Back Home Again

My new "cancer fighting" shirt from Roots!

Today I was finally "officially" discharged from the hospital and able to cut off my wristband and return home for good... for now!

I have to send a huge thank-you out to all the nurses in the Patient Care Building, 8 South, at Royal Jubilee Hospital who took care of me - especially Scott and Halima. I'm not sure if either of you will ever see this, but your company, care and compassion were the absolute best part of my stay. I cannot express enough how thankful I am for your care! :)

Here's how my chemo cycles work for those of you who have been asking:

Each chemo cycle is 21 days long, and I am doing a chemo regiment called GDP + Rituximab. On "Day 1" of each cycle, I am infused (IV) with three drugs - Gemcitabine, Cisplatin, and Rituximab, over a period of several hours. Additionally, on Days 1-4, I take 40mg of Dexamethasone each morning, orally. On "Day 8" of each cycle, I will be infused with more Gemcitabine. Then I basically have two weeks until I do it all over again. I will be doing 3-4 complete cycles of this regiment, which will take me into late November or early December, and then I will have my stem cell transplant which I still know very little about.

Today I am feeling pretty crappy and out of it. I'll probably do a post soon to describe the side effects, depending how they differ from the CHOP-R chemo I did two years ago.

That is about all for now. Thank-you to everyone who has been helping me over the last couple weeks - Shannon for making us a ton of freezable meals, Kelli for mailing me some wind-up dinosaur toys (hehe), Anna for popping by with some delicious munchies, Jordie for helping me to mellow out, Mark, Eden, Jeff, Gord, and Darlana for visiting me in the hospital, Jean for sending Kaitlin and I for a fancy dinner before all this started, everyone who has donated to my Leukemia & Lymphoma Society of Canada Light the Night Walk Victoria fundraiser - I've now raised $2600 towards my $5000 goal...

...and of course the biggest thanks of all to my loving wife Kaitlin, my parents Reed & Aven, Kait's parents Gord & Darlana, my sister Jean, and my brother Jeffrey. I couldn't do this without your endless love and support!!!

Thanks for reading,
Christopher

Hospital Time

A lot has happened in the nine days since my last post. I've been writing little daily updates on my Facebook page, forgetting that a lot of you reading this aren't on my Facebook page. Sorry!

On Monday morning - September 15th - I went to Royal Jubilee Hospital for my bone marrow biopsy. It was essentially the same as last time; 5 minutes of discomfort, 5 seconds of excruciating pain, and 5 hours of not being able to walk. I felt sore, but okay by the evening so and Kaitlin and I went for a nice walk along the Ogden Point Breakwater with our good friends Brad & Jasmin. Follow that link for some beautiful pictures of the sunset.

On Tuesday morning I went back to Jubilee for a CT-Guided Biopsy of the tumour in my chest.

Here's how it worked:

I lay on the CT scanner bed, and went through a couple times to get an image of the tumour. The machine used a laser to project crosshairs on my chest, and the doctor traced over them with a felt pen, so he knew exactly where to insert the needle. He injected some local freezing into the site, and then inserted a wide hollow needle an inch into me. The CT technician then ran me though the machine for another scan. The needle showed up on the scan, and the doctor was able to see that it was headed in the right direction. Next, he pushed it further so it was inserted into my tumour, and then inserted a second smaller needle inside of it. The smaller needle had a handle with a trigger on top, and when he pulled the trigger it made a KU-THUNK sound as it grabbed a sample. He did this twice in total.

My chest was a bit sore afterwards, but as the day went on it felt better and I was well enough to go climbing at CragX that evening.

On Wednesday I got up at 5:00 AM so I could make sure I caught the 7:00 ferry. My PET scan at the BC Cancer Agency (Vancouver) was at 10:40, and since there was no 8:00 ferry, it meant I would just have to get there a bit early.

I arrived at the Cancer Agency around 9:30, and was informed that they were running behind so my appointment likely wouldn't start until 11:15. I hadn't eaten since 10:00 the night before so hearing that made me a bit grouchy. I went for a stroll down some of the nearby streets, and got back to the BCCA at 11:15. I was informed that it was still going to be a little longer so I begrudgingly plunked myself down into a chair and got comfy.

