Pictures, and New Friends

So I finally figured out how to get pictures onto my blog! You can see them at http://nicolescancer.blogspot.com, scroll all the way to the bottom of the page, and there they will be in slideshow format! That's pretty exciting! As I get more of the scans and radiographs from my nice hospital visit in November pulled off of the disks they sent me, I will post those as well. I'm having a hard time trying to figure out how in the world I'm supposed to get those transferred.

It's T-minus two days to my next chemo. This will be treatment two of the second round, which means only four left (that's eight more treatments) after Tuesday. Tomorrow I will go in for my bloodwork and to see the doctor. Hopefully my WBC count will be high enough that we won't have to postpone my chemo. I really just want to get in there and get it done with. I have to really psyche myself up to go in for the Comet/Drano/Red Kool-aid Death/sinister other drug infusion otherwise I'll walk in the clinic and promptly walk back out. I'm not thrilled about having these drugs pushed into me even though I know they have a job to do. So it's really a disappointment of sorts when I can't get chemo, because that means another day of psyching myself up. That takes an awful lot of mental effort; I wish I could explain it. It's really quite draining all in itself--I would rather write a ten or twelve page research paper.


One drawback (amonst the many) to having had my chest cracked open and sewed back together is when the weather changes, my chest hurts. It started to warm up yesterday, and sometime during the night before last my chest began to ache really bad, along with my hand. For those of you who don't already know, I broke my hand about this same time last year and had to have surgery to re-break it and have an external fixator (pins that were outside my bone going into it) placed because it didn't heal correctly the first time. My hand aches a little when the weather goes through a drastic temperature change, and evidently my chest does now, too. I find that strange because where my chest was opened, there is cartilage (not bone). Oh well. Just another thing to deal with.

Before I go, I would like everyone to send good thoughts to my new friend, Paul Lawonn. He stopped by my site the other day. He is a friend of my dad's who has been living with Mantle Cell Lymphoma, a particularly aggressive and not very treatable type of lymphoma, for a few years now. Up until recently, there were not a lot treatment options for Paul or others with MCL. However, the FDA has recently approved a drug that is normally used to treat multiple myeloma (another blood cancer) for the treatment of MCL. It is called Velcade, and it shows a lot of promise. Its mechanism of action is amazing--what it basically does is it interferes with enzymes that build the resistant proteins that this cancer uses; that leaves no building blocks for the cancer to use. Many of the people who have not been able to acheive even short term remission with other treatments have acheived longer term remission with Velcade. He will begin his treatment tomorrow, and I hope that it is successful in beating Paul's unwelcome houseguest. Please send good positive thoughts his way, and as he is a person of faith, he could use some prayers, too, if you wish. Paul now has a new weapon in his arsenal to battle his demon! Yay for modern medicine, and yay for Paul!

I also have another new friend. Her name is Stephanie Z. and she is also battling Hodgkins. She just finished up her chemo and is going to start radiation five days a week. Send good thoughts/prayers/etc. her way as well that her radiation will go smoothly and her demon will be eradicated and never come back!

Good night, all, and thank you so much for stopping by!