November 30 – Rebuilding Week for Brian

Brian has been feeling very well this week as this is the last week before chemo starts again next Tuesday.  Brian is so enjoying being off drugs for a week and he feels really good.  This week Brian has been working on the basement apartment, prepping walls and finally finished the painting today.  Some of you may not know this yet, but we are going to be selling our house early in the new year.  We have bought a brand new Executive Style Townhome Condo in Westminster Woods, just around the corner from Breanne and James and David and Jenn.  We actually bought this condo a few months ago, before Brian’s diagnosis; and at the time were worried that we were making the right decision.  We wanted to downsize as the house seems too big now that the kids have flown the coup and  Breanne was on our case about buying one of these new condos around the corner as they would be “perfect for you and dad” – she said!  We were not sure we were ready for living in a higher density area in a condo but they are really beautiful condos and being so close to the grandkids with dreams of them dropping by whenever they wanted and visiting after school when they were old enough was very tempting and with our dreams of doing more travelling, it seemed the right decision to make – we could lock the door and go; so we decided to go ahead with it.  Now, in hindsight, we are very glad we made this decision as neither Brian nor I want to be worried about the upkeep of a big house and garden and now are looking forward to the move. 

So we have a very busy year ahead and sometimes it feels overwhelming with the amount of things we have on our plate and now with Brian having chemo adding to the mix!  In the next six months, we have to de-clutter the house, sell the house, move into a condo end of May, and get ready for David and Jenn’s wedding in July, plus get Brian through 4 months of chemo!  But we are up for the challenge and come next August, we should feel relieved everything is over and done with – then I think it may be time for a relaxing vacation again!

I will probably not update the blog again until after Brian’s chemo next week.  Stay tuned….

Nov 24, 2011 – Good news day!

We haven’t written in the blog for a few days but things are going incredibly well for Brian.  Not only did he have a good “first week” after chemo, his second week was even better.  We were waiting to get a “second wave” of not feeling well which the pharmacist at the chemo clinic says sometimes happens.  I thought that may happen too since Brian finished his last Prednisone doses on Sunday but incredibly he feels pretty good.  He says that if there is anything he has it is a very dry mouth, his taste is different and his sense of smell seems to be affected.  Brian is now drug-free until December 6th, when we do it all over again. 

I phoned the supportive care coordinator at the Cancer Clinic today as I was very anxious to know how his blood counts had changed since chemo.  Brian had blood work last Thursday and this past Tuesday.  What I found out completely astounded me.  When Brian had his original blood work in September, the abnormal results were a high white count of 43.3 (normal 4.0 to 11.0) and an extremely high lymphocyte count of 34.1 (normal 1.1 to 3.3), and a low hemoglobin 126 (normal 135-180). These counts were even worse when we went to see the oncologist in October and along with an enlarged liver and spleen; why she recommended chemo start right away.  Well, by last Thursday – two days after chemo – his hemoglobin had dropped to 105 (this is expected after chemo), but his white count had dropped to 17.4, his platelets to 55 (which is expected too) but his lymphocyte count had dropped right down to 4.9 which is a huge jump from 34.1.  I was very happy to see that.  The blood work on Tuesday showed his white count to be 10, his platelets still low at 212, his hemoglobin up to 120, WBC 10 and lymphocytes further reduced to 3.9. His electrolytes were normal and his kidney function was normal.  (I am writing these in here for our purposes in case we need to look back again in a few months).  Anyway, we are very very happy with the results and that Retuximab-CVP seems to be doing the job it should be doing. 

The other good thing from Brian’s point of view is that his “itchy skin” which he has had for over a year and is one of the symptoms of lymphoma is completely gone.  He is not driving me crazy with his constant scratching anymore!  Brian was feeling a little antsy today, so decided to try running and he did 4 and 1’s (if you are not a runner – it means he runs 4 minutes, walks 1 minute and repeats) and ran 4K; came home and was feeling great!

So now we have one more week of feeling “normal” and drug-free before it starts all over again and we hope that we get the same reaction to the chemo with absolutely no side effects but we are still saying that with caution as maybe the more times you zap the body with these drugs, the body may start to say ‘wait a minute, not this again” and maybe start to give Brian a few of those side effects! 

DAY FIVE

Just a short note to let you know I’m doing fine. This is the fifth day since I had my chemo and so far other then tiredness and a little sore in my mouth I feel great (touch wood, I’m touching my head).  Went to my granddaughter Selena’s first birthday yesterday and what a wonderful day it was, she is such a sweetheart.  I also went out for my first run today and felt good.  Went about 3 kms with some walking mixed in, muscles and breathing wern’t up to par but felt good to just get out.  That’s all for now.

HAPPY 1ST BIRTHDAY SELENA!

We can’t believe a year has gone by already and our little grand-daughter Selena is now 1 year old!!   We had a great day celebrating her birthday at BJAMS! 

