Monday, December 2, 2013
Post Thanksgiving Craziness
Thanksgiving was supposed to be the date that we had everything done for the house so we could get it listed before sitting back to enjoy the weeks leading up to Christmas (other than my four tests and two papers this week as well as my three cumulative finals next week). The house is almost done but poor Tim is now really sick and out of commission for awhile (going to the game was likely not the most intelligent decision). It started early last week as a cold and has recently developed into something further. He got a Z-pack and some fluids today and the plan is that he will have chemo tomorrow but we've been warned that this will likely be the worst round of chemo he's experienced over the past 4 years. We're working to keep perspective that he just needs to make it though the next few days and he should start to feel much better but both dreading what is to come. Please keep Tim in your prayers over the next few days as he powers through this round, he likely has only 5 more until his next scan!
Monday, November 18, 2013
Scan Results
Our goal for this year was that I would make it through December without changing chemo. It looks like we might actually do that although I'm just writing a blog which goes back to this thing that Jenny says I have called procrastination. I finally got my scan results last Thursday and although I have some new spots and some spots that have grown, I also have some spots that are gone and others that are shrinking. The results for this reinforce that for now I'm on the best regimen I can be on although my CEA (tumor marker) may no longer be reliable which means I have more scans coming my way. We already have another planned for February to check in. This also means that I'm back in chemo today getting treatment where I just found out that my CEA has dropped slightly, I'll take anything I can get though.
This past weekend we went down to the USC/FL game, it was the first game of the season that Jenny has been too, more on that later. Our good friends Josh & John went down with us along with Jenny's cousin Emma. Jenny has ADHD really badly and can't sit through a game without getting too antsy so she stayed with some of her sorority sisters and tailgated while we went in. We're hoping that if Emma doesn't go to Furman next year that she will go to USC, hopefully the win helped convince her, it put me in a good mood for the rest of the night.
This week will be pretty boring, just work, getting the house ready to be put on the market and treatment before heading back to work on Thurs and Fri to finish off the week and the wedding of Jenny's good friend Andrea this weekend.
We were trying to keep the news fairly low-key until everything was more set in stone but the reason why we are selling the house along with Jenny not being able to help as much with the tournament this year and why she hasn't been to any games is that she is heading back to school to be a nurse. There is still a lot up in the air about when the transition will happen and she is slowly knocking out her pre-requisites but we are starting to prepare for the changes to come with her going back to school. She won't find out if she got into nursing school until May so we still have awhile to go. I hope that everyone has a great week.
Tim
This past weekend we went down to the USC/FL game, it was the first game of the season that Jenny has been too, more on that later. Our good friends Josh & John went down with us along with Jenny's cousin Emma. Jenny has ADHD really badly and can't sit through a game without getting too antsy so she stayed with some of her sorority sisters and tailgated while we went in. We're hoping that if Emma doesn't go to Furman next year that she will go to USC, hopefully the win helped convince her, it put me in a good mood for the rest of the night.
This week will be pretty boring, just work, getting the house ready to be put on the market and treatment before heading back to work on Thurs and Fri to finish off the week and the wedding of Jenny's good friend Andrea this weekend.
We were trying to keep the news fairly low-key until everything was more set in stone but the reason why we are selling the house along with Jenny not being able to help as much with the tournament this year and why she hasn't been to any games is that she is heading back to school to be a nurse. There is still a lot up in the air about when the transition will happen and she is slowly knocking out her pre-requisites but we are starting to prepare for the changes to come with her going back to school. She won't find out if she got into nursing school until May so we still have awhile to go. I hope that everyone has a great week.
Tim
Monday, October 28, 2013
Up and Down
I am trying to get back into the habit of posting more frequently, so here we go. I just finished with yet another round of chemo this past Thursday and it was not close to being the easiest round ever. For some reason I just didn't have any energy on Wednesday and felt kind of groggy. This was a complete opposite from the treatment before. I don't know what I did differently from the round before to this one but it was definitely tougher. While I was getting treatment on Tuesday we got the results back from my blood work the day before. My CEA (or tumor marker) one month prior had risen slightly and not high enough for any concerns, and this time it rose again a little bit more than expected. Dr. E came into the infusion room to see me and calm down any concerns that I might have. He didn't seem to worried about the new number and said that I would get my treatment this past time and I would do my next round and then we will do a CT Scan the following Monday to see if there have been any significant changes from the last. Knock on wood the number increase doesn't relate to the results of the scan. We also talked about the chance of me switching treatments after the next round just in case the cancer cells are starting to figure out how to combat the chemo. The next drugs that I would go on would possibly be some sort of pill based regime, just not sure which drug it would be. Jenny & I really wanted to at least make it through the end of the year on this same regimen so we didn't have to go through the uncertainty and craziness that comes with these kinds of changes but I guess life didn't agree with our plans. The uncertainty and nervousness that goes along with this kind of thing really takes a toll on you without you even realizing how much sometimes, we'll make it through though.
