Preparations

So I mentioned I was going to post the results of my last PET/CT scan and decided that I really don't care what the report says. I mean, it's all about how I'm feeling and lately I've been feeling pretty damn ok (good would be the next step)! It's a lot to say that I feel "ok" with what I've been through in the past and how I've felt the past two years. I still deal with the same aches and pains but think I've learned how to manage them now and haven't let my life be affected by it.

As a matter of fact, I think I'm ready for another adventure! So, off I go tomorrow down to Florida :D I have an empty place waiting for me and the weather here isn't getting any warmer. The leaves are off the trees and it's time for me to go, ha! I of course will have to come back every three weeks for the SGN-35 (God willing) but that's no biggie. I think I'll do the first couple driving then when the airfares go down after the holidays, I'll start flying back and forth.

Even though I've lived in Socal for a couple of years, I've always wanted to live in Florida in the winter (since I was a kid!). It's much warmer there in the winter (both air and water) and the surfing and fishing should be off the chain! Plus, two of my really good buddies live down there so I'll have a good support system already in place.

So I think my body has finally gotten used to Eastern time again, whew! I felt like a zombie for a while during the day when my body was telling me I should still be sleeping. People complain about jetlag when coming in from the Western time zone which is 3 hours, but Hawaii is a whopping 6 hours! Thank God for Ambien...

Just wanted to say how grateful I am to be able to do all of this stuff... I played my cards right when I was working to have benefits that would allow me to maintain a decent lifestyle if I ever got sick. Granted, this only lasts till next October and I'll deal with that scenario when it comes but this has been great! Of course, not to mention the fact that I'm still physically able to get out and do all this stuff, what a blessing.

I've decided that I have to keep myself as busy as possible to keep my sanity! The busier I am, the less time I have to sit around and think of potential gloomy outcomes down the road. I still have my moments from time to time where I get freaked out having refractory cancer and thinking about friends like me who have passed but for the most part I keep this in a sealed container in the back of my mind. One thing I can't control however are the crazy dreams I've been having! I don't know if it's from the treatment or what but I have been in some horror flicks lately in my dreams, yikes! A couple of times I had to look around when I woke up just to make sure I was still here in my room and not some dark far away place. Maybe the sealed container gets opened when I'm sleeping and the demons come out to wreak havoc! All I can say is that sometimes it's nice to wake up ;)

Anyway, time to jump on the list of errands I've got written down... Just want to say time to make like the birds and fly south!!

Moving Forward!

So, as I mentioned, I'm back from my two week trip. It was awesome! Southern California was great as always. Had a chance to catch up with some friends, play golf twice, see some great live music, hang out on the beach and do some exploring. Hawaii was out of this world! What a beautiful place... Stayed on the island of Oahu the entire time and it was non-stop action! Got a chance to surf three times in Waikiki and managed to get up a few times! In fact, I had the longest ride of my life of about 10 seconds which for me is huge :). The beaches there are incredible. Went snorkeling a few times and two out of the three had a chance to swim with giant sea turtles! That was probably my favorite thing, those turtles are so cool. Also had a chance to hang out with my cousin Jeff who just moved there from Michigan and teaches 8th graders at a charter school. I'm really proud of him as the job he's doing isn't easy and he's putting in some serious hours to try and make a difference in these kids. He stays at a great place with a nice patio where we played darts and listened to music. His buddies have a place on the beach and we went there one night for a party and had a blast. We also did some cool stuff up at the North Shore visiting Sharks Cove and a couple other great beaches which the names I can't remember. The best meal I had was actually from a roadside grill trailor where I had a fresh grilled mahi mahi bowl, yum! It had fresh grilled fish over brown rice with pico de gallo, sour cream and avacado. Funny, with all the fancy restaurants in Waikiki that my best meal would come from a roadside grill trailor, ha! Anyway, loved the North Shore and little town of Haleiwa (sp?). We also saw a great reggae band up there on night called Dub Conscious.

All in all it was a fantastic trip! I wish I could walk out to the beach right now and take a swim in that warm clear water! I'll settle for Florida however and will be making plans to move down there soon...