Here is a little video I put together. Enjoy!

NOV 18 – 3 DAYS AFTER CHEMO

This is so utterly amazing – Brian has yet to have ANY side effects from his chemo treatment!  I had read that sometimes it takes until the third day to feel some effect but Brian felt perfectly fine once again when he got up this morning.  Mind you, he is taking all the “home medication” that he was given which is suppose to help with side effects so I am sure that must help.  It is quite amazing how the medical profession has this down to an art of knowing what patients should take in order to feel well.  He takes his last prednisone on the weekend but continues to take allopurinol until next Thursday.  Since prednisone is a steroid that is probably what is helping him feel well and the allopurinol is apparently to prevent gout and/or kidney stones as the chemo can cause a patient to have high uric acid which can cause those ailments.  After next Thursday, he will be completely “drug-free” until December 5th when we do it all over again.  Brian says he feels like he is a walking pharmacy! I can’t say I blame him. 

We certainly aren’t letting our guard down though; we know that he is now immunocomprised so we still have to keep him healthy and free of infection; so we are staying away from heavily populated public places and if our grandkids even get a little sniffle, Breanne is going to keep us away.  I too have to make sure I don’t pick anything up, so I am being very careful as well. 

Brian is a dream to take care of, I basically do nothing other than keep track of him taking his pills on the right schedule (although sometimes he has to remind me that it is “pill time”!),  he is drinking a ton of water, his appetite is very good and his “bathroom ablutions” as my dad would say are right on track!  Brian is even exercising.  He went out for about a 30 minute walk yesterday and said when he came home that he actually felt like running but thought he better not try it just in case but he said that next week and the following week, he is going to run as long as he feels well.  What a trooper, eh!!  This is one amazing guy I married!

I must say that both Brian and I have felt some of the stress go away too.  Now that we know the procedures and as long as Brian continues to feel this well after each treatment, we feel Blessed that things are going so well! 

THE FIRST SESSION

I won’t go in to a lot of detail as Janet has already covered most of the details.  Everything went much better then I expected except for the period were I got cold and had uncontrollable shakes, that did scare me as I was trying to stop the shaking but couldn’t, I looked at Janet and I could tell she was very concerned , also the nurses reacted very quickly In contacting my Doctor, they un-hooked my chemo injection and gave me some other medicines and everything calmed down. and after about half hour they hooked me back up to the chemo.  The rest of the day went very well with no more reaction, I was rather drowsy (I didn’t realize I was acting a little drunk maybe there was something else in the chemo?).  Got home and felt good but by nine o’clock was tired so went to bed and watched the Leafs and they basically put me to sleep. 

This morning I feel very good and hope it continues, they have me on drugs for the next few days and I go to see the Doctor next Tuesday to see how I’m doing.

As Janet said I appreciate all the kind thoughts and prayers coming from everyone, it really does raise my spirits.

Nov 15 – BRIAN’S FIRST DAY OF CHEMO

We were up bright and early this morning and surprisingly both of us slept pretty well last night!  We were both feeling a little apprehensive how the day would progress and overall it went well.  We met with the pharmacist who once again armed us with a load of handouts about the drugs Brian will be taking and what side effects may occur and how to treat them.  I now have a binder full of information and am learning very quickly all about non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma (I wish we knew what type and Stage Brian was at) although maybe it a good thing we don’t know so that I don’t spend half my time on Google! You do have to be careful what you read. 

We were then taken to the Chemotherapy Suite which is a huge room with beds and recliner chairs around the periphery of the room and the nursing station right in the middle.  It is a nice bright room with huge windows to see outside and the nurses are tremendous.  They tell you everything you need to know and are very attentive to the patients needs. They started the infusion and Brian was good up to about 1 to 1 1/2 hours when he started to feel a little tightness in the chest and just feeling uncomfortable.  He got up to go the bathroom (as they are pumping Saline into you all the time as well, so going to the bathroom was frequent!) and when he came back, he did not look well at all, he started to shake and said that he felt extremely cold.  The nurses immediately stopped his infusion, covered him with warming blankets and called the oncologist.  They immediately gave him some Decadron and Benadryl and within minutes he had calmed down.  At this point, Brian decided he might be better in a bed instead of the chair recliner, so we got him moved into a bed and he was definitely more comfortable.  About 30-45 minutes later, they started the chemo infusion again and from that point on everything went smoothly, no more reactions and in fact he was rather funny as it was like he was drunk.  He became very animated and talkative and was very upbeat about the whole process. 

By 4:15, all drugs had been administered and they gave him one more bag of saline and then they disconnected the IV and we were out of there!  So far, he is still feeling relatively good and once we got home, he started to do things like helping me with supper, getting the garbage ready for garbage day tomorrow and I had to get him to stop! The nurse had warned me that he will feel pretty good but may crash later tonight and had even told Brian not to overdo it and just rest.  Anyway, he is now resting on the couch watching T.V. and we will wait to see how things progress over the next few days. They said it takes about 2-3 days for the majority of the drugs to leave his body and he may have some side effects but I’m hoping that the only side effects will be fatigue and nausea as both of those are very controllable.  I will blog again tomorrow to let you know how he is doing. 

