterwards to hopefully confirm no cancer. However, IF radiation doesn't work and PET scan still comes back positive, I'll need to have another biopsy done, this time removing the ENTIRE node to figure out why its resulting in positive form on the scan. This procedure is called VATS (http://www.rush.edu/rumc/page-1160429783340.html). The problem in doing this procedure AFTER radiation - there will be A LOT of scar tissue from chemo and radiation, this will probably make it very difficult for my surgeon to grab the lymphnode from my chest, maybe even impossible. Another negative to this procudure is that again, they'll have to collapse my lung, so recovery will be a little tougher and will require at least one nights stay in the hospital.

Option #2) We can go right back to the Operating Room and have the surgeon do the VATS procedure ASAP. In doing this, we will get a definite diagnosis from the biopsy on the lymphnode and it will probably be much easier for the surgeon to get to the node. Whether the biopsy comes back positive or negative, radiation will be required.

So my next plan of action is to call my Thoracic surgeon and get an idea on what he's comfortable with, I'll be doing this tomorrow. In the meantime - physically, emotionally, mentally I feel great, its nice not having such a burden on my shoulders like I did this morning. My blood pressure reading prior to the oncologist meeting with me was 145/90.....for those with BP issues, you know thats not great! I was nervous as hell!!!!

Anyway, Im really looking forward to the fundraiser, I can finally "let my hair down" (though its not much) and enjoy a few beers with family and friends. If you plan on coming and have any questions, please dont hesitate to reach out ot me.