Thursday, April 5, 2012

Hey Now Everybody,
Sorry for going dark the past few days...no reason, actually. the last 7 days of the first 21 day round went splendidly. I felt great, had energy, though I burned out at the end of the day. Still on a 2 hour sleep regimen, but able to fall back into a sleep each time, thankfully.
Sold that listing I put together last time around, so we have an escrow!!! Phew.
I began Round 2 on Tuesday, which consists of sitting for 7 hours while they drip two different fairly heavy duty drugs, Taxotere and Cisplatin along with a saline mix into me. Kiki sat with me all day, I had a good lunch, the weight is still up where it needs to be, etc. The bag is now attached to my port, and it is dripping the aptly named 5-FU into me. This is  a nasty drug, fighting fire with fire as my nurse says.....the combo of these 3 will essentially burn the insides again, like last time, so I take steps to protect my GI tract with all kinds of things...Aloe Juice, Biotene.....
As percentages go, I am on Day 23, which puts me at 19% along the treatment highway. Good number. I am hopeful that a planned scan to be done the last week of this round will allow me to avoid a Round 3, and thereby slash 21 days off this thing....kind of a "Chutes and Ladders" approach, though in reverse. Chute up, in this case. That would be great, though I have my head around the 3 rounds and am mentally prepped for it.
To reiterate, the tumor is basically gone from the side of my neck, I no longer can touch/feel it. Don't know what it looks like from a scan perspective, but progress is progress......this is all in preparation for the 35 radiation treatments planned to burn the beejesus out of the two tumors......the smaller the better.
Easier targets.
Many of you have already bought tickets to the Lafayette Community Music Festival on May 5th here in town. If not, I attach a link.
www.townhalltheatre.com
Thanks to all of you for sending the great, uplifting notes via the blog, and for the technically challenged, your emails direct to me. It's tough being in touch with everyone directly, but I read EVERYTHING, and it gives me strength. There have been over 2,100 hits on this blog, and I am so deeply touched. I promise to update you all again soon.
Giants Opening Day tomorrow April 6th in AZ. Let's Go!!

6 comments:

  1. Glad you're doing so well with the treatments - not that I'm surprised. Stay strong and get well soon.

    - Tim C

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  2. Tom and Crew,
    Great blog update. Glad to hear that you are keeping the energy level high and the weight up. As TS Sr. used to frequently make note – you never even had an ass! I wanted to share based on Tom’s last blog entry where he mentioned that with his shaved noggin he now looks a bit like the guy from Breaking Bad (Bryan Cranston). Well I always thought that the guy on Breaking Bad looks just like Aubrey Huff of the Giants. Then suddenly I had this great visual of Tom, bald as a eagle and wearing a red rally thong strutting around yelling” I’m gonna’ beat this thing”. It gave me a good laugh – I hope it does the same for you on this Opening Day 2012. Go Giants – Go Tom! Kill-A-Brew

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  3. Tom,

    "It's not the size of the dog in the fight, it's the size of the fight in the dog..." -- Pat Malley -- 1977.

    You're a baddass, my friend. A true inspiration. Day 23 and you're already way ahead on points. You've got this thing licked. With you every single step of the way. Love you, bud. And, love to your home crew.

    Keep throwing punches.

    Barry O.

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  4. Tom,

    Great to hear the good news! I would only put on Red Rally thong as last resort. All the best, John

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  5. Thank God you rock!
    Love to all the Stacks.
    XO

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  6. Over 30 (days in) has never looked so good! Here's to the irony of you "chute-ing up" to avoid drugs! Go, Tom, Go! Sending sunny thoughts through the pouring rain. ~ J

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