On the non cancer side of my life it was a pretty good weekend for me. On Friday I got to go to my parents house for dinner and hang out with Haley and my niece and nephew for a bit. It always seems to brighten the week when I get to hang around them or my other niece Brynn. They are so carefree and absolutely hilarious to sit and listen to. Some of the things that they say and do are just so funny you have to just sit back and laugh.
On Saturday Jenny and I ran a couple of errands and then got ready for our Halloween party at some friend's house. We dressed up as Jack and Jill after they fell down the hill.
We had a great time and the costumes Jenny picked out were pretty funny even though some of our friends and I kept calling her a "rough looking french maid" all night. I missed all but the last 2 plays of the USC game but did get to see the win. As my father-in-law who saw my reaction to the win described me as a "giddy school girl". Yes I do tend to get a bit excited when we win.
Life is also pretty crazy for us because we've decided to put our house up for sale as well. We love our neighbors and our house has been great but we've decided to make a change so we're keeping even busier with getting the house ready to be listed. If anyone wants to move to a great house in a great and growing neighborhood over by Furman just let us know!
The last thing before I end this post I want to mention one of my cousins. He just turned 22 yesterday (Happy Late Birthday) and about 3 weeks ago went under the knife to remove a tumor on his brain (which we found out was not cancerous). I got the chance to talk to him on Facebook while I was a chemo on Tuesday and the way that he has handled this situation is remarkable. He has faced the adversity straight in the face and come out the other side just fine. So I ask that everyone prays he continues to recover and gets back to the life that he was intended to live.
I hope that everyone has a great week.
Tim
On the non cancer side of my life it was a pretty good weekend for me. On Friday I got to go to my parents house for dinner and hang out with Haley and my niece and nephew for a bit. It always seems to brighten the week when I get to hang around them or my other niece Brynn. They are so carefree and absolutely hilarious to sit and listen to. Some of the things that they say and do are just so funny you have to just sit back and laugh.
On Saturday Jenny and I ran a couple of errands and then got ready for our Halloween party at some friend's house. We dressed up as Jack and Jill after they fell down the hill.
We had a great time and the costumes Jenny picked out were pretty funny even though some of our friends and I kept calling her a "rough looking french maid" all night. I missed all but the last 2 plays of the USC game but did get to see the win. As my father-in-law who saw my reaction to the win described me as a "giddy school girl". Yes I do tend to get a bit excited when we win.
Life is also pretty crazy for us because we've decided to put our house up for sale as well. We love our neighbors and our house has been great but we've decided to make a change so we're keeping even busier with getting the house ready to be listed. If anyone wants to move to a great house in a great and growing neighborhood over by Furman just let us know!
The last thing before I end this post I want to mention one of my cousins. He just turned 22 yesterday (Happy Late Birthday) and about 3 weeks ago went under the knife to remove a tumor on his brain (which we found out was not cancerous). I got the chance to talk to him on Facebook while I was a chemo on Tuesday and the way that he has handled this situation is remarkable. He has faced the adversity straight in the face and come out the other side just fine. So I ask that everyone prays he continues to recover and gets back to the life that he was intended to live.
I hope that everyone has a great week.
Tim
Wednesday, September 11, 2013
Save the Date!
Tim will be a guest bartender on Thursday, October 3rd from 5PM-8PM at Soby's. Some of you may remember a similar BrightLife event that was held back in 2011, this is the same concept but with the proceeds going to GHS's Cancer Institute. 20% of all proceeds from the bar that evening will be donated so if you have some free time be sure to pop in for happy hour and watch Tim & friends entertain you!
Thursday, August 29, 2013
Tim + Drama = Our Lives
For some reason it doesn't seem like we can get through a month without some sort of medical drama with Tim. This month we got really lucky & ended up with 2 fun drama-filled events.
