Believe!

UPDATE 12/29, 2:07 p.m. : Platelets 52,000!!!


"Believe"!! Side of original Macy's


Winter wonder land at Macy's in Midtown Manhattan :)

Just got back to the room, whew... I don't know why but scan days lately have been crazy...

It all started when I woke from my "nap" at 4:30 this morning. It was dark in my place and somehow I managed to step on a trim nail that was sticking up through my floor (head side up). It went into my foot all the way to the bone (over an inch long). When it first happened, I didn't feel it because of the permanent nerve damage and numbness in my feet. I knew it was bad though when I looked down at the nail to see how much it was sticking out of the floor and the blood that started flowing out of my foot. Definitely tetanus shot worthy... I was able to stop the bleeding, cleaned it up, bandaged it and thought it might be ok as it was sore but I was able to walk on it. Boy, has that changed in just over 14 hours! My foot is absolutely throbbing right now and I can barely put any pressure on it, ugh...


This Dog is definitely barking! They ended up giving me a tetanus shot

So, of course the day that this happens, there are almost arctic like conditions in Manhattan! They got pounded here with something like 30 inches of snow in the last day or couple of days. I'm lucky my flight got here relatively on time. As you can imagine, with a super condensed metropolitan area like New York, there really aren't a whole lot of places to put the snow. As result, a lot of the streets are literally walled off with snow. I was gimpy already but having to climb over a snow pile holding on to my bag with just jeans on and non winter boots with no gloves it was a bit challenging to say the least. My walk was from Grand Central Station to NYU Langone is normally around 15-20 mins. I'm not sure how long it took me this time but can confidently say it took a little longer than that this time ;)


This bronze sculpture is around 6' tall. The restaurant (I think the thirsty dog or something) is right next to NYU


Feel bad for whoever owns this bike!



Trying to make a path on the sidewalk. Where the streets are crowded with people, it got a little hairy trying to walk...

Eventually I made it and my foot by now was not only throbbing like mad but soaking wet and freezing cold, fun stuff!

With all of this happening, I was pretty proud of myself for getting there. My nurse was telling me she had patients who lived in Brooklyn canceling their appointments and here I came all the way from Detroit!

So of course with the lack of sleep and the foot trauma not to mention the walk I was completely exhausted when I arrived at NYU. It actually worked to my benefit as I slept all the way through the 45 minutes you have to sit motionless waiting for the radioactive sugar to uptake through the body (if you move your muscles, the dye will go to those muscles and not potential cancer sites). I also slept all the way through the 45 minute PET scan that is normally pretty uncomfortable having to hold your arms over your head the entire time.

So, to the good news, my disease is stable! There were modest reductions in some areas (less than 10% I think) which I'll take as my tumors are considered relatively small right now. So, since the start of the trial in April, I have a total reduction of 5%, pretty much exactly where I was when I started. The difference between now and then is that at least now I have some quality of life beyond the normal fatigue and pain issues. You know what, I'll take it! If I can keep things the way they are for a while, I'll be a happy camper :)

There is one caveat however (it's never easy). My platelets came back at 41K and 40K on both tests. I need to be at 50K and until then, I can't continue the trial. I've been through this before though and hopeful within a couple of days I'll get back up to 50K. I'll be going back to NYU tomorrow (probably take a cab this time ;) for another platelet check. If they go up (which I think is a long shot for one day), I'll get my pills and plan to start cycle 13 on Thursday. If they don't go up, I'll have to get a STAT blood check run in Detroit on Thursday. Amazing how all of these "little things" add up to dent your pocketbook and create additional stress. It's the new norm for me however and anybody out there that's battling this crap knows that you just learn to roll with it and move on until the next roadblock presents itself. I'm glad I played sports when I was a kid as it taught me competitiveness, an essential element that you need to to battle cancer. A lot of this competitiveness (which like I said I'm glad for) also came from my Dad who I used to battle when I was a kid on the backyard basketball court, the table hockey and ping pong table in the basement in Detroit and the pool table in the basement in Warren. Can't forget about the golf course... Thanks Dad :)

Thinking of golf, I think I'm about due to get out and play a round. After this episode, I think I'm going to treat myself to a round when I get back down to Florida. There's a decent municipal course in Delray that was designed by Donald Ross and built back in 1923 that you can play for $25. It's pretty well kept and has some challenging holes. I'm going to see if they have a program like they had in Seattle at West Seattle Golf Course where you can volunteer to help around the course in return for range balls and free golf.

So, with that nice thought, I think I'm gonna wind this post down!

I'm gonna crash hard...

UPDATE, 2:48 A.M.

Just woke with awful pain in my back, ugh... Failed to mention that the PET report noted my worst spot, in the middle right of my back registered an SUV uptake value of over 16. This is the highest I've seen my SUV levels since the early days and probably the reason for the pain. In other words, this is where the cancer is most active (although relatively small) and must be right by a nerve center, ugh. Took more pain meds and going to try to fall back asleep. The foot is still throbbing but the back has overpowered even that, ugh. Hoping to get good platelet report so I can get the pills and start again tomorrow. Thanks for reading and the support :)

Chris