It's been a wild week. Finals are over, I had an adventure and a half getting home from Montreal (enough to make another full blog post) and we started Jesse's new treatments and mine. Only one of those continued.
It's a classic case of the good, the bad and the ugly. My trip home from Montreal was just plain ugly. I still have to make my official rant to Air Canada, but they owe me for my hotel room and expenses after their ticketing agent booked me a flight, an international one, with only a 16 minute layover. If I had realized when the first was to land and just how little time I would have, I would have squawked on the spot. She also assured me that it would be a tight connection but the plane would be in the same terminal so I would make it. Lie. I had no less than a half mile walk to pass through, with customs, in high heels. And then they lost my suitcase to boot. I'm not usually one to make a stink, but I assure you, they deserve my wrath. The poor customs agent who only asked me for a Canadian declaration card when I tried to present an American one was the only one to treat me with any kindness when I burst into tears and said "I DON'T HAVE ONE, I'M SUPPOSED TO BE IN NEW YORK!!"
The bad, was my attempt at starting an IVF cycle. After all of the stars aligned for us financially, my body had other ideas. After 20 years of being absolutely normal mother nature decided to play a cruel trick on me and leave me with cysts, and my cycle was over, just like that. Nothing to do but wait for next month. I suppose it's good this way... Jesse will be nearly done with his treatments and able to be fully present with me when we (hopefully) finally get to complete a full cycle.
That takes me at last to the good. We started Jesse's treatment this week and if there was such thing as textbook for radiation and chemotherapy, I would call this it. We had our follow up appointment with Dr. Maurer Monday and he was very impressed with Jesse's progress. We won't need to see him again for 6 months. He told us about some very promising treatments that are going into clinical trials, if we need them (though he doubts we will). There's a ground breaking treatment with immuno-therapy. Basically, they're taking viruses that we already have immunity to, injecting them directly into the tumor, and letting the white blood cells work their magic. It's showing a lot of promise and has been approved on some other types of cancer already. It's just a matter of time until it hits the market for the brain.
We had a few hiccups with getting the Temodar pills to our house, but once here everything has gone off without a hitch. We have to keep the pills away from his other ones, away from food, and we decided away from plates and cookware would also be best. And since a potential side effect of everything he's going through is short-term memory issues and confusion, we thought it best if I administer the medication.
Figuring that one out when I'm not allowed to touch them was interesting. Here's where my Shakeology addiction came in handy!
Night one I had to take off the seal and get the protective cotton layer out of the bottle. I had a little trouble wrestling the cotton out of there, but all I touched was the cotton, not the pills. I figured if I wear rubber gloves and don't touch the pills, no problem! I shook one into the little scooper cup that came with one of my (now empty) bags of Shakeology powder. Took it to him, and down the hatch. Take off the gloves, wash my hands, and we're done!
That's when I noticed a tingly sensation on my fingertip. And all I touched was the cotton, when I struggled to get it out of the bottle. Potent stuff, indeed! Don't. Touch. The cotton!
We're now 4 days in on the chemotherapy pills, and 3 days in on radiation. So far, his only side effect is being quite sleepy. We can deal with that. He's having some confusion, but it's all normal. All in all we couldn't ask for a better first week.
It's a classic case of the good, the bad and the ugly. My trip home from Montreal was just plain ugly. I still have to make my official rant to Air Canada, but they owe me for my hotel room and expenses after their ticketing agent booked me a flight, an international one, with only a 16 minute layover. If I had realized when the first was to land and just how little time I would have, I would have squawked on the spot. She also assured me that it would be a tight connection but the plane would be in the same terminal so I would make it. Lie. I had no less than a half mile walk to pass through, with customs, in high heels. And then they lost my suitcase to boot. I'm not usually one to make a stink, but I assure you, they deserve my wrath. The poor customs agent who only asked me for a Canadian declaration card when I tried to present an American one was the only one to treat me with any kindness when I burst into tears and said "I DON'T HAVE ONE, I'M SUPPOSED TO BE IN NEW YORK!!"
The bad, was my attempt at starting an IVF cycle. After all of the stars aligned for us financially, my body had other ideas. After 20 years of being absolutely normal mother nature decided to play a cruel trick on me and leave me with cysts, and my cycle was over, just like that. Nothing to do but wait for next month. I suppose it's good this way... Jesse will be nearly done with his treatments and able to be fully present with me when we (hopefully) finally get to complete a full cycle.
That takes me at last to the good. We started Jesse's treatment this week and if there was such thing as textbook for radiation and chemotherapy, I would call this it. We had our follow up appointment with Dr. Maurer Monday and he was very impressed with Jesse's progress. We won't need to see him again for 6 months. He told us about some very promising treatments that are going into clinical trials, if we need them (though he doubts we will). There's a ground breaking treatment with immuno-therapy. Basically, they're taking viruses that we already have immunity to, injecting them directly into the tumor, and letting the white blood cells work their magic. It's showing a lot of promise and has been approved on some other types of cancer already. It's just a matter of time until it hits the market for the brain.
We had a few hiccups with getting the Temodar pills to our house, but once here everything has gone off without a hitch. We have to keep the pills away from his other ones, away from food, and we decided away from plates and cookware would also be best. And since a potential side effect of everything he's going through is short-term memory issues and confusion, we thought it best if I administer the medication.
Figuring that one out when I'm not allowed to touch them was interesting. Here's where my Shakeology addiction came in handy!
Night one I had to take off the seal and get the protective cotton layer out of the bottle. I had a little trouble wrestling the cotton out of there, but all I touched was the cotton, not the pills. I figured if I wear rubber gloves and don't touch the pills, no problem! I shook one into the little scooper cup that came with one of my (now empty) bags of Shakeology powder. Took it to him, and down the hatch. Take off the gloves, wash my hands, and we're done!
That's when I noticed a tingly sensation on my fingertip. And all I touched was the cotton, when I struggled to get it out of the bottle. Potent stuff, indeed! Don't. Touch. The cotton!
We're now 4 days in on the chemotherapy pills, and 3 days in on radiation. So far, his only side effect is being quite sleepy. We can deal with that. He's having some confusion, but it's all normal. All in all we couldn't ask for a better first week.
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