September Update

My mom told me the other day, "Christopher, you haven't updated your blog since last April."

"Well duh, Mom, I had better things to do!"

But then I got to thinking that I probably should write an update, because my last post started with a gross picture of the interior of my bronchial tubes... and that was the first thing people would see when they were checking out my blog.

Since last April, things have been pretty busy, to say the least!

Our beautiful daughter, Madeline Grace Poynter, was born at Victoria General Hospital on May 17th, 2015, at 5:39 PM, which was five days early. She weighed a healthy 8 lbs 1 oz and had a good strong scream, right from the get-go!

Here are a couple pictures of Madeline at birth:

...and here are a couple pictures of Madeline, now, at four months old!

It was nice that both Kaitlin and I were able to be at home for the first four months of Madeline's life, as I was on medical leave for the school year. During the summer I did some DJ work on the weekends and enjoyed being a dad from Monday to Friday.

Now that it's September I am back to teaching. I got a two-day-per-week contract as the music teacher at Sangster Elementary School and I am loving it so far! I am on the sub list for Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, and I may consider picking up another contract at some point as well. I am fairly busy with DJ work on the weekends throughout the fall though, so I like the flexibility of being able to take a Friday or Monday off when I need to.

In terms of my health, I was doing great, but after one week of teaching I've already caught a cold. I guess that's what happens when you stick a guy with no immunity into an elementary school. Unfortunately I will probably be catching a lot of colds this year.

In other news I had my third round of post-transplant vaccinations last week. The whole vaccination thing got delayed by a few months because of my neutrophil issues but those are 'mostly' under control for now. I am still occasionally taking Neupogen but it seems like my bone marrow is slowly starting to get the hang of neutrophil production again. Yay vaccinations!

We had one more scare a few weeks ago when I developed a cough again. It got pretty bad to the point that my oncologist sent me for a CT scan to make sure my tumour wasn't growing again, but thankfully the scan came back clean.

I could write a whole post on the anxiety surrounding the fear of relapse, but I'd rather just finish up this one and move on.

So.... that's all for now! My next oncologist check-up is in November, so if there is anything to report, I will write another post then. Right now it's time to go blow my nose and get on with my life!

Thanks for reading :)

Christopher

Transplant Complications

About a month and a half ago I developed a cough. It wasn't bad at first - aggravated only by heavy exercise - but after a week it started to get stronger and really persist, no matter what I was doing.

My first thought was "Shit. My tumour is growing. My cancer is back."

My oncologist got me in for a stat X-Ray and CT Scan and they came back clear... PHEW!!!

However, there was still the mystery of the cough: I didn't have any other symptoms of being sick but clearly something was wrong. I was referred to a pulmonary specialist who decided to shove a camera down into my lungs and take a look around. Here's what he saw:



Yes, I know, I always have to be the guy that says (right before being sedated) "Hey can you print off some of the pictures for me?"

Anyways, since I was sedated I don't recall if he saw anything of significance down there (the pictures look fine to me) but I'm seeing him again next Friday so I'll find out then. In the meantime he got me to start taking Salbutamol before I exercise, which hasn't helped so far. He also got me in for a pulmonary function test today, which showed perfect lung function.

So as of now, my cough is a bit of a mystery. Luckily it seems to have gotten a little bit better over the past week but when I ran Finlayson yesterday it made it worse so who knows...

I guess there is also a chance the cough could be related to this next issue:

My bone marrow isn't working properly.

Here are my blood test results from yesterday:











As you can see, my body is no longer producing neutrophils. This means I am extremely susceptible to infections; in fact, I am even in danger from the bacteria that lives on my skin and in my mouth. The last time my neutrophils were this low was following my stem cell transplant and I was semi-isolation at Vancouver General Hospital, getting antibiotics at the first sign of a fever.

Weirdly enough, my neutrophils have been less than 0.5 for several weeks now and I haven't had any signs of infection or sickness even though I've been scraping up my legs while hiking, out in crowded public places, and hanging around my wife who caught a cold in March. I guess the other parts of my immune system are still working well!

My stem cell doctor in Vancouver said that sometimes after a stem cell transplant, the bone marrow can take time to figure out how to do its job again. Also, the antibiotic, Septra, I was taking for three months can sometimes suppress the bone marrow.

My oncologist in Victoria said he thinks it's the result of a bad virus I caught. I'm not sure about this though, because I haven't gotten sick!

My doctor in Vancouver got me to take two G-CSF (Neupogen) injections last week which he said should be enough to kickstart the marrow into producing the neutrophils.

When I talked to him on the phone today he said it was "very puzzling" that the injections hadn't worked, so he and my oncologist decided that I should give myself the G-CSF injections for the next 2-4 weeks (thank-you Pharmacare & Blue Cross for covering the $8000 cost). They also want me to get a bone marrow biopsy (my third since 2012) on Monday so they can try to figure out what the hell is going on.

So... here's a summary:

• I've had a mysterious cough for a month and a half
• I don't have any other symptoms of illness
• Salbutamol pre-exercise doesn't help
• A pulmonary function test showed healthy lungs
• I had a bronchoscopy which may or may not have shown anything  

• My bone marrow has stopped producing neutrophils
• It could be the result of a bad virus
• It could be the result of an antibiotic, Septra
• It could be my bone marrow is being "lazy" and just needs a good kickstart
• It could be a condition called Myelodysplastic Syndrome (let's freaking hope not)

In other news our baby is due in three weeks! Holy crap! I did a little maternity photoshoot with Kaitlin and here is my favourite photo from it:



That's about it for now. I will do another post hopefully next week when we know more about what is going on.

Thanks for reading,

Christopher

Take that, cancer... again!

I went to Vancouver on Friday for a PET Scan to see if my stem cell transplant worked. Today my oncologist called to let me know that he received the results, and I am cancer-free yet again.

Yeah!

I beat Stage IV Lymphoma twice!

Thank-you Dr. Yee, Dr. Thant, Dr. Abou Morad, and the amazing nurses at the Victoria Cancer Agency, Vancouver Cancer Agency, Royal Jubilee Hospital, and Vancouver General Hospital. All of you literally saved my life.

And of course I couldn't have gotten through this for a second time without the care and support from my loving wife Kaitlin, both our families, and all our friends. I'd love to name every single one of you but I know I'd accidentally miss someone. Please just know that you all live in my heart and I will never forget how much you were (and still are) there for me.

From here on out, I will be getting blood tests every month. I'll see my stem cell doctor at the end of March, and my oncologist in May for check-ups.

In May I will also start receiving all my childhood vaccinations again, but that will happen over a period of two years. Since our baby is due in May, maybe we can get our vaccines together?

My doctors have said I should wait until September to start teaching again. Although I am feeling physically half-decent, my energy and focus still fluctuates quite a bit, and I am still extremely immunocompromised. It's actually kind of scary to think that I no longer have protection against things like colds, flues, chicken pox, mumps, measles, rubella, varicella, diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, hepatitis... etc... etc...

STAY AWAY FROM ME, GERMY CHILDREN!!!

I don't know what else to write. I am just so relieved that this is all over (again) and I can put all my energy and focus into my continued recovery... and helping out my pregnant wife, of course! I am unbelievably excited to become a father in May, and it's so nice to no longer have cancer be a distraction from that.

I'll post again when I have baby pictures to show you ;)

Thanks for reading,
Christopher