A Good Week

Nice weather around here...almost feeling like an early start to that summer feeling we get on the Cape around this time of year. Supposed to be nice weekend too - always helps the spirit to have some nice weather.

Pretty good week for the newly treated patient; I felt really good all week, got a lot of work done and am really optimistic for the next few months. Also was able to get out to the Cape Cod Young Professionals event last night and catch up with a lot of friends from around here, never mind hearing Rich Brothers' entertaining speech on the Cape & Islands United Way (shameless plug as I am a board member...visit the site and give!) and his own path to success.

My next treatment is Wednesday, but the prep work starts Monday with blood-tests, Tuesday I meet with my oncologist, and Wednesday it's back to the lab for my slow-drip chemo.

Mom deserves a good Mother's Day this year, it's been a rough year since last Mother's Day - we're going to do it Pot-Luck style at my folks place on Sunday and I'm sure it'll be a great time.

Here's my next thing to worry about; peladophobia. Since I may start to lose my hair soon, I started looking around, and was dismayed to find out there's an actual phobia surrounding bald people?

Your fear of bald people can result in the following symptoms:breathlessness, dizziness, excessive sweating, nausea, feeling sick, shaking, heart palpitations, inability to speak or think clearly, a fear of dying, becoming mad or losing control, a sensation of detachment from reality or a full blown anxiety attack.

So, if I lose my hair I will have to keep on the lookout for peladophobics acting up in my presence, could make for a dicey scene in a public place.

Hey, I do what I can to keep laughing...enjoy your weekends.

Golf and Age Discrimination

The Sheehan Golf Classic went well yesterday, with Team Cancer (my dad and I) against Team Lack of Compassion (my brothers, who didn't give us any strokes). In the team event, my dad and I put up a valiant fight, but were foiled and lost 10-8...it was over early, but we rallied at the end to close the gap.

In the individual event, it came down to the 18th putting green, it's always a close match with Kevin and I. I putted for par, Kevin bogeyed...I totalled in at 85 and Kevin 86 - a narrow victory, but a victory nonetheless. We had a great time, it's always nice to get out with my Dad and brothers, and since everything has happened it's particularly special when we all get to play together.

On another note; it appears I have already offended people (C.A.) with my comments on Roger Clemens age, and the fact that he may well remember Woodstock. To clarify; I don't think 45 is old, as a general rule...but for a starting pitcher in the AL East, making $4.5 Mill a month? Well in that case 45 is ancient. I know my friend was throwing me a simple jibe, he's a quick witted professional, but I figured since I'm at the tender age of 28 I might have raised some eyebrows elsewhere too...thus I will take the following pledge on my analysis of future Yankee signings;

A New Challenge is an equal opportunity Blog. A New Challenge will not discriminate against any future Yankee players, signings, or trades because of race, color, religion, creed, age, sex, national origin (including, without limitation, those for whom English is a second language or those who are immigrants), ancestry, physical or mental disability (including learning disabilities), past history of mental disorder, medical condition including pregnancy, family care leave, cancer and AIDS, status as a disabled veteran or veteran of the wars including Vietnam, marital status, sexual orientation, or any other non-playing related factor.

I did also discover an additional factor in his signing that may well have tipped the scales in his favor.

All else is well...nothing to report about me, I feel good, have all my hair and remain positive and in good spirits.

Good Day!

My Aching Bones

My cancer comment for the day today is related to my aching bones; I am on Neulasta prophylacticly to prevent my white blood cell count from dipping to a point where I would be required to skip a Chemotherapy treatment. One of the common side effects from Neulasta is bone pain, and I would characterize mine as moderate. It's an odd sensation, to be 28 and have pain in your bones, but part of it lets you know the drug is working and will help you continue, unabated, with Chemo treatments.

I try to keep moving; I went for a walk at work yesterday, woke up early this morning and did a lap around our neighborhood, and generally try to move around a little more. It's not a severe or acute pain, it's sort of just there and I find when I sit still (at my desk, in bed, etc.) it tends to creep up on me.

It's a common side effect and I'm not worried about it, it's just another little reality of the treatment process...one I figured I would share.

Weather's been nice around here, planning on playing some golf tomorrow afternoon with my father and brothers and am happy to be feeling pretty well this week and getting some work done.

Talk soon....

Hodgkin and the Weekend

No real new news to report...fighting something of a cold or allergies over the weekend but did manage to get together with another couple for dinner Saturday night and had a pretty decent weekend overall. It's funny when you have something like this, it really becomes the 800 lb. gorilla in the room; nobody necessarily wants to talk about it, but inevitably you do. We spent a lot of time at dinner discussing it and it was nice to talk about; kind of allows Kristina and I to clear our heads about it and go over it with other people who care. We spent a lot of time talking about other, "normal", stuff too - it was a nice night.

I had a weird dream too this weekend; the Yankees got so desperate for pitching that they paid some guy, who's almost 45, $4.5 million a month, to come pitch for them - once he gets back in shape. Do you think Steinbrenner and Cashman just did the payday by using an age-factor algorithm? "He's gonna be 45 soon, lets give him an even $4.5 million a month, poetic justice." Maybe he and his son Koby will get to suit up together on Father's Day this year...pretty cool in the novelty department, but I can't say I'm too scared to have the Sox hitters face a guy who's actually older than both teams GM's, and may well be old enough to remember Woodstock - mind you this is a professional athlete, pitching for one of the most famous franchises in sports. Steinbrenner is desperate, and you can see why.

