back to the usual topic....me.

i was off of sutent for 9 days...long enough for the side effects to subside...mostly. i didn't get full taste back in my mouth and my blisters on my fingers aren't quite gone, but my belly started to fill with fluid again. it was starting to get uncomfortable so i called and talked to my immunotherapy coordinator and she said to go back on the sutent to try and help the fluid build up. so, my break was short and i am back on the sutent. the runs came back right away, but the other side effects are slow to show as usual...thank goodness. this is the plan for a while at least. dr. doom wants to try to get me on a 5 or 6 week on 1 week off cycle with the 25mg dose since it seems to be working pretty well. i will keep the usual 3 week check ups. maybe he will think about switching to the 37.5mg dose again in the future, but for now im sticking with the 25mg. long term plan is to stay on the sutent until it doesn't work anymore then try something else. that's all the new info i have right now. we are in one big trial and error cycle...testing the limits of my body...how long i can stand taking the sutent...when do i need a break...how long can the break can be...how long will it continue to be effective. yadda yadda yadda...

You can't make this sh!t up....

before i get to the subject of the title of this post, i've got to give a shout out to my ECU Pirates for coming through at the last minute to whoop Va Tech's ass yesterday. WOOHOO!!!! i must admit, i did not have faith in my Pirates, but they restored that faith. I WILL NEVER DOUBT YOU AGAIN O FAVORITE COLLEGE O MINE!

second, i grew up near the Chesapeake bay....crab country. i miss a good crab cake damnit. the one thing they know how to do down south is mess up a crab dish. people....green peppers RUIN crab flavor. yuck! and, let me tell you, if you are at a restaurant that is 100miles or more from the Chesapeake bay, DO NOT BELIEVE IT when the menu says "Maryland Style Crab Cakes". they are lying. what you will get is a crab cake with too much filler, green peppers and stringy, nasty, tiny bits of crab meat...nowhere will you find true "lump crab" unless you are near the Chesapeake bay. so, i miss a good crab cake. yeah i know you can order them and have them shipped to you, but that's just not the same. so, here's another shout out to TRUE Chesapeake bay style Maryland crab cakes. YUMMY TO MY TUMMY!

this is my pup...when he was a pup....he will be 8 on halloween.

OK...on to the real meat of this post. pun intended. you can't make this shit up if you tried. i found out the other day that my dog, yes, my dog, has cancer. i took him to the kennel the other day which also happens to be his vet. they asked if i wanted them to look at anything and i told them to look at a couple skin tags that he has below his left elbow. he gets them all the time and i have had them looked at before and they always tell me that they are fine and i can leave them alone if they are not bothering him. well, i had them look at them this time because something told me to....i just had a feeling that they needed to look at them again. well, later that day, i get a call that they are recommending he have his teeth cleaned cuz he has a cracked tooth and that if i want, they can take off the skin tags while he is under for the teeth. they tell me that one of the skin tags is a little larger than the other and that it might require a couple stitches, but otherwise it should be straightforward. great...do it. she tells me that she will call the next day after he wakes up from everything and will let me know how it went.

so, the next day i get a call...his teeth cleaned up great, the cracked molar isn't bothering him so they want to leave it in for now and just keep an eye on it, the skin tags came off fine but the one that needed stitches became "angry" when he was in recovery and this is not normal. she took a tissue sample via a syringe and looked at it under the microscope and determined that the pathology was cancerous. WTF?! are you freaking kidding me?! now my dog has cancer. is there something in the water, something in my house? come on...my luck has got to change soon! she tells me that if i agree, another vet (one that knows me and my dog) can perform surgery sunday(today) to remove the entire tumor from his forearm. she says that this type of cancer has a good prognosis if the entire tumor can be removed. HELL YEAH REMOVE THE DAMN THING! ASAP! fix my baby! at least one of us can say we are in "remission".

i don't know exactly what type it is...i didn't catch all of the details she was telling me because i was in shock about my luck. i was thinking "what's next?". i am supposed to get a call with an update today after his surgery. i'll post what i find out. this time cross your fingers, toes, legs arms and eyes for my dog!

this is my pup now. what a sweetie!

