Herniated guts, and Victor's Secret

Hey everyone! Dad said he'd write yesterday, but I knew he wouldn't, so I'll take the honors in giving an update. He can clarify anything I over-exaggerate or extrapolate.
True Story: Dad's guts are spilling out. They're coming out through a weak spot in his wall, and I do not know if this is from his initial surgical spot or not. Alls I know is he's fortunate to have a strong integumentary system keeping his innards off the floor.
Dad saw Baltzy yesterday, and went in not asking, but telling him that he wants a 4 week wash out before the next scans to prep for laparoscopic hernia repair. You have to get all the meds that are keeping your mets from growing out of your system or you'll never heal from surgery.
You know, I've worked for three years to get Mom and Dad to take an authoritative stance on his healthcare, and I think I would've been a proud parent(in a flipped dysfunctional parent-child relationship moment) seeing Dad tell Baltzy how it was gonna be. Alas, Baltzy told him differently.
This is all second hand, so I'll paint the picture the way I perceived I heard it...
Baltz said, in a nutshell, 'like hell you will.' he told Dad that he had been handed a miracle, and that he would not be messing that up. He would take the miracle, and not go screwing it up for some stupid hernia.
I do appreciate some passion. If you're going to think one way about something, at least do it with some umph. So, I probably don't say it enough, Thank You Dr. Brad Baltz. You have reminded us again to be neither complacent nor unappreciative of our fortune.
There will be no hernia repair. Therefore, Dad the Engineer has set his sights on support attire. Now, there are manly support garments on the market, BUT, since we didn't engineer them ourselves, they're all wrong. The seams are on the inside, the straps are uncomfortable. I reminded Dad that BBW's (that's Big Beautiful Women for you not up on salacious alterno-fetish websites) have been hoisting, securing, and squeezing their big guts in for centuries, and that he and Mom aught pay a visit to the Dillard's Foundations department for some inspiration.
"They have those things at Victoria's Secret?" he said.... "Not in your size, honey"... I had to tell him.
Dad's already started on his Victor's Secret Man Foundation Prototype. Like ManSpanx, but more serious. I think there should be a mustache and monocle on the label.
Dad will meet his 6th grandchild this week when Sisterbaby finally bursts. On July 4th, 2009, my sweet teary eyed baby sister desperately said "Oh my God, he won't meet my babies..."

Oh yes, oh yes he will. Thank you, Dr. Brad Baltz. Thank you.

For the rest of your day, think of Dad in frilly support lingerie. Dad, I'm sorry. Everyone else, YOU'RE WELCOME!!!

;) EAB
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NEW VIEW!

I've changed the blog to "dynamic view," which probably sends some of you old- timers into the shivers.  Calm down.  Change is good.  When you pull it up on your iPad, it will say the new dynamic view is unsupported.  Their pants are on fire... it works just fine.  Just click on 'continue unsupported' and feel smug in beating the system.  
Now I'll have to come up with something to write about the offensive malignant cell balls that started this whole blog in the first place.  Give me time.  Ol' malignant cell balls have been behaving lately... nothing to report. 
I'm sorely disappointed that I can't get the picture of the molecular structure of Avastin on this dynamic view.  


Change is hard.  
E

Good graph day

Results of Monday's scan are in. Ol' girl Avastin is doing her job. The last sentence on the report is the coolest- "minimal disease present at this time."

OurFavoriteDrug has been in the news lately because she has been determined ineffective for the treatment of breast cancer, or, I suppose her stats in breast cancer don't justify her costs...and I don't know which political party it places me in when I think about the one woman for whom Avastin is working and the struggle she must face.

What if the FDA felt the same about Avastin in RCC? I simply don't care if it's working for everyone else, or if it costs the insurance company more than one life is worth, or if Genentech/Roche has to up their cost to pay their research nerd. It's working for us. So don't mess with it. Leave Avastin alone. There, politico over.

Dad will resume The Juice on February 14th. He's gonna have a little chemo-pole withdrawal, but I'm sure he'll find other things to do.

Goooooooooo Avastin! Be aggressive. Be. Be. Aggressive.

