Round 2 and The Links

I have finished my second dose of the new drugs and started a new week. This past treatment was the most evenful so far. I will give a quick recap of last Wednesday. I got home from treatment and Jenny ran up to EP for a little bit late in the afternoon and I laid down for a quick nap after a long day at the Cancer Center. I woke up about an hour later with a sharp pain in my upper stomach, then had it move into my chest, and then to my back. The pain was so sharp that it made me not able to breathe very easily. It lasted about 2 minutes and when it ended I called Jenny who rushed home. I talked with my doctor and he told me that if it happened again that I needed to head to the ER because some of the side effects of the drugs can be severe. I had no problems the rest of the day and went to bed at 11:30. I fell asleep only to wake up 15 minutes later with the same pains again. Jenny and I got up and went over to the ER. They ran some tests and determined that it was just a slight side effect of the new drugs, possibly a slight allergic reaction. We finally got home and to bed at 4:30. I havent had the symptoms since then but they are going to add some additional pre-meds as a preventative next time.

Greg and Suzanne came over on Thursday and made a great dinner for Jenny and I, which was great after the long night before and allowed us to play with their son, Yates. Greg has done a really cool thing for lent by choosing to serve others rather than to simply give up something. If you want to read about his adventures here is the link, its a pretty cool thing: http://ordinarycommunion.blogspot.com/

The rest of the was pretty quiet. We hung out with Steven, Haley, the kids, and a couple other friends over the weekend and had a great time with all of them.

I also want to mention that the spot for the golf tournament are going very fast now. I guess we are just getting closer to the actual day and we are now down only 12 teams left. So if you are planning on playing then you should sign up quickly. However there are still plenty of spots for the dinner and silent auction so sign up quickly for that too even if you aren't a golfer, you don't even need a babysitter becuase the kids are welcome as well.

I hope that everyone has a great week.

Tim

More Publicity & an Eventful Night

Yesterday the Greer Citizen released their story about the tournament and to our surprise it was on the front page! They did a great job & its available until next Wednesday so be sure to check it out if you've got a chance to do so.

Tim also started his 2nd round of the new chemo and ended up having a little reaction to it which landed us in the ER last night for awhile. We got home about 4AM and have been dragging throughout today but everything is good to go now & back under control, just made for a pretty exciting night :).

Don't forget to visit brightlifesc.com/events to register for the tournament &/or dinner/silent auction. We're starting to get some really amazing items that you aren't going to want to miss out on including the painting below. Keep your eye out on the blog as we feature even more of the items to come!

In Case you Missed It

Tim was on Your Carolina with his oncologist Dr. Edenfield & they both did an incredible job! So much so that we were offered a 5 minute commercial spot on Your Carolina to auction off for the Silent Auction.

In case you missed it, here is the link to check it out: http://www.yourcarolina.tv/ycvideo/entry/check_in_with_tim_bright_and_the_brightlife_foundation_www.brightlifesc.com/

 Make sure you register for the golf tournament, dinner & silent auction by April 13th by visiting www.brightlifesc.com/events!

Tim is being interviewed tomorrow for a story in the Greer Citizen & for a story in the Greenville News. We're hoping that buzz continues to grow with this attention!

First Dose of the New Stuff

I have finished my first round of the new chemo regiment and it was pretty tough.  I felt really good most of the day on Wednesday but then it hit me like a ton of bricks on Thursday.  I slept for most of the day on Thursday and Friday.  The nausea wasn't terrible, but was worse than I have experienced in a while.  Jenny was out of town for the weekend at a bachelorette party in Savannah and I pretty much just laid around the house all day Saturday and Sunday with our puppy recovering.  It will take some time to get used to the new treatment but hopefully they will go a lot smoother in the future.  The main difference in the two treatments is the sensitivity to cold.  Yesterday was the first time that I was able to eat or drink anything colder than room temperature, but this sure beats the redness on my face that the last treatment gave me. 

This week is going to be busy the rest of the week with work and my second appearance on the Scene on 7 show at 10AM this Thursday on Channel 7.  I hope that everyone will be able to watch because it is going to be great to be able to sit with Dr. Edenfield and talk about something that is very improtant to me. 

I hope that everyone has a great week and don't forget to sign up for the golf tournament, silent auction, and dinner, we could still use some sponsors and silent auction items as well so if you're interested just let me know.  It is going to be a ton of fun, I promise.

Tim

New Chemo Starts Today

As I write this they have just hooked up the IV for Tim's newest drug. They will take it nice & slow for this first infusion to make sure he doesn't end up having any adverse reactions to it so today will be a pretty long day but we're pretty sure it should all run smoothly. In other news, Tim just got reaccepted to the Oncology Rehab program so we're hopeful that it will help him to feel his best as he continues through therapy as it did previously.

This is also something that is pretty neat, News 4 did a story about Tim's oncologist & the work they are doing at iTOR, which is where the money for the tournament is going this year. I think Tim previously mentioned the DNA matching that they are looking at for him right now & this gives a little more background into all of that.

http://www.wyff4.com/video/30622830/detail.html

On that note, make sure you sign up for the golf tournament & dinner/silent auction at brightlifesc.com/events, its going to be a fun day & the golf spots are already filling up quickly!

PET Results

The day has finally come and gone. We had my bi-weekly doctor visit with Dr. Edenfield today to get the news from the PET Scan that I had last Monday. We looked over it and nothing lit up on the scan. (By lit up I mean that a PET Scan shows where sugar is being used in the body, and cancer runs on sugar, so where cancer is in my body it would light up white.) Now, the spots that showed up on the CT Scan were still there but they are so small that they wont show up on the PET Scan. This simply means that it has been over a year and a half since my last PET Scan and nothing new has shown up, which is great news. We also found out that since the spots are so small we cannot do the biopsy of one of the spots. Dr. Edenfield said that it was too dangerous to do the biopsy and cause trama to one of my lungs when they are so small. We are putting this off to a later date if and when the spots get larger.

Now what does all of that information mean as far a chemo goes. As of this coming Wed. I will no longer be on the current chemo regimine, which is FOLFIRI with Vectibix. We are going to switch back to FOLFOX (which is what I was on for my 1st 12 treatments back in 2010) and combine that with Avastin. We are hoping to stay on this for at least 6 months and then re-evaluate the situation then.

Today was a great day for us and I want to thank everyone for saying an extra prayer for us. Those go a long way.

I hope that everyone has a great week. And incase you didnt see, you can now sign up for the golf tournament at www.brightlifesc.com/events. I hope to see everyone soon.

Tim

Almost Time

We've got Tim's appointment at 12:30 tomorrow and are starting to get anxious about what the results may be. We still haven't really decided what results we would even want to have but have come to the conclusion that as long as the cancer hasn't spread to any other organ we are prepared for what's ahead. Today has been a pretty quiet day and we're about to head out to get some dinner and do a little grocery shopping for the week before we lay around and catch up on some TV tonight.

If you don't mind, say a little extra prayer tonight for good news tomorrow, whatever it may be!

We will be back once we have more information.