Lovely new side effect...

opps! i forgot to mention why i am on a break from the sutent. i'm not one to quit, but damn, i just couldn't take it anymore....i needed a break. besides the usual side effects i experience, low white cells, low platelets, low hemoglobin, the runs, sore mouth, lack of appetite, sensitive fingers and weight loss....i was lucky enough to get a new one...blisters on the hands. yup, those nasty little bastards that i have read about finally came looking for me. mine aren't really best described as blisters tho...they are more like callouses or corns that just keep getting bigger and bigger and new ones appear daily. they itch like crazy and are painful when touched. i had a bunch on my right thumb and my middle finger. try picking things up when you are right handed....the locations were perfect for maximum annoyance! made it hard to play wii damnit!! :) thankfully, like all of my other side effects they subside over a week or so when i go off the sutent. they have shrunk considerably now and just feel like normal callouses...with a yellowish tint to them thanks to good ole sutent.

My ears were burnin'!!

Monday between 12 and 1 my ears were burnin'.....why you ask? well, because dr. doom was presenting my case during the monday conference because i had responded extremely well to the sutent....AGAIN! yippie! i had my scan on the same day as my check up appt. so the radiologist hadn't had a chance to go over them yet, but dr. doom looked at them with all of us and gave us his take on them. below is the play by play....

first, there was some fluid in the bottom of my left lung that had been there for some time, but he wasn't too worried about it...this time on the scan...it didn't show up at all...completely gone.

second, i had up to 50% reduction in cancerous tissue around several of my lymph nodes...GRRRREAAT!!

third, there were 3 lesions on my liver on the previous scan that were now gone...however, there was a new spot that dr. doom wasn't sure about and needed to consult with the radiologist about.

fourth, and yes, i saved the best for last...the cancerous tissue in and around my kidney had also been reduced significantly. (i don't have a percentage for that one yet) dr. doom was very pleased with my continued response to sutent and presented my case on monday. he loves me cuz im a good success story for him so far...and i love it because it motivates him even more to get me into remission! that is a long way off and a tough road that i will have to travel, but that is the ultimate goal of course.

well, that's the news that fit to print folks. i am going to Va Beach over labor day weekend for a much needed vacation away from hospitals and dr.'s and the C word. i am most likely starting back on the sutent when i get back from vacation....fun, fun, fun. hopefully the side effects will be delayed for a couple weeks this time....that would be wonderful.

thanks team bean saver! hope your summers have been great and your vacations have been restful. i'll update when/if i learn more details about my scans.

Happy Anniversary Lefty!

well, maybe not the happiest of anniversaries, but Aug. 22nd marks the day that i found out about my cancer and the day that my life changed forever. its been a long 12 months and i have many more months of fighting to go, but 12 months is 4x longer than my dr.'s lowest life expectancy estimate. so, eat your heart out dr. doom. CDRCC aint getting rid of me that easily!

Wed. Aug. 20th is my next scan to see what lefty's been up to...sneaky little bastard that he is. the last scan was back in May and it was simply to get a benchmark after surgery. i was not back on any meds at that point. on scan day i will have been on a full cycle of 37.5mg(4wks) and a constant dose of 25mg for 7 weeks. hopefully it is still doing something in there! the side effects are kicking my butt so it better be kicking some cancer butt in addition to mine.

i'll update the blog as soon as i can once i get some news about my scans. one thing i can go ahead and report is that the fluid is not building up nearly as fast. in fact, it is hard to tell if it is building up at all or if some days i just have gas bloating my belly. :)

cross your fingers, toes, legs, arms for scan day team bean saver! thanks!

Drink your milk!

quick update. they got my labs back and my thyroid looks good, but i was low in calcium. so, i have to chew 2 tums twice a day for the next 3 weeks until my next check up. i was surprised that calcium was the only thing that was low since i am poopin' everything out so fast...i thought for sure i would be deficient in more minerals than that. usually my potassium and my magnesium are low, thankfully they are fine.

hopefully this will be the last post for a couple weeks...until my next check up. remember, no news is good news right now. holding steady with crappy side effects..that's my story and im stickin' to it! :P

on another note...i got a wii finally!! w00t! challengers...any challengers? who wants to kick the cancer patients' ass in some Kung Fu Panda!?