E

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Whoa man, you're spilling your protein!

Dad's been experiencing some swelling of his extremities as of late, and we've been trying to figure out the cause.  Kids don't lie, and last weekend Elliot asked him, "Paw Paw, why's your face like that? so... so... fat?"  Ha! His legs are holding water like crazy, and I had a dream that he dropped dead of a heart attack and the sweet sweet irony we'd all discuss at the funeral....  So I called and kinda begged for him to make another appointment with the heart doc ( swelling can be indicative of congestive heart failure, duh...).

 Not one one worry, or rush to seek medical attention, or be concerned that he's only wearing house shoes, The Patient finally called his nephrologist ( not the heart doctor, but a doctor all the same) and got an appointment.  Dr Hefner was equally concerned with his swelling and asked him to collect his pee in a jug for a day.  I guess that's a nephrologist's tool bag- a big jug of pee.  I haven't given up my quest for a cardiology appointment, and even pulled in Sisterbaby to make a call as well.  The baby in the family usually gets what she wants.

Anyway, it has been determined that Dad is spilling protein, probably because the un-rotten kidney isn't working up to par, and protein acts as a glue to keep your fluids where they need to be.  He prescribed a different diuretic and recommended a break from Avastin ( gasp!).
Dad got some quick relief from the diuretic, went to see Baltzy the Oncologist on Tuesday, wasn't supposed to get the Avastin, but did anyway.  He doesn't want to go without his Avastin, but Baltzy said that he's got to let his kinda-ok kidney catch up.  Dad is glad he snuck in an extra dose, as he doesn't want any false negatives on his scans on Monday.  He'll stay off Avastin until Feb 14th, then they'll re-evaluate.

Baltzy and Hefner have both been saying that his heart is fine, and that he didn't need to go to the cardiologist; however, in a sudden strike of divine intelligence, Baltzy came to his senses and told Dad that when two women get together and tell you to do something, just go ahead and do it.

Eye roll.
E

Good Living through Chemistry

I'm fine ! Really I am.

It's been 9 months since I blogged. Some of you may have been worried about me.... or not .

This is a picture of Erin, and Ezra (born November 15) He's the 5th grandchild. How could I not be fine ! Looks just like me, don't you think?

Erin wrote one time about the spooky white eyebrows. Well, the darker model is back. How could I not be fine ! Not long ago, Dr. Baltz said I looked 10 years younger. He didn't say that I looked 10 years younger than 60, just that I looked 10 years younger than I did a while back.

The Avastin/Interferon cocktail is apparently still working. I guess you saw where some mets were actually gone, gone, gone in the late October scans. We have another set of scans to do at the end of January. More news then. I've been on this regimen for 9 months now and still don't have it figured out and quantified like I did the Sutent. On the week that I just have the Interferon injection, I've come to expect ache joints, and headaches for 3+ days. Debbie says I'm grumpy....nah! On the other week, I get an IV of Avastin + the Interferon injection...and they add a steroid to the IV that totally masks the flu-like symtoms.

Body chemistry is a strange thing. All of a sudden, my blood sodium was low. That's a bad thing and it can kill you or make you crazy as a lesser symtom. I'm monitored so thoroughly that I didn't experience either so I've spent a few months building that back up.

Side effect of Chemo is water retention. Water retention means dilution of your sodium, so don't eat dietary salt, but drink yourself silly on GatorAid. Don't drink any water at all...brush your teeth with GatorAid. I'm sick of GatorAid!

I've been freezing to death since summer....finally we're working on hypothyroidism symtoms. I wish they had started earlier, because it's about to be well digger cold, and my thyroid isn't regulated yet.

I'll be 61 in less than a week. I'm fine...really I am.

SIGNIFICANCE

Y'all know about me being psychic?  Last night I had a dream that the radiologist came out of his dark radiology room, and he took off his tiny little square glasses as he wiped his sweaty brow.  He's wearing a long, white, I'm better than you, lab coat with that big monogrammed cursive writing on his left lapel.  "Can't find them... they're gone" he says.  " Are you sure these are your films, sir?"  This is when Dad says "well, I reckon they're my scans..." and the sweaty radiologist says "yes, I reckon they are, and they're gone.  gone gone gone.  can't find a single one."    