The first was when he split his hand open (which he didn't really give y'all the full story on). It started when he decided to make himself a parfait the week prior in our drinking glasses, which are like large stemless wine glasses. When he finished his he didn't rinse the glass and put it straight in the dishwasher. The dishwasher didn't get all of the yogurt/granola out of the glass so rather than using the dishbrush immediately to the right of him, or just soaking the glass, he put his hand in it to try to dig it out. According to him it was "just out of reach" so he pushed his hand in further and the glass broke which split his pinkie all the way up the side. I was facing the other way and turned when I heard him yelling to find him shaking his hand all over the place. Lets just say we're still finding spots of blood throughout the kitchen and the shirt I was wearing will never be the same. :) Luckily that is all healing nicely now and the stitches are finally out. Hopefully Tim has also learned a valuable lesson about not putting hands in objects where they do not belong. He most likely will also be getting a dishbrush in his stocking this year from Santa. :)
Over the past 3 years (ever since the mets in Tim's lungs were found) it has been drilled into our heads that coughing, shortness of breath and spitting up blood are very bad things. Every doctor visit includes a line of questioning about those three things so you better believe we are vigilant about tracking them. I get really nervous when I notice Tim's coughing increasing (usually while he is sleeping) even when I know that it is related to allergies/a cold/etc. Sunday we were doing some yardwork and Tim complained a little about not being able to catch his breath. He'd been complaining all day about the yardwork so I thought he was probably just being overdramatic and wanting to quit :). I told him just to check in when he went in for chemo the next day and not to worry about it. He forgot to mention it on Monday and didn't mention it to me again.
Tuesday afternoon I got a very nervous call from him saying he had just coughed up blood. I could tell he was scared and thought we'd probably have to go in to get him checked (and he isn't allowed to drive while on chemo after he almost took out our garage wall but that's a different story) so I headed home to work for the afternoon & get him checked out. They ended up thinking that he has some sort of irritation within his lungs/bronchial tubes and he now has a prescription for antibiotics. He got rechecked yesterday when he was unhooked from chemo and hopefully this is the end of that drama. He is still coughing but there is no more blood so we're taking that as a good sign.
There are a few different possibilities of what could be going on, some as simple as the fact that the biogenetic he takes works by killing off newly formed blood vessels which cuts the blood supply to the tumors and starves them off (which is why chemo was delayed for a week with his finger needing to heal). He could've had some sort of scratch, irritation, broken vessel in his chest already from the coughing from the allergies and the Zaltrap just weakened it which caused the blood to appear when he coughed or it could be the indication of something more serious. For now we'll just keep a close eye on his numbers and the rest of the symptoms and trust in God's plan. In good news, his numbers did drop a slight amount this week which is always a very good thing.
If you have a moment or two over the next few weeks please say a quick prayer for this all to be allergy related and that the Zaltrap continues to work its magic. Although the chemo every other week is a burden at times, its also so nice to have some stability in our lives for once. The switching, and ambiguity, really weighs heavily upon us and if we could just get into 2014 on the same schedule it would make life so much easier on us!
Also, please keep a few of Tim's colon cancer chemo buddies in your prayers. One is about to have her baby after finishing just over 1/2 of her chemo rounds. Life is about to be even more exciting & crazy for her & her husband. Hoping for a safe & easy delivery, quick recovery and that her last few rounds after the birth go smoothly for her! Another is one we've known for about as long as Tim has been getting treatment. He's no longer getting treatment and has been in some pain recently. He & his wife are incredibly strong but please keep them both in your prayers as they continue through the journey, I can't begin to imagine what they are experiencing now.
Thanks all & hopefully Tim will become better at updating more frequently than every other month. My side of life has become insanity so I don't have the kind of time I used to anymore therefore updates have fallen to the king of procrastination. :) If you notice that he hasn't updated in awhile and you're wondering what's going on don't hesitate to ask him, send him an email, text, facebook message, etc. to spur him on writing a post. :)
Finally, with everything I have going on right now, I won't be able to help Tim with the golf tournament this year. I'm going to miss being as involved with it and will still be around to help answer questions, etc. but just can't dedicate the time that is needed right now. In my absence, we need someone who is organized, has a fair amount of free time they can devote to getting the tournament off the ground and wouldn't mind helping Tim run it this year (which includes helping to keep him on track ;)). He'll hopefully be getting started on it in the next two months (although that kid can procrastinate like nobody's business :)) and we will let you all know more as the time gets closer but if any of you think you could commit to that amount of time over the next few months (or just want to know more about what's involved with it) just let us know!
