I can hear the bells can you?

First let me scream from mountain tops JASON IS IN REMISSION!!!! We got the news on Tuesday. His tumor markers are back to normal, there is one 6mm node in his chest, and the huge tumor that was in his pelvis is now just a thickening on the ct scan. All others are gone!!!!We go back in 6 weeks to recheck blood work and scans, but so far this means no post chemotherapy surgery! The oncologist is going to an interdisciplinary (sp) conference for difficult and challenging TC cases and will be presenting Jason's case. So he said that if anything comes up from that discussion he will get back in touch with us sooner. We got the most wonderful Christmas present that we could. It apparently has given Jason a new lease on life. On Wednesday he woke up at 8am and was going strong til about 1am the next morning. I love having my husband back. He is also super excited that he got is picc line out and can take a shower with that saran wrap on his arm. It can go back to the kitchen were it belongs.
Please pray for our friends Dave and Nena. Dave is having a rough go of his chemo treatments.

It is amazing how those simple words can remove the weight of the world from your shoulders. God is good!!

DONE with Chemo.

We went today and Jason finished his last round of bleomycin ever!!! Wahoo. Now we still have to do the restaging in like 3 weeks but that was a milestone accomplished. This will be the first time since August that we will not have to be at the hospital this week. We are so excited. His white count was a little low and he feeling pretty tired and puny (me too) apparently there is a small stomach virus making its rounds in our house. So far Jason and I have been lucky but Ronan got sick last night BOO! He still has the picc line in and that will not come out for at least another 6 weeks depending on the results. Well now we celebrate Thanksgiving and remember exactly what we are thankful for! Kimmy

Almost done!

So the last time I posted we were waiting in the hospital waiting on his chemo. They actually got started before midnight, it was amazing. We did go visit some friends that were in there and on the same floor as us. That was neat and certainly broke up alittle of the monotony. It was pretty uneventful. They did do a pulmonary function test on Jason, they had to redo it a couple times because his numbers were low but he got them up where they needed to be. They did this because of the blood clots and because of the bleomycin. He came back and was very tired from this. He did have some nausea two days (no vomiting) but it was nothing some IV meds didnt stop. We figured that he has been incredibly lucky so far and we would take that little bit instride. We were released with no meds other than the Neupogen to add on so that was a relief. It was one less to keep track of. He had his next to last outpatient Bleomycin today. It was breeze as usual. His magnesium is still alittle low even with the supplements so Zita(Dr. Tannir's Physician Assistant) wants him to eat avocados and nuts as snacks for right now, as these are naturally rich in magnesium. His iron is still low but nothing to warrant worry and best of all his white counts are doing fine. We got the dates for his restaging it will be Dec7th. We will see Dr. Tannir for the results on the 8th. Thank goodness we do not have to wait a week or so. Well I will write more when there is more to write. Love to all and keep those prayers coming.

Kimmy

Welcome to the Rock!

Blogspot ate my blog. So here we go again. We saw Dr. Tannir yesterday and what blood test were ready when we saw him were okay. He also said that there is a Slim chance that Jason will not have to have surgery. If there are anytumors left that are smaller than 2cm we will just keep an eye on them for awhile. He said that he would rather not have to do the surgery because of the fact that the big tumor involved bone and muscle and that Jason has blood clots now. Side note he will be on the blood thinners for a minimum of six months. We will do the restaging the first week of December (they redo all the scans to see how the chemo worked). We are currently in the hospital hopefully for the last round of inpatient ever!! Maybe we will get the chemo before midnight. Here's hoping.

Home Stretch, Here we come.

So alot has happened since our last blog. I know I'm sorry for not updating sooner. Lets see I passed the return demonstration even if our nurse was part nazi. We got home with tons of medicine and bandages and stuff but I have got a system down now. (it involves dry erase boards and a lot of colored markers). He has not had anymore trouble breathing but is crazy tired this go round which is to be expected. We went to for Bleo on Friday and his white cells were great (due to neupogen) but he is a tad anemic and his magenesium was down, so that meant more medicine. Halloween was fun, we went over to Billie and Jason;s (my sister) and had food and took Ronan and Tatum trick or treating. Jason made it to about two houses watching Ronan before he got tired but hey at least he made some. Mimi and Pop passed out candy while Roo and Tate watched the steady stream of older treaters and Jason squared watched the UT OU game. We came back home around 8:30 and J crashed out as did Ronan. We go back into the hospital of hopefully our last ever chemo 1-5 days on Friday if I can get them to correct his schedule. He then has his two Bleos and we should be done the week before Thanksgiving. They will probably restage(go through and do all the scans to see what is left if anything) the week after Thanksgiving. Keep up the prayers we need them in the next coming weeks. Peace out.
Kimmy

Home is on the horizon..albiet far far away......