Well, it didn't go EXACTLY like that today, but it was close.  Baltzy the Oncologist called Mom this afternoon to tell her that Dad left his office before he even ASKED about his scan results.  Do you want to be one who is called directly by your oncologist?  Yes, of course... but NO! No no no.  But yes.  This was nice of The Doctor.  Anyway, Baltzy said that he had run over to listen to the audio transcription of the scan results, and that along with some mutter mutter jibber jabber, the overall impression was that there was "significant response to therapy."  I only practice radiology for my own family members, BUT, using the word significant is, um... significant.  Because we radiologists(ok, I'll stop)... use significant in its statistical sense, not just its literal sense.  Literally, there has to be a big enough change from status quo to even think about using the word significant.  We won't have the real numbers until tomorrow afternoon, but this gives us significant joy.  Not only for the stability or the possibility of improvement, but because it buys us three more months of not thinking about it; doing other things.  


Dad told me today that he "would probably blog tonight."  I told Mom,  and she told him "Oh, Erin said you PROMISED you would blog tonight."  This, set off the rebellious spirit I share with Dad, and pretty much cemented that he would NOT be blogging this evening.  I understand completely.  It's my blog anyway.   


I'm 9 months pregnant- at least SOMEBODY is getting to celebrate.  
Cheers!
E 

Oh Hellew. I know. It's been months. Dad's still wearing Hawaiian Razorback shirts and playing the banjo. There's not much we can do about it, as the man has cancer. I wonder if Steve Jobs' kids were like "Daaaaad! You're launching the ipad today, DON'T wear that same black turtleneck!" while he finished his breakfast and flipped them off as he walked out the door. I wonder. I'll come back to him later.


BIZNETH: Just called Dad to ask when he has scans. He said "uuuuuuuuuuhhhhhh, Octooooooooooober, ummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm twenty.............ummmmmm fifth. Yeah. 25th. Let this be a sign of the times. We used to know the day, scan time, and and results appointment time three months in advance. It used to be written on my calendar with a little scary face next to it ( yes, I illustrate my calendar with emotion), and now I guess we're just used to it.

Dad's still getting juiced with Avastin/Interferon every Tuesday. He still gets some headaches. His hair is turning darker in a strange Benjamin Button sort of way. Most comforting is that his eyebrows have returned to their original color. 'Cause white eyebrows are disconcerting. There has to be some evolutionary biological reason for dark eyebrows, as when they aren't, your cellular-level guts tell you somethin' just aint right. Gives me the shivers, and I'm glad they're back.


STEVE JOBS: His passing affected me. Not because I am a lover of his brilliant innovations. I appreciate small bits of brilliance in my little microcosmos every single day. It affected me more because I think I might know what his family is feeling. Pancreatic cancer is like RCC in that it has dreaded stats. And I'm sure that his family, like ours, put his cancer up on a shelf and continued on with their lives. They took cancer down every three months, dusted her off, then put her back up on that shelf to keep on keepin' on. He went to work, provided the framework for brilliant minds to come up with brilliant new tools ( anyone seeing the connection between Apple Inc. and American Restoration Tile? I know... uncanny isn't it... Who DOESN'T need a custom fired, historically accurate in color, unglazed porcelain three quarter inch square edge tile???? I know, right???? )
And then it all fell apart. Steve Jobs afforded himself the best medical care, I assume. If anyone has access, it's that dude... but really, at the end of the day, while Steve Jobs was kind of a big deal to a lot of people, he was just somebody's husband, and some kid's dad... just like mine.

I asked Dad if he had any business to report to the blog. He said he would not divulge anything, as I would steal his thunder. He did tell me about some dude at Kinko's that thinks he is his cousin, and asked about our plans for the weekend, etc.....

Our cancer is up on the shelf. We know she's there. We'll get her down on the 25th. Hope there's nothing to see.

Tra la laaaa
E