The first was when he split his hand open (which he didn't really give y'all the full story on). It started when he decided to make himself a parfait the week prior in our drinking glasses, which are like large stemless wine glasses. When he finished his he didn't rinse the glass and put it straight in the dishwasher. The dishwasher didn't get all of the yogurt/granola out of the glass so rather than using the dishbrush immediately to the right of him, or just soaking the glass, he put his hand in it to try to dig it out. According to him it was "just out of reach" so he pushed his hand in further and the glass broke which split his pinkie all the way up the side. I was facing the other way and turned when I heard him yelling to find him shaking his hand all over the place. Lets just say we're still finding spots of blood throughout the kitchen and the shirt I was wearing will never be the same. :) Luckily that is all healing nicely now and the stitches are finally out. Hopefully Tim has also learned a valuable lesson about not putting hands in objects where they do not belong. He most likely will also be getting a dishbrush in his stocking this year from Santa. :)
Over the past 3 years (ever since the mets in Tim's lungs were found) it has been drilled into our heads that coughing, shortness of breath and spitting up blood are very bad things. Every doctor visit includes a line of questioning about those three things so you better believe we are vigilant about tracking them. I get really nervous when I notice Tim's coughing increasing (usually while he is sleeping) even when I know that it is related to allergies/a cold/etc. Sunday we were doing some yardwork and Tim complained a little about not being able to catch his breath. He'd been complaining all day about the yardwork so I thought he was probably just being overdramatic and wanting to quit :). I told him just to check in when he went in for chemo the next day and not to worry about it. He forgot to mention it on Monday and didn't mention it to me again.
Tuesday afternoon I got a very nervous call from him saying he had just coughed up blood. I could tell he was scared and thought we'd probably have to go in to get him checked (and he isn't allowed to drive while on chemo after he almost took out our garage wall but that's a different story) so I headed home to work for the afternoon & get him checked out. They ended up thinking that he has some sort of irritation within his lungs/bronchial tubes and he now has a prescription for antibiotics. He got rechecked yesterday when he was unhooked from chemo and hopefully this is the end of that drama. He is still coughing but there is no more blood so we're taking that as a good sign.
There are a few different possibilities of what could be going on, some as simple as the fact that the biogenetic he takes works by killing off newly formed blood vessels which cuts the blood supply to the tumors and starves them off (which is why chemo was delayed for a week with his finger needing to heal). He could've had some sort of scratch, irritation, broken vessel in his chest already from the coughing from the allergies and the Zaltrap just weakened it which caused the blood to appear when he coughed or it could be the indication of something more serious. For now we'll just keep a close eye on his numbers and the rest of the symptoms and trust in God's plan. In good news, his numbers did drop a slight amount this week which is always a very good thing.
If you have a moment or two over the next few weeks please say a quick prayer for this all to be allergy related and that the Zaltrap continues to work its magic. Although the chemo every other week is a burden at times, its also so nice to have some stability in our lives for once. The switching, and ambiguity, really weighs heavily upon us and if we could just get into 2014 on the same schedule it would make life so much easier on us!
Also, please keep a few of Tim's colon cancer chemo buddies in your prayers. One is about to have her baby after finishing just over 1/2 of her chemo rounds. Life is about to be even more exciting & crazy for her & her husband. Hoping for a safe & easy delivery, quick recovery and that her last few rounds after the birth go smoothly for her! Another is one we've known for about as long as Tim has been getting treatment. He's no longer getting treatment and has been in some pain recently. He & his wife are incredibly strong but please keep them both in your prayers as they continue through the journey, I can't begin to imagine what they are experiencing now.
Thanks all & hopefully Tim will become better at updating more frequently than every other month. My side of life has become insanity so I don't have the kind of time I used to anymore therefore updates have fallen to the king of procrastination. :) If you notice that he hasn't updated in awhile and you're wondering what's going on don't hesitate to ask him, send him an email, text, facebook message, etc. to spur him on writing a post. :)
Finally, with everything I have going on right now, I won't be able to help Tim with the golf tournament this year. I'm going to miss being as involved with it and will still be around to help answer questions, etc. but just can't dedicate the time that is needed right now. In my absence, we need someone who is organized, has a fair amount of free time they can devote to getting the tournament off the ground and wouldn't mind helping Tim run it this year (which includes helping to keep him on track ;)). He'll hopefully be getting started on it in the next two months (although that kid can procrastinate like nobody's business :)) and we will let you all know more as the time gets closer but if any of you think you could commit to that amount of time over the next few months (or just want to know more about what's involved with it) just let us know!
Monday, August 26, 2013
Finally A New Post
Well it is exactly 2 months from the last post that I wrote. I am sorry for not keeping up with this blog better than I do. One of my best friends Kip got married this past weekend and I had one of our good friend's mom asking me if I was writing these anymore, so I figured that I need to get back at it and post a new one.