Alright, they did an ultrasound on Jason's legs and it came back clear so no clots are still lingering there. Like I said before they are sending him home on the Lovenox shots for I don't know how long the pulmonary doctor said "a while." Jason and I attended the class on taking care of the Picc line. Its tedious but relatively easy. However they require you to attend the class TWICE wohoo just in case you didnt get it the first time. I would have thought my 7 pages of notes on a 30 minute class meant I was paying attention...aparrently not. In about an hour I have a return demonstration meaning I have to show a nurse from the infusion team that I can change the bandage. I think I got it in the bag. They said allow 30-45 minutes for this demonstration I dont really know what about changing a bandage is going to take that long but Ill let you know. Jason is no longer having breathing treatments and he has not been on O2 for 3 days so that probably means we wont have to have it at home. I finally got him out of bed and down to Kim's Place(the hang out for 30year olds and younger). We played video games, fixed and tuned their guitar, played a game of pool ( he still kicked my butt), and talked to the volunteer. The volunteer gave us a stuffed animal and a book to take to Ronan. They get alot of donations but they cant give the children on the ward stuffed animals. It was very sweet. She said we were a neat couple, the compliment meant alot to us. We have gone through more in our 3 year marriage than a of people go through in a lifetime. We suppose it could always be worse. Next week is our 3 year anniversary, we havent figured out what to do since we have to stay at home but I'll find something to make it neat. Well I will update when there is more to say. Enough of my babble for now.
Kim

Walk a Picc line...

So, no ultrasound yet of Jason's legs, hopefully tomorrow. This afternoon his IV infiltrated (leaked into his arm) thank god it was just saline and not chemo. They stopped that one and called the IV team, they tried 2 different times to get an IV started but alas it did not happen. The one they did get placed infiltrated as soon as they pushed liquid in. His veins are just to beaten up from the chemo, the nurses were all impressed that he had held off on a line as long as he did. So they placed a picc line. This is a port that is placed in the inside of the upper arm that follows the vein until it leads in to the superior vena cava ( biggest vein in the body). It was placed using ultrasound and made sure it was in the right place by xray. I have to attend a class tomorrow that will tell me how to take care of it once we go home. He said that they numbed it up using lidocaine and he cant really feel it all and is now kicking himself for not getting it earlier. ( they kicked me out of the room claiming they needed to keep a sterile field, somehow me sitting on the other side of the room messed this up.) Well, we are now getting chemo and instead of the early start time we had yesterday we are back to starting late......again. I think Jason is destined to never get chemo before 5pm. He still has a little pain in his back when he breathes but he went today with no oxygen. He still has breathing treatments every 6 hours to help with the pneumonia. Lets hope this is all the excitement we get this go round!!
Kim

Blot clot(s)??

So they did a CT scan last night and it showed that Jason has a/some blood clot(s) in his right lungs. They started him on lovenox shots to help break up the clot(s) so that his body can reabsorb them. They are keeping him on an antibiotic because there might be alittle pnemonia as well. Hopefully the pulmonary doctors will be in later to tell us a bit more. I dont if they will still do the broncoscopy but he is scheduled for a doppler ultrasound to try to determine where these clots are starting from, if he has DVT (deep vein thrombosis) or what. We will start chemo today so we theoretically should be done on Thursday depend on what time they start today. If its too late because of 14 hour chem and post cisplatin rehydration it will be Friday. Oh well, at least we know a little bit more will post again when I know more. He is feeling sore on his right side and it still hurts to take deep breaths but we went down and played with Ronan in the park today. Starting tomorrow no one under the age of 12 will be allowed to enter MD Anderson unless they are patients, so no more Bubba for right now. We suppose its for Swine Flu precautions, our nurse said she would find out.
Keep up the prayers.

Kim

Really? Alright, what do we do next.

So, Jason started having some minor pain while breathing on Thursday and we thought he might have slept wrong and pulled a muscle. Well he woke up Friday morning and we were to be admitted into the hospital for chemo. The pain started to become more severe and we called his clinic and they told us if it was really bad for us to go to the ER or we could just wait for him to get a room. Well from what you can remember from our other trip Jason decided to wait it out.
We got a room around 4:30 pm, Jason started to have a lot of trouble breathing and alot of pain, I called the nurses and he was put on oxygen and they called the doc on call. They were going to treat it as pleuralsy and start him on a diuretic and an NSAID. He was sent for an xray to verify diagnosis and rule out pneumoni(his lungs sounded clear). They then started the chemo, he got premeds and the bleomycin. They had started the etoposide but stopped and said that the Dr. looked at the Xray and he has a Pleural effusion which is basically fluid collecting in the sac around his right lung. They are to halt the chemo, get an urine analysis and blood cultures, start him on an antibiotic and the Dr. will see him in the morning to discuss further treatment.
So now the pure boy is resting in an upright position because he cant breathe when he lays down. I had to wheel him up to his room and he can barely get up to go to the bathroom. We knew rough days were ahead but this came out of nowhere it seems. Well I will make sure he gets some pain medicine so that he can sleep and I will update tomorrow or today rather when we know more.