Both Brian and I would like to thank all of you for your prayers, positive thoughts and energy today.  Your e.mails and phone calls to show how much you all care is very much appreciated by both of us. 

The Day Before

Well I'm only one day away from the start of my Chemo Therapy and I must admit I am getting quite nervous and feeling very apprehensive on how my body is going to react to the treatment. There has been alot of reading material I have gone through and they tell you all the side effects that might occur and some of them are kind of scary. I am feeling very healthy at this point so hopefully that helps me get through this first treatment (did I mention they will be injecting me with drugs for seven hours) Janet is coming along with me (she is such a big supporter and helps me through the down times) and I have my book to read and some music to listen to, I am looking at it like a long airplane ride to Europe or some far off place and hopefully getting off the plane feeling pretty good. Well that's all for now - I will let you know how the "plane ride" went in a couple of days. Brian

BRIAN’S HEALTH ISSUES – NOV 10/2011

Well, after such a wonderful vacation that we both enjoyed immensely, we came home with some trepidation as just before we left for vacation, Brian had been having some concerning health issues for which he went to see the family doctor and after quite a few investigations (blood tests, CT, x-rays) we were told that he had enlargement of his spleen and the blood tests were showing some blood irregularities which were indicative of leukemia (cancer of the blood).  Our family doctor called a hematologist/oncologist at the Cancer Clinic in Kitchener and after reviewing the results, she told us that we could still take our vacation since Brian was feeling relatively well and she would see us upon our return.  We went to see her the day after we got back and she was a little concerned that Brian’s spleen was a little larger than 5 weeks ago on the previous CT scan and she also felt that his liver was also somewhat enlarged and she sent him for another CT scan and further blood tests.  Yesterday, we went for a follow-up with the oncologist and she indicated that Brian has low grade non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma (not sure what type) which was starting to act aggressively as he now also had enlarged abdominal lymph nodes as well as the liver and spleen.  Usually at this point, they like to “stage” the disease by doing a biopsy of the nodes or liver but she felt that Brian did not have time to wait for a biopsy since the cancer seemed to be acting aggressively and recommended that chemotherapy start immediately. 

The one good piece of news was that the chemotherapy regimen had a 90% success rate meaning that although lymphoma cannot be cured, it can be put in a dormant state or remission.  We then went into information overload and it was a good thing that we had Breanne with us to keep it all straight and organized as I think Brian and I were just a little stunned. 

So starting next Tuesday, Brian starts his chemotherapy.  We have to be at Cancer Clinic at 8:30 when we talk to a pharmacist about all the drugs he will be taking and how they may affect him and then the chemotherapy starts and the first day the infusion will take 8 hours as the drugs are given slowly throughout that 8 hour period, making sure there are no adverse effects.  As long as that goes as planned, he then returns every 3 weeks for a total of 6-8 treatments which will take him into March/April of next year.  Then he should be in remission and I think he then is just followed up and has maintenance therapy every 3-6 months.

Brian and I have decided that we will blog about our experience, not only for our purposes of keeping track of his progress but also for family and friends that follow our blog to know how he is making out.  Brian will occasionally write some of the blogs himself. 

In the meantime, we so appreciate everyone’s concerns and it really means a lot to us that you are all keeping us in your prayers during this time.  I have complete faith in Brian’s ability to fight this cancer and get it in a dormant state so that we can then carry on with our happy life and get back to normal things again! 

Yesterday we lost a friend who will be dearly missed - Jerry Friesen. He was founder of the running series organized by his company Instride and was also affiliated with the Subaru Triathlon Series, not to mention the Cruise to Run vacations in the Caribbean. Always a friendly smile and eager to talk, I always searched Jerry out when I was at a triathlon. He would bike in front of the lead runner in the triathlons and lead them into the finish line - my son David was lucky enough to win many races and be led in by Jerry, you could see them talking and laughing away as they neared the finish line, he became a true and cherished friend of the Sharratt Family. Jerry will be missed by many people but will always be in our hearts and thoughts. God Bless you Jerry and your Family

The Sharratt's

HALLOWEEN 2011

Happy Birthday to James!!!  Breanne invited us over for dinner tonight to celebrate James birthday and to participate in Halloween with them all.  Since we would not be home, we put our candies in a box on the porch and left for the kids in our neighborhood to still get their candy.  The box was completely empty by the time we got home!   We had a really nice night at the Loarings. One nice thing about their neighborhood is it is a young neighborhood, so there were many many little ghosts and goblins trick and treating.  It reminded me of the days when David and Breanne were young and our neighborhood was full of young children too.  Here is a small video of our fun evening: