Skip to main content

Another indicator I'm getting the "good" stuff!


I'm just getting ready for my next infusion.  The last three weeks have been quite eventful.  About three weeks ago, I began having pain in my back and stomach.  It would come and go.  I began thinking that if I could just get to my next treatment and scans, I could find out what was going on.  I had never been in that much sustained discomfort ever without knowing what was causing the problem or pain. 
Last Thursday, I was at home and suddenly my tailbone felt like someone was attempting to pull it out of my back.  It hurt so bad I couldn't stand up. I sat down and the pain went away.  When I sat up to get into bed, my back began hurting.  I woke up on Friday and felt OK so I went to work.  I was OK sitting down but as soon as I stood up for any length of time, my back would hurt so bad I could not move!  My wife, Nicole, had already called Huntsman to ask Dr. Grossman what we should do.  About 3 pm, Nicole called me to tell me Dr. Grossman wanted me to go to the ER to have scans done.They were worried the cancer may have come back and was now in my bones.  Nicole and I went to UVRMC ER and 7 hours later, learned that it was not the cancer but they did not know what was causing the pain.  Over the weekend, I felt nauseated as well as in a great deal of pain.  On Monday, I went to see Dr. Brett Thorpe, a Gastroenterologist, regarding the pain.  Dr. Thorpe felt the pain was coming from problems with my esophagus or stomach.  Dr. Thorpe decided to do an EGD.  On Thursday, I had the EGD and found my esophagus, stomach, and duedenum were inflamed and ulcerated.  I began taking medication prior to eating that seems to help. 
I continued to have some pain in my back.  We did some more tests and found that my gall bladder was bad.  They removed my gall bladder right before Spring Break.  About a week before Easter, I began to break out in hives.  I was miserable.   I went to HCI and learned it was not directly related to my treatment.  I went to a dermatologist at the U of U and learned that they did not know what had caused the hives but it could be related to an infection.  They began me on a large dose of antihistimine that I had to increase to get the itching to stop.  The medicine made me really onery and my wife said I had no filter.  On Thursday, prior to Easter, I found out at another doctor visit that I had a sinus infection.  After taking the antibiotic, the hives finally went away. 
I have been able to continue doing everything.  I play basketball twice a week and umpire.  I recently umpired my first D1 baseball game and just umpired the 3A championship game. 
I know this entry is late, but you can see it has been busy.  I am getting ready for my next treatment in a couple of weeks.

Labels

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Alot of things have happened....and I'm a slacker!

It's been a while and some things have happened that I should update those that follow.  I have had good luck with treatments and my scans have been clear (up to this point!)  The major problems have been with my sinus'. I had surgery on my nose to correct a deviated septum (which I also had corrected when I was 16) and to clear out my sinus' so I could breath.  I was breathing at night like I had sleep apnea but I did not have sleep apnea.  I was having problems sleeping at night which was corrected after the surgery.  I then started to have problems that I thought were related to allergies.  The problem was that my nose would plug up but nothing I took (allergy pill-wise) would clear up my nose.  I could not sleep at night and it was very unpleasant and gross!  The nose doctor ( Dr. Riddle) said he could clear it up pretty quick by simply giving me a topical steroid to put in my nose.  The problem with the steroid was that I can...
Post a Comment
Read more

Finished the Clinical Trial!!

So it is done!  I finished the clinical trial this month!!!  It has been three years and now it is complete!!  My scans were clear!!  Dr Grossman even said that he was surprised how clear my scans were and how well I have been doing!!!  We did talk about the future.  I will go back and see him in 3 months and get scans again in 6 months.  I will see him every 3 months for 2 years but will only get scans every 6 months. We talked about risk of re occurrence.  I take this for what it is, statistical, because of going 7 years before re occurring.  Statistically speaking, things look very good for me!!!  What  I do know is that melanoma is a monster and can come back at any time and disrupt life!!!  The good thing is I know now some of the things that create a greater risk than others and can mitigate those risks as much as possible. The good thing is that this bout has not slowed me down.  I play basketball twice a week a...
Post a Comment
Read more

So, maybe I am in a fight?

Ok, so maybe I've been in a little denial.  This happened with my last bout but it took a little longer to happen.  Here is what I mean.  I was diagnosised, I had surgery, I had test and everything said the cancer was gone.  I then began treatment to "prevent" the cancer from returning or to catch it as soon as possible when it did return.  But, in my mind, it was hard for me to wrap my head around the fact that I was "sick" or "fighting my disease" because, in my mind, I was cancer "free".  That all changed after this last infusion. I went up for my fourth infusion and last of the first quarter.  I have been getting infusions every three weeks for the last three months.  After this infusion, I will get infusions once every three months.  Nicole and I went up early to get the labs done so that they would not hold us up for the treatment (we have learned that labs ALWAYS hold us up in starting infusion.)  For the first time, the nurse w...
1 comment
Read more