WOW

I never new Dan was doing his posting about the same things. Not until I finished did I see he did his 7 minutes earlier.
I guess the apple does fall close to the tree and boy am I happy about that...

Mark

So whats new?

It all started on July 16. My first day of my new chemo - you read all about that in the previous posting. Well the week progressed as expected until the weekend and then it hit the fan. I got hit with all of the negative side effects and my Sat really was pretty bad but we always had Sunday to get better. Well on Sunday I woke up to having my left eye drooping down and looking like I went 9 rounds with Tyson. Nicki called the Doctor on Monday morning and they had me come in right away. After one look at my eye they wanted me to go for a Brain MRI which got set up for Wed morning. I had a Brain CAT 5 days before but now they wanted a MRI. Nicki then spoke to my head oncologist down at memorial hospital and he told me to get into the urgent care center ASAP for the brain MRI well Nicki drove down in a rain storm like a NYC cab driver and within 4 hours I was getting my brain looked at again. We got home at 9 and headed back to Sloan for my second round of Chemo at 9 Tuesday morning. After meeting with my chemo doctor everything was set. I started my next round and within 20 seconds I had the same reaction as the first (read previous post). I must have been doing better since only 3 doctors showed up with 4 nurses within 30 seconds. I have to tell you this really is not fun. After about 3 minutes I told them I wanted to go again, this is called rechalenge. I got a ton more of medicine and in about 1 hour we tried again and this time my body was able to handle the new chemo. The amount of steroids they have given me in the past 24 hours should keep me up for a while.

Well, the battle continues. I did get a call right in the middle of all of this from my Doctor at Memorial Sloan letting us know that the MRI was negative and my brain looked good.
So if you want to know what new - that is about it.

Once again thanks for all of the emails and letters and calls they all really help. Nicki,Dan,Jeremy,Sara,Whitney and even Molly can never express out thanks to all of you

Looking forward till tomorrow


Love Mark

Its Deja Vu All Over Again

Well I don't want to be too repetitive but in case people are curious as to what is going on lately with Mark I will catch you up. Once again, my dad went in for his second round of chemo and yet again he had an allergic reaction. The doctors said that there was a very slight chance that this would happen, and look how lucky...it happened again. And of course, after he recovered from the allergic reaction, he went on and finished it all up like a good boy.

beyond just them chemo, dad also had an MRI scan on his brain to make sure the cancer hadn't by chance spread to his brain. Thankfully, the results came up negative, so that is one less thing to worry about! It is strange how recently negative news seems to be positive news. I pray that more and more negative news turns out to be for the best, so lets keep our fingers crossed and our prayers abundant.

I am looking to put a little twist on this blog for a few days. Can an old friend or relative tell a funny story with my dad as the culprit. I don't know about anyone else who makes multiple visits here everyday, but I wouldn't mind a little change, while my dad gets back his stamina so he can make another entry into the blog. Anything at all would be appreciated, the more embarrassing the better.

As always, thank you all for your prayers and continued support. It certainly does not go unnoticed.

He who has a why to live can bear almost any how. ~Friedrich Nietzsche

The new Chemo

Well as I said to Nicki while driving to the hospital to get the new chemo I have a feeling that this was going to be an easy day. Boy was I wrong!

The night before I had to take 10 Steroid pills. So far so good. At the hospital they gave me 4 different bags of IV to get me ready for the Chemo. I should have realized when the nurse stated she would stay with me for a while, that I might have been in for quite a ride.

After about 45 minutes of getting me ready she started the new chemo - it lasts about 45 seconds and my stomach started to burn. The nurse hit the stop button and before I knew it I had 4 doctors and 3 nurses surrounding me. This took less than 1 minute, I could not breathe and my head was about to explode. To cut to the chase I had a very bad allergic reaction to the chemo. All I could see was bright lights but the team was right there and brought me back. What ever they were pumping into me did the job. THEY CLEANED MY SYSTEM OUT AND ASKED IF i WANTED TO TRY AGAIN. WHAT DO YOU THINK? GIVE ME 10 MORE MINUTES AND LETS ROCK AND ROLL. In that short time I was able to build up some antibodies and my system took the chemo.

What was to be about 2 hours in the hospital turned out to be 6 hours. The staff was just the best caring group of professionals. One of my doctors I think broke the heel on her shoes running up a flight of stairs to get to me, but they were all there along side (of course with my Nicki holding my hand). Driving home I told Nicki it looked like it was going to be an easy day.
Boy did I blow that.

Looking forward till tomorrow

Love


Mark

It has been a long time

This disease has the ability to rule your life. I would never believe how tired you get and more importantly how it has the ability to take you down emotionally.

In the past 3 weeks I have been in the hospital at least 3 times and have felt like I should have been in even more. The one thing that has been consistant is the support from family and friends
each and every day. I stopped writting but many of you have continued to write each and every day of the week.
Cancer seems to get joy out of playing with your emotions. You must battle it every moment of every day because once it gets into your feelings it takes twice as much energy to keep up the positive battle.

I will continue to fight. I am starting new Chemo on Monday 7/16 and will stay on that for a few weeks. The doctors want this Chemo to get me ready for some new experimental Chemo.

Each morning I wake and start the battle over again with the support of all of you and the work that the doctors are doing I have the tools that will help me win this battle.

I will try to write more often.

Looking forward till tomorrow

Love to all

Mark