Cyberknife and More...

TV commercials suck. The last thing that I want to watch is the latest Viagra or Tampax ad, especially when the kids are watching TV with me. Ever try to answer a six year old when they ask "Daddy, what's a tampon?"!

Since I hate commercials I tend to watch many of the shows from the DVR recording; that way I can tap the button I programmed for a 30 second skip and just bounce past the offensive interludes. Why bring this up? Well, last week I saw--for the first time that I can remember--one of the KP Thrive commercials and it really hit home. The scene is set by a young lady going about town, talking about how she has cancer. The tag line for the ad is "I have cancer, it does not have me." Great attitude, and one that I will have to remember.

Friday was Cyberknife treatment one; they did the spine only. Yesterday was treatment two (spine and brain), and today is treatment three (spine and brain again). Robin tells me that the CK team says I am their most relaxed patient yet...huh, all I do is try to sleep through it! What else is there to do when you have to hold perfectly still for one hour and are strapped into a cradle or mask to ensure compliance? Watch a fancy welding robot move about and spit Xrays at you? Boring. (Yesterday the CK tech discovered my secret--she came in at the end of the brain frying and had to wake me up.)

Side effects from the CK treatments are pretty manageable. Mostly just fatigue/lassitude and a touch of nausea. These generally hit around one hour after the treatment. Yesterday I was feeling pretty good and a bit adventurous, so we stopped and got dome food on the way home. Note to self: Fried McDonalds food and CK treatments do not mix well. I ended up missing dinner (a gorgeous steak) and spent the evening praying for my stomach to chill out. Joy.

Initially the CK scheduler had the majority of my treatments scheduled for the mid afternoon--which caused much whining from me due to travel and rush hour--but they have so far managed to reschedule every one to earlier in the day. Today's appointment is now in its third iteration, as we have to be there by 1130am. Just goes to show, whining can help! Plays havoc with Robin's scheduling back-up for her clinic though. I must say, her boss and the staffers have been absolutely stellar through this whole thing. Thanks ladies!

Not much from the Sutent this time around. The reflux can still be pretty bad--that and the steroids they are giving me as part of the CK treatment are why I am up so early--but not much else thus far.

Had a friend drop by for the afternoon on Sunday, so we spent the time kibitzing about our old employer and generally catching up. Great fun and a good morale booster. Hey, in case any of you forgot, it's the little things that help. I am also told that the prayer circle has grown again; thanks Mary and Laura!

Well, time to go. About time to wake up the house and do the Daddy thing.

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Sleepless in Castro Valley

Just a quick update while I wrestle with insomnia...I received a phone call from the Cyberknife folks late yesterday afternoon--tip for others out there: trying to locate items in a newly remodelled Safeway while noting appointments and talking on the phone does not work. I must have cruised the same aisles three or four times while trying to do both. I guess my sister in law is right, that Y chromosome prevents multi-tasking!

It seems that I have an 0800 appointment this morning (nothing like a timely warning) for the simulation and target scanning; then treatment appointments for Monday and Tuesday. Of course, the follow up email from the Treatment Coordinator has to confuse all of that, as it also mentions a treatment appointment on Friday. Not very confidence building. Ah well, all I know is that Robin and I will be at the Cancer Center at 0800 to sign in and start the day. The Treatment Coordinator tells me that today's appointments will last about 4 hours, so I think I'll bring my netbook along and surf. Yes, Stanford has free WiFi for the public to use.

Other news from the trenches: The various docs have finally agreed, and I am back on the Sutent as of yesterday morning. Too early to tell what the side effects will be this time around, other than nasty indigestion at 0330 in the morning.

Well, time to see if the Zantac is working and try to get back to bed. But first I'll have a bit of a snack as I am not supposed to eat anything after 0400 today (part of the preparation for the morning CT and MRI scans). Gotta keep the weight up...

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Back From Fort Bragg

Well, we got back from Fort Bragg last night. I guess we all had fun, because we slept thru the alarm and didn't wake up until 0715 this morning. Even our son--who is usually up and raring to go by 0600--was fast asleep when I went in to wake him! All in all quite a nice weekend. My brother and his family just happened to be there as well (no planning, just luck), so the kids got to play and bop around together.

Late Friday I got a call from my primary Onc--he and the Neuro Onc doc are worried about me taking chemo while the Cyberknife treatment is underway. Usually with normal radiation therapy there is a two week wait between the rads and the chemo. So now we are waiting for the Cyberknife docs to chime in as I told my Onc that the Stanford docs were not worried. Of course, the call was at about 5pm, so no chemo over the weekend, and still no answer yet today.

Well, not much else to talk about today. I have KP and Laundry duty so I probably ought to get back to it.

Take care.
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A Day at Stanford and Mailing List Update/Information

Robin and I spent the day at Stanford Hospital yesterday for the CyberKnife consult. The Neuro folks had billed this as a treatment appointment, but evidently SUH had other plans... As is par for a teaching hospital we had to wade through a group of Fellows and R3's before we saw the physician of record for the consultation. The treatment plan that we agreed to is for a return visit for creation of the face mask (assists in beam targeting) followed by final/targeting imaging by CT and MRI. Then we would go home for a day and return on day three for the actual therapy. The final number of treatment visits is yet to be determined, but it will probably not be more that three visits.

I heard from RWC late last Friday about the full spine MRI results: the only lesion noted is at L1, and it is larger than on the first MRI. There is some extension now into the surrounding soft tissue, and RWC thinks that traditional radiation might be beneficial--I am not convinced of this. I would prefer the CyberKnife team look at the scans and determine if they can address the lesion; so I have pushed the RWC team to refer the lesion to SUH, rather than telling me that they (RWC) think it is too large for the CyberKnife.

On other fronts, I have received a few mailing list requests from people who are already enrolled in the Google Group. Note: The mailing list and the Google Group are one and the same. I am only using the group for the mailing list features which offer more flexibility than the Blogger web site. Long story short, if you are receiving blog post updates then you are on the list and do not need to resubmit your name. If you are not recieving update emails and are on the mailing list then you should just leave a comment in the blog and I will try to figure out what is happening.

Well, time to get moving and accomplish things. Today is our Wedding Anniversary and I need to start acting like it!

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Just a Tiny Little Pin-Prick

I saw the Neurosurgeon today for my follow-up.  Nothing earth shattering there, the wound is basically healed, and the remaining visual changes should resolve over the next month.  He did mention in passing a new mets that was seen on the post-op MRI of the brain on 9/25.  Evidently it is in the Temporal Lobe and about 0.5cm across.  This one will be left for the CyberKnife folks to deal with on Monday at Stanford.  Nothing like letting me know in a timely manner...  I wonder if that mets might be the cause of the Right Temporal Headache I had the other day?  The surgeon was pretty unimpressed...

He also mentioned that he has no idea where the hand cramps are coming from.  Why do all the docs say that?  Since I can so easily reproduce it by using chopsticks I'll chalk it up as a repetitive stress injury thing.

After the Neuro visit we raced over to Hayward to go see the general surgeon and have the barometer lesion removed.  All told they took out a chunk of my scalp about the size of the last joint in my thumb.  Call it 2.5cm x 1.5cm x 1cm.  If this is anything like the first excision it will end up hurting more than the craniotomy did, once the local anaesthetic wears off.  Now, where did I put those Percocet tabs?

Still waiting for the reading of the full spine MRI that was done on Tuesday--I guess I'll rattle the cages of a couple of people and see what shakes out.

Dad came down yesterday to bop around with us and keep me company during the appointments today.  He just jetted off because he has to be home by morning.  Sure is nice to have family around.

Time now to go get the kids from school.  Take care.

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