Re: How is Randy?

[Guest guest]

Randy, honey, how are you doing? How is the chemo going? Is there anything you need? Can we do anything for you? robynn Diane Duenas wrote: RandyI pray for you for strength, peace, and endurance to fight the good fight. Im sending all that I can offer to you to help you!Big Huggles>> Just to let you know - my chemo starts tomorrow. Because my cancer > is growing so fast, the doctors decided to use different > chemotherapy agents, and as a result I will not have to have a port > surgically installed to drip in what they had been planning to use. > However, the

agents they will use are toxic enough and have enough > nasty side effects that I will be sedated, and I will also be > getting some IV benadryl to combat expected side effects, so I'll be > pretty loopy. Same treatment next Tuesday, and then, if all the > appointments and timing work out, I will begin the five-days-a-week > radiation treatments the following Monday or Tuesday, with chemo on > the first day, three weeks later, and on the last day. > > While I continue to feel pretty good (well, up to maybe 9:30 > tomorrow morning, anyway), and still able to eat without too much > difficulty, there is no doubt that I can feel that the tumor has > grown. It becomes increasingly difficult to swallow solid foods, and > my voice has become incresingly distorted and weaker. It's getting > higher, which suggests to me that the air is vibrating in a much > narrower passage

(which I am calling the piccolo-versus-tuba > theory). I hope I don't lose speech altogether, although it would > surely only be temporary - there's nothing near my vocal cords or > larynx. > > I have been doing all I can to keep the weight up, and I am now down > to 243, but I have stayed between there and 249 for almost two weeks > now, so I am fighting the good fight there. No matter how the > radiation affects my ability to eat, though, I expect that I will be > down a hundred more pounds over the next three to four months. That > would be a loss of 50% of my body mass in just over five months - a > good bit faster and farther, I daresay, than most WLS patients. When > I look at weight loss that rapid while under the strain of the > cancer and the therapies, I count every second I spent exercising as > having built a wall between life and death from

cardiac exhaustion. > > My 49th birthday is coming up on March 31, but since I may have > started radiation by then, we decided to celebrate a few days early, > this coming Sunday. Here's hoping it won't be my last!> > Randy>

[Guest guest]

Just got home from the second round of chemo, and, just like last

time, I feel fine - but now I expect to conk out in a day or so for

a day, which prospect does not bother me. Still no nausea or side

effects to speak of, and I'm about to eat leftover egg fu yung from

my birthday dinner! I will see Arlene Alloway tomorrow for a

nutritional review and check - I'm now at 241, down 40 pounds from

surgery. I am hoping to stay at 240 into the start of radiation,

which should be between April 4 and April 9. Whenever they schedule

that, then they will also schedule the next chemo for the same day

after the radiation, so that will be a LONG day. Then radiation five

days a week for six to seven weeks, with one more chemo in the

middle and one chemo on the last day of radiation. If you take the

average reaction, they tell me that I will be able to take myself to

radiation for the first two weeks or so, then I will need enough

pain meds that I won't be able to drive. By week 4 of radiation, I

will likely be unable to eat solid foods. By week 6, probably unable

to swallow and a gastric feeding tube into the unused portion of my

stomach will be installed. That tube will stay in and be my source

of nutrition for anywhere from three weeks to nine months. About two

months to ten weeks after the end of radiation, they will perform

what they call a [modified] radical neck dissection to remove the

rest of the cancer and the affected lymph nodes. Unfortunately, they

can't do this kind of surgery laparoscopically, so it will be a

couple weeks of somewhat painful recovery - but still not too bad,

and nothing compared to the recovery from the radiation burns in the

mouth and throat. They liken recovery to eating to bariatric post-op

Stage 1, 2, and 3, and that was not bad as far as I am concerned,

only, of course, there will be much more pain. Taste will disappear

around week 4 or 5 (and will change from week 2), and it comes back

anywhere from two months to four years later, and how much it comes

back varies for many people. Since my mouth and upper palate are not

much involved, I may do better on taste than most.

I have moved furniture and closet space around, and now I have room

for additional storage of medications close to the bed, and room for

a loveseat-sized sofa sleeper (sleeping one person in a twin

innerspring mattress) in the bedroom next to mine, which I use as a

library/office. I picked one out and put down a deposit, my sister

will help me finalize the color choice tomorrow morning, and they

will deliver it in ten days or so, doing a rush job for me under my

medical circumstances and charging me next to nothing - $30 - for

delivery, which is really nice. I have just measured the space

again, and I have room for an end table with a lamp next to this

bed, and I can add a swivel of utility lamp to the top of the

adjavent bookcase, too, if more light is needed. So if my sister

needs to stay with me, or if I am too unwell or too uncomfortable

for my girlfriend to share my bed, they will have a space to sleep

where they can keep and eye and ear on me more easily than the

sofabed in the living room - and it will be comfortable as a sofa

and as a bed and as a place to sit and read. Two computer desks, one

computer, network access and laptop docking station - my girlfriend,

who is a Yahoo! honcho, says she could work from my house if she

absolutely had to. Of course, the excellent library and the video?