As for my other stuff (yeah, gotta talk about the stupid cancer stuff) things are looking ok. I just had a PET/CT scan and the nurse just came in and told me that they're going to mix up the SGN35 for infusion! This means that my disease is stable or better. I'll find out exactly where it's at a little later and will mention that in my next post. I'm just grateful I can continue on the trial and will keep the faith that the disease will be kept at bay.

So, that's pretty much it for now. Thought I'd post some shots from the trip. Mahalo!


Getting ready to hack away at Torrey Pines in La Jolla ;)


"Hangin Loose" with Mike at Waikiki beach. The surf was really small on this day


Beautiful sunset at North Shore "Pipeline"


Getting ready to order a delish fish bowl at the grill trailor at North Shore


Mike and I at Hanauma (sp?) Bay, awesome snorkeling with the sea turtles!


Hanauma Bay!



Hanging out at Sharks Cove with my cousin Jeff, his roomates Lindsey, Amanda, Marie and buddy Mike


Jeff and I at the top of his secret hike in Wainaie


This was the view below!!

I'm Back!

Aloha Everyone! Just got back a couple of hourse ago and I'm extremely exhausted. My plan is to do an update tomorrow while I'm at Karmanos for my PET/CT scan then (hopefully) my 5th SGN35 infusion.

I'm hoping that I can detail the vacation and also talk about the cherry on top being stable or better response.

Time to get some much needed rest...

Mahalo

Waikiki

Just landed here in Honolulu and it's really beautiful... Socal was awesome! Had a chance to golf at Torrey Pines, saw some great live music and hung out with some great people :) I've got a few pictures but an internet connection has been sketchy and will have to wait till I post them. I'm feeling ok for the most part but struggling a bit with the back pain and muscle/joint soreness. Nothing that the warm waters of the Pacific can't heal ;)

Getting ready to head out and catch a reggae band and getting up tomorrow morning at 6 to go surfing. Can't wait to get out into the water!

More later...

P.S. Happy Birthday Dad!

Mahalo :)

Waiting For The Sun

Made it to L.A. in one piece! Can't get internet service so I thought I'd try my first post from my phone. Apparently it rained here today for the first time in a while. Sposed to be sunny tomorrow though :). My buddy's got a partial ocean view from his balcony and the beach is across the street. Life is good!

It's nice to be travelling again :)

The "Other Hollywood" ha!

Taken from the remake of "Red Dawn" shot and produced in Detroit

Right around the corner from Karmanos "on location"

As you may have noticed, I'm gradually doing a Motown theme with my music player in the spirit of spending a lot of time in the D lately (from the suburbs). I think a lot of these tunes probably still ring true today for many who are struggling in the city...

So I mentioned they're shooting the new Red Dawn movie downtown and sure enough there it was right around the corner from the hospital after I left my last infusion! They had Woodward ave. blocked off and there were quite a few spectators and police. I can't figure out how the city is making revenue from this though and probably need to do some research. In any event, it's pretty exciting for an industrial town like Detroit to have stuff like this going on and if nothing else infuses some energy and vitality downtown and the surrounding areas... I was surprised to find out how many movies have been shot here the last couple of years (in Michigan) when I did a Google search... Here's the list since 2007;

2007
•The Dread – Safe Harbor Productions
•Life Goes On – Orlando Entertainment
•Transformers – Dreamworks
2008
•Gran Torino – Warner Brothers
•Jumper – 20th Century Fox
•Prince of Motor City – ABC Television/Disney
•Semi Pro – New Line Cinema
2009
•All’s Faire in Love – Patriot Pictures
•America – Sony Pictures Studios
•Amsteroid – Odd Angle Entertainment
•Butterfly Effect: Revelation – After Dark Films
•Cherry
•Deadheads – FroBro Films
•Demoted – Parallel Media
•Gifted Hands – Turner Network Television
•Horse Crazy 2
•Hung – HBO
•Intent – New Castle Entertainment
•The Job – Kiki Goshay Productions
•Miss January – Gilbert Films
•Prayers for Bobby – Lifetime
•Red and Blue Marbles – Don’t Tread on Red
•The Steam Experiment – Cinepro Pictures
•Street Boss – Bierlein Entertainment
•Tug – TicTock Studios
•Virgin on Bourbon Street – Infra-Red Pictures
•Whip It – Babe Ruthless Productions
•Youth In Revolt – Dimension Films
2010
•High School – Parallel Media
•Offspring – Moderncine

