Given the all clear!

I'm writing up a very quick post tonight, but I just HAD to share that I went to see my RO to get the results of my PET/CT this afternoon and was given the best Christmas gift ever... a negative scan, with my body being completely unremarkable!  Two clear PET scans in a row dramatically decreases my risk of a recurrence, so I am very, very happy.

That's all the time I have to post for now, but I figured whoever still reads this is entitled to hear about my good news. :)

Cookies, cookies everywhere and not a bite to eat!

As the holidays approach, I like to bake... and bake... and bake.  Now, I don't like eating a ton of cookies or anything, I just love baking.  I do enjoy eating a couple of my creations, but for the main part I like bringing them into work or giving them away.  Today I brought in 4 packed containers with peanut brittle, peppermint bark, ginger cookies, and nut cups.  I put half of it out on a tray in a break room at work and it was gone in less than 10 minutes!  I brought the other half to an afternoon meeting and pretty much got rid of the rest.

Anyway... that's not really the point of mentioning the cookies.  The point is that I haven't even had a chance to really sample all I made and I am REALLY in the mood for some cookies right now, but I'm scheduled for my 6 month PET/CT scan tomorrow and I'm not supposed to eat a lot of sugars, carbs, or caffeine 24 hrs prior to my scan.  I haven't eaten any cookies all day even though I've been giving them out to folks.  It's torturous!  I actually only remembered the rule about not eating sugar.  It wasn't until a little bit ago when I went on-line to look it up that I saw the carbs and caffeine bit.  I actually had a coke zero and rice at lunch and a small serving of potatoes with dinner.  I hope that doesn't interfere with my test.  I guess the reason they tell you to restrict your diet the day before is to starve your cancer cells of sugar.  Cancer cells uptake and metabolize glucose much faster than regular cells, which is why the PET scan works.  When I go in for a scan, the first step is to get injected with the radioactive glucose.  I then sit in a room for 45 minutes or so.  If I were to have any cancer cells, within that 45 minutes, those cells would uptake and start metabolizing that glucose.  Regular cells will take much longer to do that.  So, if there were any cancer cells, when the scan takes place, they would light up on the screen.  If the cancer cells are starved of glucose for 24 hours, then they're even more likely to uptake and metabolize the radioactive glucose when it is injected.  If they're full of glucose already, then they probably won't.

So anyway....  I guess I'll sit here drinking water and just look forward to the fact that the place where I'm having my PET scan is right next to a Dunkin' Donuts.  haha

Happy Thanksgiving

I can't believe it's been a month since my last blog post.  My, oh, my... where does the time go.

I hope all of you are having a fabulous turkey day!  Jake and I recently evaluated what made sense as far as traveling to see our families meant and decided that it made a lot more sense to travel for Christmas this year than it did to travel for the short Thanksgiving holiday.  Hopefully we can rotate every year since Thanksgiving is the big holiday for Jake's family and Christmas is the big holiday for my family.  So... that being said, Jake and I had a nice quiet Thanksgiving here at home.  I made a fantastic meal to which Jake said sarcastically "Do you think you made enough?".

I was pleasantly surprised that my roast chicken, stuffing, green bean casserole, sweet potato latkes, cranberry sauce, and rolls all turned out great!  Usually I end up messing up at least one or two little things... maybe I'll overcook or undercook something or a new recipe (like the roasted chicken or latkes) just won't turn out right.  In the middle of dinner I turned to Jake and said "Wow.  Everything turned out so good!" to which he replied, "Yes it did.  I love you."  Ahhh.... so the saying must be true.  The quickest way to a man's heart IS through his stomach. 

So now we sit, letting our stomachs digest our feast... I'm blogging.  Jake's playing video games.  Soon we get dessert, though, homemade pumpkin cheesecake!  The cheesecake turned out pretty great this year too.  We had a Thanksgiving potluck at work last Friday which was awesome!  There was a huge turkey and ham and a variety of stuffing, potatoes, vegetables, and desserts.  I made 1 1/3 recipes of my cheesecake this year, leaving the mini one at home for Jake and I for today.  The whole one I took into work for our potluck.  It competed against 3 pumpkin pies, 1 apple pie, 1 french silk pie, 1 pound cake, and pumpkin bread for 40-50 people.  My dessert was the only one that disappeared completely.  The rest had a slice or 2 gone, but my plate was clean!  I'm so glad I made the extra to keep for Jake and I.

Anyway...
I suppose the reason many of you visit my blog is because of my health, so I suppose I should touch briefly on that instead of going on and on about all this food!  Well, things are going well.  I can't believe that almost a year ago I couldn't hardly even eat anything let alone taste it and appreciate it.  I'm just so thankful this year to be relatively healthy again!

I wish you all a very happy Thanksgiving!  May you all take this time of year to reflect on all the things in your life for which you are thankful too.  :)

What's the frequency, Kenneth?

So many of you are probably thinking, what ever happened with Jake?  Wasn't he supposed to have that procedure done on his back?

Yes... he was and I suppose it's time I tell you how that went.

So a little over a week ago on 10/15, Jake went to see the pain specialist to have the official radio frequency lesioning procedure done to the facet joint nerves in his back.  Essentially Jake's problem was that he had developed facet joint spondylosis, an arthritic-like degradation of the joints between his vertebrae, which was causing referred pain in his latissimi dorsi muscles.  Through verification with the anesthetic shots, the pain doctor was able to pinpoint the affected nerves to the 2 pairs radiating off of the 8th and 9th vertebrae.

The procedure began with a bit of local anesthetic, then using an x-ray, they placed needles in the 2 sets of nerves and applied electrical current to have Jake verify the placement of the needles.  Once the needles location was verified, the radiofrequency generator passed heat through the needles.  This essentially "cut" the nerves.