DVD library and the kitties are major distractions. Among other

things, for my birthday, my girlfriend is getting me a really nice

desktop stereo system for my bedroom, so I can listen to music or

books on tape or DVD or MP3 when I am too sick to concentrate on TV

or holding a book. The rest of my family mostly got me what I had

asked for, which was gift cards from places I can buy new clothes

for after more weight loss. My brother got me a great gift, though.

When my sweetie took me to Las Vegas, I saw these in the in-flight

shopping catalog and said I should get one before my treatment

starts, and she thought it was a great idea. Well, my brother

travels for work all the time, and I guess he saw them too and had

the same idea. I got a really high-quality bed chair, that lets you

sit up very comfortably in bed. It also makes you look less like an

invalid and more comfortable about having people visit you in your

bedroom, and I have a feeling that will be something that will

become increasingly important to me over time. It has a massage

vibrator, a recessed cup holder, and pockets for books, magazines,

and remote controls, and it also folds flat for easy storage or just

tossing aside. Aside from how comfortable and how cool this thing

is, there's always the extra thrill of the mindreading thing when

you get a gift you've both been thinking about without each other's

knowledge. [Like when I opened my first Chanukah present from

and it was the original soundtrack from Wicked, and she opened my

first present to her and it was the complete set of the

Maguire books - Wicked and all the sequels and other fairy-tale

books of his.]

So I had a lovely birthday, a great dinner and gifts, so far a

pretty easy time of it with chemo, and the teeth are just about all

ready for the radiation. is bringing me a Yahoo! gimme cap to

wear to cover the hair loss, the beard is shaved (yuck I hate how I

look!), the bed and bedrooms are more or less all set up...if you're

about to descend into hell, having the best seat in the house is

about the best you can hope for...I can't complain.

Thanks for all the good wishes, and let me send them back to Donna

again, to Robynn, to , and everyone else. You know I'm gonna

be posting here!

Randy

> >

> > Just to let you know - my chemo starts tomorrow. Because my

cancer

> > is growing so fast, the doctors decided to use different

> > chemotherapy agents, and as a result I will not have to have a

> port

> > surgically installed to drip in what they had been planning to

> use.

> > However, the agents they will use are toxic enough and have

enough

> > nasty side effects that I will be sedated, and I will also be

> > getting some IV benadryl to combat expected side effects, so

I'll

> be

> > pretty loopy. Same treatment next Tuesday, and then, if all the

> > appointments and timing work out, I will begin the five-days-a-

> week

> > radiation treatments the following Monday or Tuesday, with chemo

> on

> > the first day, three weeks later, and on the last day.

> >

> > While I continue to feel pretty good (well, up to maybe 9:30

> > tomorrow morning, anyway), and still able to eat without too

much

> > difficulty, there is no doubt that I can feel that the tumor has

> > grown. It becomes increasingly difficult to swallow solid foods,

> and

> > my voice has become incresingly distorted and weaker. It's

getting

> > higher, which suggests to me that the air is vibrating in a much

> > narrower passage (which I am calling the piccolo-versus-tuba

> > theory). I hope I don't lose speech altogether, although it

would

> > surely only be temporary - there's nothing near my vocal cords

or

> > larynx.

> >

> > I have been doing all I can to keep the weight up, and I am now

> down

> > to 243, but I have stayed between there and 249 for almost two

> weeks

> > now, so I am fighting the good fight there. No matter how the

> > radiation affects my ability to eat, though, I expect that I

will

> be

> > down a hundred more pounds over the next three to four months.

> That

> > would be a loss of 50% of my body mass in just over five months -

> a

> > good bit faster and farther, I daresay, than most WLS patients.

> When

> > I look at weight loss that rapid while under the strain of the

> > cancer and the therapies, I count every second I spent

exercising

> as

> > having built a wall between life and death from cardiac

> exhaustion.

> >

> > My 49th birthday is coming up on March 31, but since I may have

> > started radiation by then, we decided to celebrate a few days

> early,

> > this coming Sunday. Here's hoping it won't be my last!

> >

> > Randy

> >

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