Mid-November Update

Well, this past few weeks have been interesting. Last week, I spent pretty much the entire time in the hospital getting the stem cells collected. The actual process was painless, but just having to be there the whole time and feeling fine was getting to me a little bit. I was getting a little stir crazy. But everything went good, they got more than enough stem cells to continue on with treatment. So now I start the really fun part, chemo. Yay! This week, starting today, I have to take an oral chemo through the weekend. It's kinda crazy the amount of pills I have to take. It's incredible. I actually took a picture of all of them and posted it on my myspace and facebook page. Check it out!

Starting next week, I take the regular chemo, through the central line in my chest. Shouldn't be too bad, as it's the same stuff I had to do before. But just a higher dose. But they're going to be watching me like a hawk for about the next month. If I even get a fever above 100.5, off to the hospital I go. It's all for my good though, and I'm grateful for it. It's just a really big inconvenience. I just can't wait to get better again, and get back to life as normal. But the Lord has been good to me through all of this. It could be a lot worse. And like my step-dad says "I have the best worst luck of anyone in the world." Pretty much rings true. Other than that, nothing else really going on. Just enjoying my Nintendo Wii. I can't wait to get some more games for it.

Things going slowly, but surely

Things are still going slowly as far as my treatments, but at least we've made another step. The doctors/nurses were not able to collect enough stem cells once my counts came up. So now I have to do things a little bit differently. I'm now part of a clinical trial for a new drug called "AMD3100", and basically does the same thing as the other stuff I was taking, but more effective. And since it's a clinical trial, once I start taking this stuff, I have to stay in the hospital so they can monitor me. It's not that I have to stay in because it's going to make me sick or anything, but they just have to keep an eye on me just in case something happens. So, in other words, I'm a little bit of a guinea pig for this drug. lol. Actually it's a pretty good drug for it's intended purpose, a little bit better than the stuff I was taking. It's been in clinical trial for a while now, and found to be very safe. It goes up for FDA approval in January, so it's as close to being out of trial as it could be. So, let's just hope this does the trick. Because I don't really want to know what's next if this doesn't work.

Other than that, not much new at all. I've been playing some games on my new Nintendo Wii. Man, that thing is so much fun. I'm so glad I got it. Now I just need to start getting more games. On the not so great side, my desktop computer has pretty much kicked the bucket. I can't even get the cd drives to work any more. I built it up almost 4 years ago, so I suppose it's served well. I could keep replacing the parts on it, but it's pretty outdated. So, I think I'm just going to start "experimenting" with it. haha. But I do have my pretty new laptop (less than 6 months old), which is probably going to be my main computer for the forseeable future. Which is fine with me. It's a great laptop, a Dell XPS 1530. Couldn't ask for too much more.

Mid-October update

Sorry for not updating a little bit more often, but things are going slow at the moment. But over the past few weeks, I've had a catheter tube put in to my chest, and had one round of "mobilization" chemo. The chemo I had was basically to get the stem cells moving. But things aren't going as close to schedule as they thought. I was suppose to start getting the stem cells collected, but my counts have been too low. See, I'm having to take these Neupogen shots that's suppose to boost my white blood cell count. But I'm still at the downswing of my counts, and hopefully they should be bouncing back up soon. And I just found this out, that the stem cells are basically immature white blood cells. That's why they have to wait for the counts to come back up. And sense my counts aren't up to where they should be, they can't collect them. So, we (my mom and I) have to keep going back to the hospital every day until my counts come up enough. Kinda getting agrivating, but there's nothing anyone can do. Just have to wait. So, other than that, not much new going on. My last day at work was on the 26th. It's been wierd having all this time off. I'm not use to this. I miss having to go in and see everyone all the time. And it's just a harder burden on everyone else to take up the extra slack, which I really hate to do to them. Hopefully they can get another person in there really soon. Because if things keep going the way they are right now, Lord knows how long it's going to be before I go back. I guess I'm just frustrated with everything right now. I just want to get this all behind me, and was expecting everything to go according to plan. But anyone who's known me for more than a few days knows that doesn't happen. haha. O'well, I can't complain too much. I'm still kicking, so the plan for me is to keep going. And thanks to everyone who's really stepped up to the plate and helped me out. It's been great being in contact with everyone, and the great meals have already started. Thanks so much to you all of you for everything. I pray for you all, and thank God for you.