When all was said and done, it was 2:00 PM and I trudged down the street in search of food. I came across a decent looking place on Ash & Broadway, called Rogue Kitchen & Wetbar. I was drawn in by the sandwich board that read "Be the first person to show me how to get the new U2 album off my iTunes, and receive your lunch for free!"

I wandered inside and after being seated and ordering some food, I inquired if anyone had cashed in on the free lunch offer yet. The answer was 'no' and so I told the manager how to get the new U2 album off his iTunes, and he paid for my lunch. The food was great, and I would highly recommend it to anyone!

I managed to squeak onto the 5:00 PM ferry back to Victoria, and arrived back home at 8:30. Talk about a long day!

On Thursday I went for an appointment with my oncologist and he had some frustrating news for me: The CT guided biopsy sample was insufficient for diagnosis, and the only way to get a better sample was through surgical biopsy.

The reason this procedure needed to happen in the first place is so my oncologist can be 100% sure that it is indeed a relapse of the same type of lymphoma I had previously. There is a very small chance it could be a different type of lymphoma, and if it was, I would require a different kind of chemo.

My oncologist did not want to delay starting chemo any longer, so I was admitted to the hospital on Friday which put me on a standby list to have the surgical biopsy over the weekend.

It was another case of the Starvation Blues waiting for the biopsy, because I wasn't allowed to eat after midnight on Saturday, and my biopsy didn't end up happening until around 4:00 PM.

My 8th floor view at Jubilee Hospital

Waiting for surgical biopsy with Kaitlin

I was under general anaesthesia for my biopsy, so I obviously don't remember anything about that procedure! I can tell you, however, that I have an incision several inches long on my chest, and I was in a great deal of pain for most of the night.

This morning (Monday) I woke up and could barely move due to the pain. I managed to pull myself out of bed, get dressed, drink some water, and wash my face before I was clinging to the toilet bowl, trying not to throw up. I got all sweaty and tingly, and almost blacked out before the nurse got me back into bed with some pain medication. I've never had that happen before!

Awake after surgery. Unfortunately, the smile was short-lived!

I hung around and rested for most of this morning in the hospital, and started my first cycle of chemo a few minutes ago - in the early afternoon. I have one more drug to be infused tomorrow, and they say they want to "keep me for observation" for another day or two after that. I may attempt to escape earlier.

That's all for now.

Wait... I almost forgot...

A number of people have been asking why I will be unable to teach for part (or all) of this year. Didn't I have some weeks, last time I did chemo, where I felt okay?

Yes, indeed, I did. However, the issue with chemotherapy is that it destroys the immune system. Doing chemo means I need to be wary of something called Febrile Neutropenia - if I were to get an infection while my white blood cell count was so low, it could be potentially fatal if left untreated. And we all know how much elementary schools are germ cesspools.

In terms of when I will be able to return to work, right now it's looking like I will be on chemo until December, and then I will have my stem cell transplant in Vancouver. As far as I understand it, I will be in the hospital there for at least a month. Following that, I think there is a period of close observation and if I make it to 100 days post-transplant with no problems, then I'm doing well. I have it in my head that I will be able to start teaching again after Spring Break, but at this point it's impossible to say for sure. The only thing that is certain is that I am pretty bummed out to not be teaching this year.

That's all for now. I will write another post when more stuff happens!

Thanks for reading,
Christopher

Quick Update

My PET Scan in Vancouver was postponed until last week because they ran out of the radioactive tracer that needs to be injected in my body for the scan. Apparently this is an ongoing problem. Anyways, after a few phone calls on Thursday, everything got sorted out and now I have a fun-filled week ahead of me:

Mon, Sept 15 - Bone Marrow Biopsy (ouch!!)
Tue, Sept 16 - CT-Guided Chest Biopsy (even more ouch!!)
Wed, Sept 17 - PET Scan in Vancouver
Thu, Sept 18 - Oncologist Appointment
Fri, Sept 19 - First chemo session

That's all for now. I will probably write a longer post this week, or next weekend.