With nothing to really report I decided to look at Hodgkin's itself, find out more about it, etc. The lovely gentlemen in the upper left is Thomas Hodgkin, who did much of the early legwork to identify and treat the disease which was ultimately named for him.

For more on the time line of the disease you can go here.

For more on the man himself, you can go here.

Obviously I am learning a lot about this stuff as I post here, and I have found that maintaining this site has forced my hand - driven me to seek more education and knowledge on the subject, and truly helped me be a better informed patient. Hopefully I can point people in the right direction if they too choose to try and seek out information on the disease and treatment; as I have said from the beginning, there is some satisfaction in not only keeping people posted, but also in providing some education on this disease and how it is treated.

As always I am extremely thankful for your support and I will do my very best to update this site regularly.

12.5% Complete!

That's the way I am looking at it anyway; since I have approximately 8 Chemo treatments and I've put one down, I'm 12.5% done...and feeling great. Yesterday afternoon was pretty rough, very tired and nauseous, however I woke up today and felt great. I'm at work for the majority of the day, though I do have to leave to get a shot of NeuLasta this afternoon, which will help keep my white blood cell count elevated throughout treatment and allow me to continue with the Chemo without any breaks.

So, what was it like?

Well, I got there at 9am, walked through some registration procedures and was then started on some IV fluids (the picture at top is a generic Chemo room, looks pretty much like the one I was in). The drug regimen I am on is ABVD, and is a four drug mix; the first three all go in fairly quickly, through a large IV tube, while #4, the "D" is a long drip process which takes the majority of the time, about 3 of the 4 hours I was there.

While there I was very comfortable, read some magazines (brought my own, I've given up on updated materials in facilities), did some work, and watched a movie on my laptop - it was actually a pretty relaxing procedure and few hours.

Kristina picked me up (I may be able to drive myself in the future, but the first time they recommend having a ride available) and we stopped by the local CVS to get some nausea meds. Went home from there and I relaxed for the afternoon; I felt pretty lousy yesterday, but as I said earlier I feel great today and am anxious to get to the next treatment. Was also boosted by the good news we received on my dad, who is improving some and will not have to join me at chemo...he will be going to the same place to get his Erbitux, but they are very positive about where he is right now. It would have been a bit much for all of us if he had to undergo Chemo again, right when I was.

I continue to be thankful for the wonderful support system I have around me; employees, family, friends, and most importantly my live-in-dietitian-fiance, Kristina...she does a great job taking care of me and we're trying our best to have a lot of laughs and live fairly normal lives throughout this entire process.

Keep you posted on other things as they happen and thanks again for stopping by; feel free to leave questions in the comments section if you have any and I'll do my best to answer them - a big reason I wanted to publish all of this stuff in such an open forum is to help with the education around this disease. Maybe someday someone like me will come along who is newly diagnosed and find this page of some value to them and their own struggle with the unknowns that accompany this diagnosis?

Enjoy your weekends!

Chemo - First Timer

I'm actually in my first chemo treatment right now; on the fourth drug of the ABVD mix they'll be giving me. Each treatment is approximately 4 hours and I get a nice comfortable chair, plenty of space for the laptop, food, and reading materials.
This is the beginning of the curative process and I'm excited to be here to beat this disease.

Dana Farber and Chemotherapy

My follow-up was yesterday at Dana Farber, where I had the privilege of sitting with Dr. David Fisher, a Lymphoma specialist who has a very deep background in the treatment and diagnosis of Hodgkins Lymphoma. He agreed with the diagnosis to this point, with one new wrinkle from the pathologist in Boston; under the sub-types for Hodgkins-Lymphoma I am showing as positive for more than one. This does not change my proposed treatment plan, but rather changes my years for follow up to 10, from 3-5. This was somewhat disconcerting, but I remain confident that I will react well to treatment and put the entire thing behind me in very short order.

This morning I found out that I will begin Chemotherapy treatment tomorrow morning, Wednesday, May 2nd. I am nervous and excited as I kick off this next phase of my battle, but the overreaching feeling is that the sooner I start the sooner I will be done and can resume life as a normal, cancer-free, patient.

Right now the plan is the following;

1. 4 months of chemotherapy - once every other week for 4-6 hours.

2. One month off, during which I will go back to Dana Farber for some additional tests and work.

3. One month of radiation, 5 days a week (M-F)

4. Regular follow-ups for 10 years to ensure the slower growing sub-type does not reappear.

There will be more tests and procedures around this main part of the treatment plan, but this is the skeleton, the big stuff that will help me beat this cancer and move ahead with my life.

Again, I remain extremely confident in the team I will be working with, both here on the Cape and at Dana Farber, and I continue to feel extremely fortunate to have such a strong support system around me during this difficult period. I know I have the best friends, family, and staff there is, and couldn't feel more comfortable that with their help I will not only beat this cancer, but do so comfortably and retain my ability to laugh and live while doing so.

So, tomorrow morning is another beginning; nobody knows how my body will react to the treatments, how run down I will get, if I will lose my hair, lose weight, etc. Time will tell, but the physicians remain confident that I will be able to function at a high level during my treatments and that much of my life will proceed as normal.

I'll do my best to keep up the posting and let people know how I'm feeling and how the treatments are, I'm pretty curious myself at this point...Happy May-Day!