Chemo treatment 2.5 down making a total of 17 chemo treatments to date...

It was a very busy day at the clinic today and parking was tough. I had no choice but to park on the street in a "2-hour" zone. I crossed my fingers hoping I wouldn't get a ticket. That was at 1:30, when I came back at 5:40, no ticket. Thank you parking enforcement gods! So I kicked it in the waiting room for a half-hour chatting with Judy and her husband, George. Her young son, Carl, was raising hell with everyone. Cute kid, though. Funny thing, while Judy was chatty, I was thinking about my favorite past Seattle Supersonics coach, George Karl. Interesting how the mind makes those connections. Judy got called back about 10 minutes before me and off she went, looks like I will be the last man standing (or sitting reclined) tonight.

Finally it was my turn and the other George got started on my vitals. BP was up a little at 135/85 (may have been little Carl), pulse 88 bpm, blood O2 was 98%, and weight steady at 199 lbs. The group room was totally crowded so off to a private room I went. That was nice, I needed some quiet to get some work done on the laptop and make some calls. I am really getting my hours up at the office and committed myself to doing more away from the office. In fact, I had another crisis last night causing me to be at the office until 8 PM. I got home to a not-so-happy-about-it Beth. She doesn't want to see me getting myself over worked at the office. I told her everyone at the office says the same thing and insists they can handle it and I should go home. However, I know I am not over doing it yet and I want to do enough to take a load off their shoulders, they have been working hard since my diagnosis and I would like to roll up the sleeves and return the favor. Anyway, the crisis kinda reflected a little on my integrity as a safety guy and I felt it was very important that I correct it personally. In the last decade of my life, I have really developed a deep respect for what integrity means. And if I happen to die early, I would like it to be built up as much as I can to best reflect who I was. Nothing says more about a person than their integrity, IMHO ("in my humble opinion" for you non-bloggers). I have been fortunate to have some very excellent role models in my life to follow and even more fortunate to recognize its value. Currently, in my own mind, I have more work to do to build it up and there is no time to waste.

So Huang jacked me in tonight and I got started. My blood counts came back a tiny lower than last week but still with plenty of room to spare before needing some booster drugs. Since it was so busy and I had a 4 PM appointment with Darin the acupunturist, Krystina came in for the exam, BEFORE THE BENADRYL!!! Wow, now I can tune in and let her know wuzz up! I told her how bad I had last weekend with the trouble breathing and sleeping. I went into detail at how difficult of a week I had with just about everything. She did her exam and found I was getting good capacity in the right lung. But to be cautious, she ordered up a chest x-ray and I will be getting that tomorrow (Friday) after the heart echogram at Dr. Sytman's office. She and I feel there is some mucus buildup going on which is reducing the gas exchange in the right lung. So far, it doesn't seem to be that bad since my blood 02 levels are where they need to be. It did finally occur to me that it is the first of March (in fact my best man John Robertson's birthday today) and usually I get some allergies kicked up this time of year. Where I am not one to suffer hard core from allergy season, they do have a small effect on me and I bet that is why its been a tough week. My sinuses have been draining, my throat has been a bit sore, eyes dry and irritated, and a frog in my throat, ribbit. I feel better now that I am knowing this, I began to think this week the cancer might be bouncing back. So that was about it with Krystina and I went on through the day without seeing Dr. Chen. But, right after the benadryl, Dr. Gignac paid a visit, or is it, I paid him to visit! Long story short, I went over eveything with Dr. Gignac again and we also talked about Dr. Sodhi losing his young son. Dr. Gignac was also pretty affected by Dr. Sodhi's loss since he also has a 16 year old son. Side note: Dr. Sodhi should be back in office now so I will be making an appointment to see him soon. I told Dr. Gignac that I finally got started reading the The China Study. While I haven't finished it yet, I told what I have read so far really supports what I am doing with my diet and gives me that much more confidence. While the book really recommends a whole foods, vegan diet, we both agreed that the fish I do eat is a good thing. At some point, I will share with you what I have learned from this book and I do recommend reading it. However, I know there is the dogma of vegetarianism that exists out there so rest assured, I won't be thumping and preaching this book as gospel. I think deep down we all know the value of cutting out a lot of the meat and fat we consume. But I also know how good a steak, a chicken breast, BBQ'd ribs, or a big smoked ham can taste on the palate. And bacon, lord knows how tasty a nice slice of salty-ass bacon can taste. Nothing brings out the flavor of baked beans than a whole lot of bacon fat getting mixed in. Bacon makes life worth living! If we are going to talk about the quality of life, we can't talk long without the delectable flavor of bacon. Bacon, its what Jesus would have put on his omlettes! Good thing Ash Wednesday was yesterday, eh?

To wrap this post up, I did get my Avastin today and had the usual doses of carboplatin and taxol. The acupunture was the icing on the cake and I slept through most of it. I am telling you, if you haven't tried acupunture, you don't know what you are missing. The needles can be a little intimidating, but if you can get through that, you will be treated to something nearly as good as bacon! Boy, I am going to have to go to our favorite vegan cafe and get some soy bacon, I don't know how they do it, but it comes real close...