For the rest of that weekend Jake was pretty sore.  This "easy, non-invasive" procedure was not very pleasant.  That being said, by about the following Monday whenever I would ask him to rate his pain he would either say "1" or "Shut up.  I feel fine." . . .  which, in Jake terms, means pretty great.  Since then, it seems he continues to be doing much better.  His chair at work seems to be helping with the bursitis quite a bit, as well.  He's also cut back on pain meds.  We will continue to work on making him better all around and hopefully continue to cut back on medications.

Jake is still finding plenty to complain about, but he is definitely doing much better.  I have high hopes for the future.

Well... I suppose I should get going to bed.  Good night everyone!

"On the plains of old Sedona, Arizona... among the trees"

Brownie points if you recognized the obscure Pixies reference in the title...

I realize it's been a while since I updated my blog.  I would have written last weekend, but Jake and I were out of town.  It was our 2nd anniversary and we decided to celebrate by taking a day off of work and traveling up to Sedona, AZ.

It was quite enjoyable.  We took a train tour of the Verde Canyon, went out for a nice dinner, and then took a hot air balloon ride at sunrise the following morning.  I got some pretty awesome pictures.  The views were spectacular!  I would definitely recommend hot air ballooning at least once in your life.  I don't really know if I'd do it again.  I think it was maybe a bit pricey for what it was.

I guess that's about all I have to say regarding our Sedona Anniversary get-away.  Thanks to all of you who sent "Happy Anniversary" wishes and cards.  I hope to send you all personal emails when I get a chance.  There just aren't enough hours in the day!  And with that.... I hope you enjoy some of the pictures I took...

 

The future of cancer research

So it seems I finally have a chance to blog about a topic I've been wanting to write about for a few weeks now... the latest advancements in cancer research.

Maybe a few weeks ago you were lucky enough to catch the Stand Up 2 Cancer program on TV.  I did not get to watch the program myself, as Jake had control of the TV content (like always); however, I did get a chance to hear a pretty great interview with Laura Ziskin, co-founder of Stand Up 2 Cancer, on the Stupid Cancer Show podcast that I listen to.  I was very happy to hear about the great things that the organization was doing and plans to do.  Stand Up 2 Cancer research focuses on translational studies, especially those in the lines of genetics.  Instead of funding studies that cigarettes are bad for you or that you should or shouldn't drink red wine or if you should get your first mammogram at 35 or 40, they're funding research that might actually CURE people.  They force "dream teams" to work together, teams comprised of young cutting-edge scientists, actual clinicians, pharmaceutical companies, etc. and invest money in research that may not always be as successful as "typical" research, but whose payoff would be far far greater.   What is extra great about Stand Up 2 Cancer Research is that it is not specific to one age group or cancer type.  The old way of cancer research was disease-specific, which researchers are finding is no longer the best way of doing things.  The HER 2 gene found in pediatric brain cancer patients helped scientists develop the drug Herceptin for a subset of breast cancer patients, a drug which actually stops cancer from spreading.  That same gene has recently been found in some young male prostate cancer patients, as well.  Cancer is no longer age, body part, or type specific and Stand Up 2 Cancer is fighting for the cure in an actually meaningful way.  I was so pleased to hear they ended up raising 140 million dollars during their show on TV a few weeks ago!

All of this came during the same week as my checkup with my radiation oncologist.  My RO knows of my affinity to science and shared with me some details from the latest research he's been reviewing.  He says that the next major breakthrough that will happen in cancer treatment is the ability to find specific genetic markers that would show a predisposition for mutations and be able to give a cancer survivor a drug to suppress that mutation.  One day there should be a drug I will take to ensure that I would never have another recurrence.  How cool is that!

Hopefully, with support of organizations like Stand Up 2 Cancer, this drug technology is right around the corner.  Taking a drug to prevent some of the paranoia and a recurrence would be amazing!  That scare last week was just a horrible reminder of how frightening living as a cancer survivor can be.  It brought back those feelings of "not-knowing" that I had prior to both my biopsies.  I'm happy to report that my ENT did a thorough feeling and scoping of my nose, sinuses, throat, and tongue and found nothing abnormal or infected.  My left nasal passage was a little tight and so since I had been having sinus pressure for over a week, he went ahead and prescribed a steroid pack.  It seems to be helping, although I seem to be extra itchy and nauseated.  At least my sinuses don't hurt any more.

Anyway... exciting things are happening in the cancer research world and I just thought I'd share.  Also, in case you're looking at your calendar and thinking that it's getting near the end of the year and you better get going on your tax-deductible gifts to charity this year, you may want to look into Stand Up 2 Cancer this year.  Other honorable places to donate would be the American Association for Cancer Research, who actually share research money with Stand Up 2 Cancer, and the I'm Too Young for This Cancer Society, which provides age-appropriate support to young adults affected by cancer.

Happy Cancerversary to me!

Two years ago ago today I visited my ENT to hear those words I would never forget, "Could your fiance wait in the waiting room?  The doctor would like to talk to you alone.  Then we can bring him back."

It was then I knew the results that my ENT confirmed a few moments later.  The biopsy was positive for cancer.  Since then, it has been two years on a crazy roller coaster of tests and treatments and scans and scares.  It has also been two years of great maturing and hopefully some positive reevaluation of life's priorities.

So what did I do to celebrate today?  The same thing as the past 2 years...kept living.

And I'm looking forward to many years to come. :)


Oh... and by the way, that little sore on my tongue... it's completely disappeared now, although the sinus infection symptoms persist.