Like I have already said we went to my buddy Kip and his new wife Jessica's wedding this past weekend. We had a great time being back in Columbia and hanging out with friends. My last 2 years of high school I played summer baseball with a team based out of Charleston called the South Carolina Diamond Devils. At the wedding there were 7 of us former Diamond Devils.
From left to right is Me, Kip McAlister (groom), Justin Calliham, Charlie Lisk, Matt Campbell, and Brett Anderson. I said there were 7 of us and for some reason Russell Triplett got left out of the this picture somehow. Must have had a photographer that had a little bit too much to fun. Haha.
15 days ago from today I was emptying the dishwasher and accidentally sliced my pinky finger opened on a glass drinking glass. I had to skip a treatment last week to let it heal properly. So I am sitting in the infusion room right now and just had my stitches removed and I am getting my treatment. (Fun times) I am now not able to play golf for about another month which that in itself is enough punishment for me.
On the cancer side of things, everything is still going good. My numbers had gone up just slightly over the past month but my doctor thinks that it is plateauing and it should stay around that number for right now. The treatments themselves aren't that bad. I still feel good and get in the gym as much as I can to keep my strength up. Plus this weeks treatment won't be too bad since college football finally starts this Thursday and yes I will not miss the game.
I hope that everyone has a great week.
Tim
Like I have already said we went to my buddy Kip and his new wife Jessica's wedding this past weekend. We had a great time being back in Columbia and hanging out with friends. My last 2 years of high school I played summer baseball with a team based out of Charleston called the South Carolina Diamond Devils. At the wedding there were 7 of us former Diamond Devils.
15 days ago from today I was emptying the dishwasher and accidentally sliced my pinky finger opened on a glass drinking glass. I had to skip a treatment last week to let it heal properly. So I am sitting in the infusion room right now and just had my stitches removed and I am getting my treatment. (Fun times) I am now not able to play golf for about another month which that in itself is enough punishment for me.
On the cancer side of things, everything is still going good. My numbers had gone up just slightly over the past month but my doctor thinks that it is plateauing and it should stay around that number for right now. The treatments themselves aren't that bad. I still feel good and get in the gym as much as I can to keep my strength up. Plus this weeks treatment won't be too bad since college football finally starts this Thursday and yes I will not miss the game.
I hope that everyone has a great week.
Tim
Wednesday, June 26, 2013
I am finally writing again
I know that I have not been "Johnny on the Spot" with this blog lately, so I am going to try to get better at that. I didn't read the last post I wrote so I will just hope that I dont overlap anything. The drug regime that I am currently on is Zaltrap with Folfiri. As I sit in the cancer center now I believe this is around my 7th time getting this combo so far. It started off very scary for us because my tumor marker continued to rise and an alarming pace. We did a CT after 3 treatments I believe and found significant overall improvements and then later that week we ran my tumor marker again and it had dropped by a large amount. Then when we ran it again a month later it dropped significantly again. We ran it again 2 weeks ago and had another drop. It was not nearly as big as the other two but at least it is still going in the right direction. This is great news that we were correct a while ago when switching from the Vectibix over to this combo.
On a fun side of life I am about to finish my coaching stint of the summer. I will be doing this while Jenny is down at Fripp Island with all of her family. I was thinking about making a trip down there after my tournament, but I have learned my lesson here lately about over-doing things. So, I will gladly take a week to myself at home.
This past weekend we had the pleasure of attending our good friends Ryan and Natalie's wedding in Charlotte. The ceremony was beautiful and the reception afterwards was a great time. I also had two baseball games to coach that day and on Monday I was supposed to get my latest round of chemo but instead had a fever of 102.3 at its highest and had to push it off to today. This is where I get back to the over doing it piece. I have heard numerous people now tell me I need to relax a bit more but I really dont know how to do that.
I hope that everyone has a great week.
Tim
On a fun side of life I am about to finish my coaching stint of the summer. I will be doing this while Jenny is down at Fripp Island with all of her family. I was thinking about making a trip down there after my tournament, but I have learned my lesson here lately about over-doing things. So, I will gladly take a week to myself at home.
This past weekend we had the pleasure of attending our good friends Ryan and Natalie's wedding in Charlotte. The ceremony was beautiful and the reception afterwards was a great time. I also had two baseball games to coach that day and on Monday I was supposed to get my latest round of chemo but instead had a fever of 102.3 at its highest and had to push it off to today. This is where I get back to the over doing it piece. I have heard numerous people now tell me I need to relax a bit more but I really dont know how to do that.
I hope that everyone has a great week.
Tim
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