bearcatfan blog

Came home last night, making the most recent treatment my shortest hospital stay yet. Only 2 nights. And pretty much no side effects, although my blood counts will bottom out in the next week or so, but that's it. And I get almost 3 full weeks off until my next treatment. I wish they were all like that!
 
I had a nice break there but I'm ready for the next round of chemo now. I had my kidneys checked yet again yesterday and they sucked once more, so I'm actually going to skip my next Methotrexate treatment and go straight to the next one, which is a combination of Etoposide and Cyclophosphamide. I had this once before and handled it ok, although my blood counts did bottom out and I took a little longer to recover from that the last time I got it. I get this one for about 3 hours a day over 5 days, so I'll definitely be in there longer than last time, but hopefully it goes ok.
 
The last round went fine; I've been home since Monday night. My immune system is pretty much non-exist again right now, but hopefully in about a week it will bounce back again. I'm now down to just 4 treatments, and might get as few as just one of those 4 depending on how my kidneys hold up over the next couple months.

I also finally got the ok to put some weight on my leg. I'm only supposed to put about 10% of my weight on it for now, which is obviously not a lot, but it's a start!
 
I got my kidneys checked out again on Friday and they bounced back a little bit, so they're hanging in there. This means I will now get at least 2 of my last 4 scheduled treatments and we'll check them out again in a couple weeks to see if I can do those last 2.

This last chemo has been kicking my body's @$$. I haven't been feeling sick or anything (thank God), but I had a temperature around 100 degrees for like a solid week and had to get 2 blood transfusions and 2 platelet transfusions, and my immune system has been wiped out for about 10 days now. I think it's slowly starting to come back finally, but there's no doubt I'll need an extra week to recover before starting the next chemo which is supposed to happen on Wednesday. I'd say there's about a 100% chance that's not going to happen. And at this point I wish it would so I can get this crap over with!
 
As expected, bloodwork on Tuesday was not good enough to start chemo on Wednesday. White blood cells and platelets were still too low. Hopefully by this coming up Tuesday I will have recovered enough to go in for the next treatment.
 
My blood work this time around was good enough, but just barely. Either way it will be nice to knock out another treatment tomorrow. It'll be Methotrexate again, which means I'll be in the hospital for a week or more.

If they let me, I'll just stay and knock out the next treatment also. If I can pull that off I'll be down to just 2 more treatments!
 
I just got home from the last treatment. It got a little rough on Wednesday and Thursday but overall it was one of the smoother Methotrexate treatments I've had. I didn't get the hiccups at all, and I got finished on Tuesday morning instead of my usual Thursday.

I really wanted to stay and start the next treatment tomorrow, and they were going to let me but my platelet count was too low so they sent me home for a week to recover. Surprise surprise, yet another delay I have to deal with. Oh well, I'm pretty used to it at this point.

But on the good side of things, I am now allowed to put 25% of my body weight on my leg, up from the 10% it was the past month. So we're making progress there!
 
Yesterday's bloodwork wasn't quite good enough to start chemo either (my platelet count is still too low, although it is improving), so the next treatment is being delayed yet another week to allow my body to recover enough. They did say this is somewhat common for someone who has gone through as difficult of a regimine as I have and is toward the end of their treatments, but man, I just want to get this crap over with. These delays are starting to get frustrating, but the thing that helps get me through it is knowing that it could always be worse!
 
Geez, I haven't updated in a month! Shame on me :Ohno:

I've only done 1 treatment since my last update and it went smoothly, but it looks like that's probably going to be my last one. I got my kidneys checked out today and they weren't good enough to do the next treatment, which I am scheduled to start on Tuesday. With only 2 treatments left it is likely that the last 2 will be cancelled, but I won't find out anything for sure until next week. While I certainly would be thrilled to be finished with chemo, I would definitely rather get the last 2 treatments in so my chances are a little better. Hopefully I've gotten all I need though!
 
Well I had one more kidney scan done yesterday and it came back just a hair shy of being able to do chemo, so the doctors decide enough is enough. I am officially finished with chemo!

:Party: :Party: :Party:

In the next couple weeks i have to get my routine scans done and then get surgery done to take out my port, but after that I'm all set. All I need to do now is start walking again and things will be back to normal!
 
My scans all looked good, and my port is officially out. It's still a little tender but everything went well with the surgery. I'm still waiting to hear from my orthopedic doctor about my X-ray so hopefully he gives me some good news about putting weight on my leg. But everything on the oncology side of things is officially over with other than getting my routine scans done every 3 months!
 
My leg sucks and I still can't put any more weight on it than I already am. Man, this healing process has been a nightmare. It's been more than a year now since I could last walk on that leg, and it's looking like it will be several more months until I can walk on it again. This is getting old!

I'm going to try to go back to work in January. I obviously won't be able to walk yet but since it's an office job I should be able to contribute effectively enough. It will be a total pain to have to get around on crutches there but oh well, I gotta go back sometime.
 
I went back in for my 3 month scans and check-up yesterday and got the results today and everything still looks good. My leg has healed a lot more too but unfortunately not enough to walk on it yet. It's getting closer to that point though.

The important thing though is that everything else looks stable, so I'm clear for at least another 3 months!
 
Got a call yesterday where they told me I can bump up my weight bearing from 25% to 50% and that they will check it again next month and hopefully let me start walking again. God I hope that is the case.
 
I had my leg checked out again last week and I still haven't been given the greenlight to walk. They seemed pretty hopeful that it will be fully healed by next month though so I'm hoping they're right.
 
Since busy season ended on Tuesday I've met with the Nephrologist, Cardiologist, and Orthopaedic surgeon and everything is holding up ok. I have mild kidney disease and minor heart deterioration but neither one is very serious. I just have a few meds to take but outside of that everything is in decent shape. My Orthopaedic surgeon said my leg is "probably" healed now based on my last X-ray but he wanted to look at a CT of it first before giving me the go ahead to bear my full body weight on it. I'll be honest, I've pretty much been walking on it quite a bit in the past month without any pain or problems or anything, but it would be nice to get the final "ok" from the doctor before I start walking full-time again. I'll get the results on Wednesday.
 
I can FINALLY walk again! :Party: :Party: :Party:

The leg is actually pretty close to being back to normal again already. I'm already walking pretty much with no limp whatsoever, which is awesome. I even walked 3 blocks to and from lunch today with no problems at all. I'm working on being able to walk up and down steps, which I can do as long as there's a railing there to help me lean on a little bit, but I still need plenty of work with that to strengthen the quad and hamstrings. Running is completely out of the question for now, but I don't really care too much about that.

Most of my rehab of course is focused around being able to golf again. I'm even a lot closer to that than I thought I'd be, though my balance on the follow through is horrendous at the moment and the torque on my knee isn't very comfortable. It's surprising how much better it is than I thought it would be though and I really feel that I'll be able to get back out on the course sometime in the month of May. I can't wait!
 
Had my 3 month scans today and everything looked good. The doctors seem to be pleased with everything, thank God. Rehab is going pretty well. It kicks my sometimes, but I can already tell my leg is getting stronger.
 
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