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