Thanks for reading,
Christopher

Light the Night Walk 2014

Donate HERE or join my team HERE.

For the second year in a row, I have decided to take part in the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society of Canada's Light the Night Walk Victoria. This year it is taking place on October 25th at the Red Barn Market on West Saanich Road.

Last year my personal fundraising goal was $1000, and my team goal was $3000. In less than a month, we ended up fundraising $5000!

This year my personal goal is to raise $5000. I am walking as part of the Red Barn Market team, and our overall goal for the Victoria LTN Walk is $30,000.

Why am I doing this?

I have a blood cancer, and the LLSC helps people with blood cancers. They are an excellent organization. Full stop. 

What is the Light the Night Walk?

Each year, in communities across Canada, teams of families, friends, co-workers and local and national corporations come together to raise funds for The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society of Canada's (LLSC's) Light The Night Walk events and bring help and hope to people battling blood cancers. In 2013, nearly 25,000 people participated, raising over $5 million.

If you would like to find out more about where your dollars go, please visit the LLSC website. 

Anyways, here is the point: I am writing this post to humbly ask for your help in supporting the cause, in the form of a small donation. You can head on over to my fundraising page here if you're able to give, or if you'd like to even join my team and help with the fundraising, you can do so here.

Thank-you very much!!!

Best,

Christopher


My story is also on the LLSC Website which you can view by clicking the image below!

The Cancer Returns

It's been so long since I've written anything substantial here that I almost forget how to do it.

I guess I'll get straight to the point.

It appears that my lymphoma has relapsed, and I am going to have a tougher fight ahead of me than last time.

Shit.

About four weeks ago, I got a bit of a chest-cough, which turned into a cold that eventually subsided. The cough stuck around however, and when I exercised a wheeze began to present itself in my breathing, so after a couple weeks I went to see my family doctor about it. He put me on antibiotics, gave me Alvesco (a corticosteroid inhaler) and sent me for a chest x-ray because of my history with lymphoma.

Unfortunately, the x-ray results came back showing an approximately 8x10 cm mass in the same location as the tumour I had previously dealt with. The news was pretty unexpected for me, because I was coming up to two years in remission and I had been so healthy! Even though I had a 50% chance of relapsing, I guess I just thought that it was over and done with.

I went for blood work twice last week. The first test was normal and the second one, almost a week later, showed declining WBC and Neutrophil counts, as well as an increasing Lactate Dehydrogenase count - all signs that corroborate our worst fears.

After a week of stressing out, Kaitlin and I went to see my Oncologist at the BC Cancer Agency yesterday and he laid out the plan for us.

I will need a CT scan (which I did yesterday) and a PET scan (in Vancouver next week) to confirm that my lymphoma has relapsed, and then starting in two weeks from now I will begin to undergo chemotherapy again. I will likely require 3-4 rounds of chemo, which will last approximately 12 weeks. It will be different drugs than last time, but I think the side effects are essentially the same. Following that, I will require one round of high-dose chemo and a stem cell transplant which is a risky and complicated procedure that will put me in reverse isolation for several weeks - or longer - at Vancouver General Hospital.

Other than this whole thing being an extremely significant emotional burden on Kaitlin and me, it also means that I will be unable to teach for most - or all - of this year. These procedures will completely destroy my immune system, so catching any sort of common colds or flus would be a fast track to the emergency room.

It's hard to let something like that sink in.

We don't really know much more than this right now. Although I need to wait for my CT and PET scan results before everything gets started, as my oncologist said "if it walks like a duck, and talks like a duck..." (how is that supposed to end... "it's your lymphoma"...?)

I will write another post when I know more.

Thanks for reading,
Christopher

PLEASE NOTE: If you have hired me to DJ your wedding (or other event) next year, I am still planning to do it. If you were thinking about hiring me but haven't yet, please do! I would only advise against booking me if your event is before March, 2015.