Kim

Good Days and Great Days

So we went in and he got his Bleomycin last Friday. His counts were awesome and he was having a good day. I was the one who actually fell asleep waiting for the Physician Assistant. We went and had mexican food after and then went home and took a nap. He then headed out with his Dad and rode a motorcycle around First Colony and visited some friends. He was so happy he got to ride. We had another good day Saturday and a Great day on Sunday. He did pretty good today as well. I attribute this to the Neupogen shots keeping up the blood counts.
The only side effects that he has had so far are truly!!! awful smelling gas (not that this is terribly different from normal.), some tinnits (ringing is his ears), he is having problems tasting his food. So anything with a really strong flavor is what he is craving now. Well we go back in on Friday for more Bleomycin. Wohoo, but the next week we go in for round 3 of inpatient chemo. Its getting closer to being done. Its insane how quickly yet incredibly slowly this time is going. I will update when we have more to say.
Kim

Almost 2 down, 2 to go

Sorry this hasnt been updated yet but better late than never. Let's see, on Friday we went and saw Dr. Tannir. He came in only to see Jason which I thought was very nice. He was happy with Jason's progress. HIS TUMOR MARKERS ARE FALLING!!! This is great news it means the chemo is working and the tumors are shrinking. Jason and I were so relieved, getting that good news mad going back in alittle easier. The doc does not want to do any CT scans or MRIs this time, he is happy with the markers and Jason being in less pain and doesnt want to expose Jason to any unnecessary radiation right now. We agree with him, but we will do the scans after his last round of chemo.
So far this round of chemo has been completely boring and uneventful which is just the way I want it. On Monday I got Jason down the room for 15-30 year olds. It has video games, a pool table, big screen tvs etc. He said it was fun but only lasted a little while. Oh well it was good for him to get out and see other younger cancer patients.
We are currently waiting for them to start the next round of chemo, Ill give them a little while longer before I bug them. We are getting sprung tomorrow, however will be back in Friday for his outpatient Bleomycin. But then we are free until the next Friday. We dont see the doctor again until right before we go back in for the 3rd round. They are sending him home with some Neupogen shots to help keep up his blood count. They work so we are all over it.
His spirits are good, he's tired and ready to be home and see Ronan. We both are, but it hasnt been to bad this time. We got good news pray thats what keeps coming.

Kim

Goin back to the slammer.....

So lets see, we went to the doctor last Friday and all was good. Jason's blood counts had dropped but we were expecting this. They actually were back on the rise but not fast enough. Dr. Tannir did not want to derail his treatment so I had to give him 3 shots of Neupogen. Thats a drug that sends the bone marrow into overdrive to produce cells. Jason has felt pretty good the past couple of days. A few friends have dropped by to chat and that always makes him feel good. I think he is getting bored of just me cracking jokes. We did shave his head on Saturday, he had been leaving a pretty good trail of hair. Ronan didnt mind at all. I have some cute pics of the two right after it happend. I will post those when we get done with this round of inpatient chemo. That brings me to my conclusion because its 1am and we go back to the hospital tomorrow. I promise more updates then. Bye, Kim

ER my patootie, no rushing zone apparently.

GRR, blogspot ate my blog. So we went to the Er last night. Jason was having chest pains and chronic diarrhea for about a week. (Ill bet he loves me announcing that). To make a long story short we waited 6 hours for a bed, 3 more for a doctor and were released today at 11 am. They drew a cardiac panel and it came back negative for a heart attack, they did an ekg which was also negative. Apparently the Bleomycin can cause some pain. The diarrhea subsided by the time they gave him a room. Having nothing in your stomach since 1 pm can do that I suppose. However they did discharge him with a perscription for when it returns with the next treatment. Overall it was a pretty rotten experience and I will be emailing the patient adovacacy department. He came home crashed, ate, crashed, showered, crashed. He is pretty tired right not his white cells are low. Normal range is 4.0-9.0 he is around 1.9 as of last night. We knew this was going to happen so we will just up our hand washing and such. He is in good spirits and converses and plays with Roo when he can. His hair is starting to fall out so we will have a head shaving party tomorrow. Ill post pics if he agrees. Well we go to the dr. on friday so there will probably be another update then. Thanks for the prayers, and think high thoughts about white cells, but not too high cause that would be a totally different problem. Good night all.
Kimmy

