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