September 10 - Great Week!

Well, things are definitely looking better for Brian.  I think his body may now have "adjusted" to the chemo and seems to be happy enough to get rid of those cancer cells - or at least we hope so.  Brian had blood work on Tuesday morning and all counts were coming back normal or close to normal and chemo #3 was a go.  We went to the chemo suite, Brian had his chemo and within 20 minutes we were out of there.  The doctor advised us to go to our local lab (Life Labs) on Thursday to get the blood work done there so we didn't have to travel all the way to Kitchener and she would phone on Friday if anything was amiss.  I was quite happy to go to LifeLabs as they allow the patient to go on line and get their own results.  I think it is great that the Labs are doing this now as I think a patient should be able to see their own results.  Brian had no side effects after Tuesday's chemo, about the only thing that we noticed is that he does have trouble sleeping some nights but that is probably due to the dexamethasone part of the chemo.  We went for the blood work on Thursday and I was checking the results by Thursday night and I was quite pleased to see that now Brian's white count and neutrophils are actually on the "high" side.  They are now "slightly above normal range".  Brian's sodium was just one point below the "low normal" range so that has improved too.  

Brian has felt good all week, in fact he was starting to get quite bored with not much to do since I wouldn't let him go to any public places.  So I suggested that maybe he should look into doing some drawings or paintings as Brian is actually quite talented that way and maybe he could learn more about it and practice.  So we went to Michael's and we bought a couple of "how to draw" books and a book to actually do the drawings in for practice and some pencils.  He came home and got started on it and is now "hooked" and quite enjoying it.  I will have to take some pictures of his drawings.  I am absolutely amazed at his drawing ability and he said the "how to" books are really quite helpful and he is actually enjoying it. I really am blown away by his drawings and he has only just started! 

On Thursday and Friday, Brian was feeling so good that he decided to get back to doing some light exercise and he also went out for a bike ride around our neighbourhood and Brian has felt well enough to go out for our daily walks with Timmie.  Brian is much happier when he can get his exercise in and of course that has to bode well for his fight with this cancer.   We rounded out Friday with a visit to my dad's and went out for supper with Roy and Pat.  It made us feel almost normal again and it was great for our morale.  

We plan to spend a quiet weekend and then Tuesday will be chemo #4 (which will end Round #1).  Two more rounds or a total of 8 more weeks to go with CyBorD and then the big reveal will be another bone marrow biopsy to see if he shows a reduction in cancer and/or indicates a remission.  If all goes well to that end, then stem cell will be next.  

We are getting there...slowly but surely!