Dr. Visit

So yesterday was a rather eventful day. We thought we were going to be in and out of the dr. but apparently the business side of things had other ideas. We finally met with the Physician Assistant to Dr. Tannir, her name is Zeta. She went over Jason's most recent cbc ( complete blood count) and told us all of his numbers like white blood count and red blood count look good. We will probably start seeing the numbers falling this weekend. We then saw Dr. Tannir and he looked at the area were Jason's tumor was and was quite happy that you could no longer visibly see the bulge nor palpate the mass. This along with Jason being in quite a bit less pain makes us reasonbly sure that the cancer is responding very well to the chemotherapy. We hope that by his next appointment that he will be able to come off all pain medication.
He also had his first outpatient round of Bleomycin. That was a breeze compared to the inpatient chemo. We walk in start an IV, about 20 minutes late walk out. He is doing pretty good, complaining about "funny tummy" but no nausea, he's tired but resting when he can. I believe some of the steroids are giving him insomnia, he gets to stop those for now so that should help. Some of his friends came out to see him today and he was quite a bit perkier for a while. It was nice for him to have a little bit of normalcy. Again, thanks for your prayers.

Kimmy

Theres no place like home.

So Jason was released from the hospital today. We have a slew of medications and instructions, but nothing to difficult. He went through the 5 days of chemo like a champ. There weren't really any bumps in the road except for them having to put in a new IV for one day. Let's on Tuesday he went for a doppler sonogram to make sure that there was not a blod clot in his leg because there was a fair amount of swelling to it. That test came back negative, no clot, just a tumor pressing on his veins and lymphnodes. The swelling has decreased significantly infact I dont think that it is even swollen anymore. He is eating well, drinking alot, and resting. He did get up and watch alittle tv and spent some time with Roo. He's actually sleeping now besides me, we have to go back down to MD Anderson tomorrow to get some blood drawn, meet with the doctor, and do a round of Bleomycin. Thats one of the chemo drugs referred to as the "antitumor antibiotic". So lets hope its doing its job. Thanks again for the prayes. Love you guys and will update probably tomorrow at some time.

Kimmy

Hello from room P919!

I (Kim) thought that we would start this so that all of you guys could keep uptodate on Jason's treatment. I suppose the best place to start would be the beginning,so settle in.
Most of you know that in February of 2008 Jason had surgery to remove a tumor and we were told that it was testicular cancer (tc from here on out). He underwent 17 bouts of radiation and we were basically sent on our way with a pat on the back. Well in February of this year Jason complained about his back hurting, we both thought that this was due to helping move an entertainment center. We put it off and he just pushed on through. In May it became so bad that we finally went to the dr. We did the standard practice of physical therapy, steroid shots, nothing helped the pain. So the Dr. Watters decided that surgery to remove the bulging part of the disc would be Jason's next best option. He was scheduled for surgery for 09-04-09, but the dr. wanted one more MRi before. We went on 09-01-09 to get that done. We went to Dr. Watters office on 09-03-09 and were told that it wasnt back surgery that was needed, we needed to contact an oncologist. We left straight from Dr. Watters office to the Emergency Room at MD Anderson. We waited forever, they were busy, but we were eventually seen. They drew blood, did a full body MRI, CT Scans with and without contrast of his head, chest, and abdomen. The results showed that Jason had a large (cantaloupe size) mass on his left hip bone that wraps around the bone and encompasses the sciatic nerve, as well as tumors near the spine. He was finally admitted into a room on Friday evening. Saturday morning Dr. Tannir, his new GU doctor came in and explained what was going on. In his opinion that this could be nothing other than a recurrance of his last cancer that has now metastasized. The position of it, the nature of it, and his tumor markes lead him to believe that and postponing treatment in order to get a biopsy would be putting Jason's life at risk. So no arguments from us we decided to start on a standard but heavy duty course of chemotherapy for Jason. He will have 4 cycles of chemo. The layout will be Day 1 through 5 he will be in the hospital on day 8 we will be out patient for chemo, on day 15 we will be outpatient for chemo, then back in the hospital on day 21 to start the cycle over. If all goes according to plan we should be done with chemo in the middle of November.
So far the chemo hasnt had really any effects on him. He had a little nausea the 2nd day, but I attribute that to the chopped beef sandwhich and soda. He seems a little more tired than usual but he is up all night having to urinate constantly do to post chem rehydration. He has gotten to see Ronan a couple of times and that lifts his spirits. We should be going home on Thursday and everyone always feels better when they are at home.
Thats about all for now. I will repost when there is more news. Keep those prayers and well wishes coming, they mean so much to both of us.

Kimmy