It was funny (at the time) yesterday as my buddies and I were walking back to the car from the Lions game (Ford Field) and they were shooting a small isolated scene from the movie in the street. My friend Mike had been a little "overserved" at the game and proceeded to jokingly yell over to the scene "I need more emotion from you!!". He totally ruined the shot and you could see the director was really pissed and all the actors had a disgusted look on their face. We of course were cracking up and as I was walking by I condescendingly said "welcome to the D" (not sure why, that was pretty crappy...). I think we were taking out our frustrations on these innocent bystanders after another depressing Lions loss. I feel bad (more like a jackass) as we probably just contributed to the bad rep Detroit has, ugh...

So I mentioned the leaves are turning here and except for the rain and colder temperatures, it's really pretty (can I use that word and still sound masculine?! ha). Anyway, here's some shots I just took after a bike ride at Stoney Creek:





I took Chili to the park too and she was enjoying the scenery! Thought it was cool how I showed up in the reflection in the window and sitting here laughing at the expression on her face! ;)



So tonight I'm going to start packing for my trip :) Hoping that I feel good while away so I can take full advantage of this adventure! Looking forward to writing about the L.A.Hawaii experience...

Cheers!

SGN-35 #4

Downtown again at Karmanos for round 4... The computers are down today so I've been sitting here bored for a while and thought I'd throw some b.s. out into the blogosphere!

Dr. Ram just came in and informed me of a new Hodgkins trial they're considering signing up for, RAD001. Apparently, it's a renal cancer drug that's shown some activity in Hodgkins. He said the phase one data showed a response rate of 50% for trial participants. Not great but it's an option just in case the SGN-35 stops working.

I got excited here for a second, one of the nurses said a vendor brought in pizza and pasta! I was looking forward to that for lunch instead of the smushed turkey sandwich they brought me. Turns out the pizza was for the folks in the finance department. Kinda sums up the state of affairs in the health care system these days...

Even though I may complain about this place (Karmanos) a bit, I have to say that everyone here is very nice :) All of the nurses go out of their way to make sure I'm comfortable and even the janitor lady checks in on me and offers me a newspaper, something to drink, etc. Have I ever mentioned that Detroit people are the best?! One thing about us Detroiters, we are genuine people, there is no facade... Usually, what you see is what you get. I've lived elsewhere in the country and that's not always the case. I think the term "keeping it real" originated in Detroit, ha! Another observation I've made since moving back here is that us Detroiters or Michiganders in general definately have an accent! I never noticed it growing up here but now can tell... I won't go as far as saying it's a Fargo accent (you betcha!), but it's definately there. Kinda like a hybrid of a Canadian accent mixed with a Chicago accent if that makes any sense. Of course here in the city, it's totally different as most people speak in ebonics. So, depending on where you live, you're going to hear different "dialects" if you will. To further complicate this discussion, I forgot to mention we have the city of Dearborn (just outside Detroit) which has the highest concentration of Lebanese people outside of Lebanon (and some great food!) as well as Hamtramck which is a big Polish community (my peep's!). I can't forget Mexicantown near the bridge to Windsor and of course Greektown! Detroit is quite the melting pot and there's so much soul here...

I was thinking of taking a drive up Woodward on my way home. BTW, Woodward ave. is the first ever paved road in the U.S.! Kinda makes sense with the automobile industry being born here and all ;) Anyway, they're shooting a movie a couple blocks away from the hospital on Woodward. It's crazy how many shows and movies have been shot here in the last few years. Three that I know are 8 Mile, Gran Torino and the HBO series "Hung" among others. I can't remember the name of the movie they're shooting now but will try and take some pictures and post in my next blog.

Anyway, my nurse just came in and needs to draw some blood from a different vein and take my vitals, gotta go!

Hope all's well :)