So here is my week in review
Went to Lonestar on Tuesday night - Amy and I have a tradition of going out for dinner the tuesday night before I start my next chemo cycle. We have done this for months now. The main reason is once I start my cycle my counts drop a bit so we try not to eat out until well into the second week of the cycle for my safety's sake. The last thing we want is a setback from us being careless. We also do this because well we enjoy eating out and it is one freedom that we still have. When you go through a cancer battle you are stripped of so many freedoms that the ones you can keep you have to be very diligent in keeping up with. These give you the sense of normalcy and keep your spirits high. Amy is very nice though, on the nights before my cycle starts it is always my choice of restaurant, which almost always ends up being Lonestar. I can't get enough of that places fajitas. They are just so delicious. On this tuesday Amy's parents, Mary and Louis, joined us to celebrate our recent engagement.
Started my Maintenance cycles - On Wednesday my mom and I trekked into PMH once again to start my next cycle of chemotherapy. This week was a bit of a milestone because I officially have finished the intensification treatments and have graduated into maintenance. Truth be told there is basically no different for the philadelpia postitive acute leukemia patients like myself. A bit smalled dose of steroids but not by much. They moved my "ass" chemo to Wednesday's now so I no longer get the home care nurse that I was building a friendship with. By moving this chemo it meant I had two chemo injections on Wednesday. They both did this through IV but I found the second chemo really gave me some nausea so next time around I will be just getting the regular chemo injected IV and asking the nurse to poke my ass muscle with the other one. Although it means I get poked more, it doesn't seem to have as much effect on me as usual. My blood counts all looked great...My kidney enzymes have come back down into the normal range, I think they were high the past two times because I was not fully hydrated when the took my blood so that enzyme can be inflated. My live enzymes were still high, but with all the poisoness drugs I take my liver has a hard go over the past year cleaning out my system. My doctor isn't worried about it because it is normal for these enzymes to be high but I am supposed to go for an ultrasound of the liver as just a precautionary measure to make sure there is nothing wrong.
Got some clarification on my Transplant donors - After my meeting with the Transplant doctors we were left a little confused because the transplant team told me that the donor had no idea that they were a match. This raised my worrying a bit because that would mean there would be a greater chance of them saying they weren't interested in performing the procedure anymore. Finding out I had two took this anxiety down quite a bit. This information was contradictory to everything we had heard so we left that meeting a little confused. I clarified with Dr Schuh on Wednesday at my appointment and he informed me I wasn't given the whole truth. The donors know that they have been a potential match to someone and One Match has reached out to them or else they wouldn't have given their blood for further testing. This is how the doctors know both are 10/10 matches. He told me that although some do back out at this point it is much less than before they give their blood. They do have to pass a physical still but in principle agree to the procedure. So this was a big relief to get this news.
Got some fantastic shots on Tuesday and Thursday - Tuesday after I spent the day walking around my area taking some photos on my camera. I was trying out a bunch of different techniques that I have been learning, but managed to get some pretty nice shots. Thursday I was up bright and early and was out at the marina in time for sunrise. I got some fabulous shots of the sunrise and posted them yesterday. I keep on the right hand side of my blog a box that shows my most recent photography posts. If you click the post name it will link you to the site. Go check the shots out as Aaron Offord Photography.
Well I am definitely no marathoner - While I was out shooting yesterday morning I finished up my shots at the marina and pier and wanted to get to a nearby park for some shots, so I decided to run there so as to not miss much of the sunrise. Well let me tell you, it damn near killed me. I only had to run maybe a kilometer but it might have well be 10. I felt like I had run a 10 km cross country race when I was done. This is something I want to build up strength again in because the first round of hospital chemo took all that strength away. I was surprised at how hard it was considering I have done a number of full hour spinning classes without too much difficulty. I guess this just goes to prove yet again, that running is the toughest workout.
Finally making progress on my saviours - Once I found out that I had a bone marrow transplant match I have set one priority for myself above all others, and that is to kill the plantar warts. I call them my saviours because without them who knows how long the leukemia would have gotten worse before I caught it. I could have easily died without them. But they have overstayed their welcome. The induction therapy killed my immune system so they were able to really back dug into my system. I don't want them when I go through transplant because I will be on immune suppresants for quite sometime and won't be able to get rid of them. So I figured I would attack them with all my might right now while I do have some immune system. I go to the doctor every week to get them burnt with Liquid Nitrogen and this week was my 10th appt. We are finally starting to see some progress and they have gotten much smaller which made me so happy. It probably isn't the best to do this treatment while undergoing the cancer treatments because the extra pain mentally wears you down. But these have been the bane of my existence for so long that I don't care. Truthfully they bother me more than the cancer. So I can't wait until the day they are gone. I will update you more on them once there is another breakthough.
Well that is pretty much it for my week in review. Hope you liked it and would love to hear your thoughts. Have a great weekend!
Aaron
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