Chemo Round 3

Let me start of this post by giving a big thank you to all of you who have sent scarves, food, and much needed love and hugs our way.

I am doing really good. Had the third round of chemo yesterday and am doing good. Rested most of the day yesterday and then got in the car to head to Vegas this morning. Thankfully Rob drove the whole way, yeah I know I'm spoiled, so I got a little more rest today. But in general I am feeling great.

Of course the big news is that I have shaved my head, a big thanks to Kim for making this happen. A few weeks ago I started losing a bunch of hair, not clumps, but a lot when I would put my fingers through my hair. Rather than sit around wondering when it would come out in chunks I decided to shave it. After all, it's just hair. Since then I have been losing more and more, as you can see from the inside of my scarves and wraps. So thanks again to everyone who has beautiful and wonderful scarves my way.

Also, want to give a big shout out to all those men in my life who have moved the clippers slightly closer to their heads in solidarity. Especially to Ethan who shaved his head for me. Now where is all the girlfriend support?

Here is a picture of shaved head Melissa. Also some hair on loan from Eric Byrnes of the Diamondbacks:)

The Boy With Cancer Who Ran Away

Great blog post from Tony Jones about the boy the Hodgkin's who refused treatment for "religious reasons." I promise, Melissa nor I have any "religious reasons" for stopping her treatment :)

The original post can be found at:

http://blog.beliefnet.com/tonyjones/2009/05/breaking-news-boy-with-cancer.html

"Breaking News! Boy With Cancer Gets Chemo"

by Tony Jones

Probably the biggest religion story of the past couple weeks has been the saga of Daniel Hauser, the 13-year-old boy from northern Minnesota who is dying of Hodgkin's Lymphoma. Yes, he's dying, unless he gets chemo. With chemo, there's a 90% survival rate. Without chemo, less than 10%.

After one round of chemo this Spring, Hauser refused to go back. At some point he and his mother -- and possibly other members of his family -- "converted" to Nemenhah, an online Native American "religion" that advotes homeopathic recipes of roots and herbs to treat illness. Daniel claimed to be a Nemenhah shaman, then it turned out that Nemenhahites (?) age 13 or older are automatically shamans. The Hausers are in no sense Indian.

When Daniel refused chemo, his doctor took him to court. Daniel defended himself with a first-person statement that I'm highly doubtful that he wrote himself. When the judge ordered Daniel to resume chemo, he and his mother fled to California, seduced by a sleazy lawyer to promptly ditched them. They were then flown back by a Hollywood movie producer, and yesterday, Daniel showed up for chemo at a hospital in Minneapolis.

Lots of people have been writing about this as a freedom of religion case, and it may be.

My friend, Carla, has written about the parental privacy aspects of the situation:

Because raising children is not something we do for ourselves. We raise children to be part of the world, to be active, involved participants in the lives of other people. Daniel Hauser doesn't belong to his mother. He belongs to a family, to a community, to God.

Carla's on to something here. It seems to me that this is a case of a naive and easily manipulated mom, and a bedraggled father, who dragged their son into a hellish public nightmare because of their conspiracy-theory mistrust of Western medicine.

This is why we live in a society, surrounded by other human beings, so that when one of us loses our way, there's a whole posse of people around to ensure that we don't take others down with us. Thank GOD for a sensible physician and judge for overriding in unsensible parent.

Chemo Round 2

So yesterday was round two of chemo and while it went faster than round one, it still took forever. We got there on time and had to wait about 20 min. before we went back for chemo. We met the third nurse Russ, who was also fantastic, he hooked me through my port, took my blood and waited to make sure my counts were okay, which they were:)

Then they started me on all of my premeds. In the midst of this is was time for my scheduled appointment with the doctor, this is something you do every other treatment, just to check in. So they took me, and my IV's and Rob to a room and we waited. And waited. And waited. we waited so long my premed bag ran out, but there was still no doctor. then there was a knock at the door. It was Russ, checking on us. He took the premed bag off an said, you haven't seen the doctor yet? We said nope. unfortunately the way my meds go they couldn't give me anything else until we were back in the chemo chairs, so that put everything later.

An hour later, not in the comfy chair, we finally saw the doctor. He said I was boring because I had no symptoms. Russ even commented on the fact that I hadn't lost my hair yet. I am not believing that it won't got yet, but you never know. After that we went back to finish chemo for the day. Which means lots of sitting and waiting.

While we sat and waited I read my kindle some more. And at least 4 people asked me about it, including two nurses. Perhaps I am starting something, or as my sister said, corrupting the chemo group. Who knows.

Of course what you all want to read is how I am feeling. I am feeling great again so far. I came home an relaxed and rested yesterday and went to work like normal today. We are ever grateful this week for all who helped us out. Carrie for watching Colby, beyond the time we thought. Susan Smith and Sue Demaine for the delicious meals that helped to make chemo week easier. And for all those who have sent cards, and presents to help make this whole journey that much easier. We appreciate you all.

I will keep you posted and how I feel and what happens next. Maybe even some hair falling out:)

Melissa and Celebrities

So, it has officially been a week since my first chemo treatment and since there is nothing new to share, I am going to write about my recent findings this week of celebrities who have or had Hodgkins Lymphoma. Before I do this, just a quick update. I am doing fine, am blessed to have no side effects so far. We will see how next week goes:)

Now on to the good stuff. So I was surfing the internet yesterday and came across the following story: http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20279566,00.html

If you know me well, you know that I am a huge fan of Survivor. According to this story, one of the past winners of Survivor: Africa, has been diagnosed with Hodgkins Lymphoma as well. In reading the article I realized that he started treatment the same week as I did, so I thought it was a funny coincidence to share with y'all.

Then, last night I was at the pre-conference briefing and one of my pastor friends walked up to me and said, hey did you see that Ethan from Survivor has the same thing you do. And I was like, yeah I read that today. And then he was like, well when I first heard about your diagnosis I immediately remembered that Matthew Fox, from Party of Five and now Lost, had Hodgkins Lymphoma while he was on Party of Five and look at him now. 

This of course prompted a conversation of whether or not this pastor had decided to google celebrities with Hodgkins Lymphoma. He denies it, but I am not sure. I thought this was something fun and interesting to share with everyone. Hope you enjoy it!!!

And I promise we are working on the head wrap voting survey:)

Colby Swim

IMG_1099.JPG
Originally uploaded by robrynders

Colby had his first swimming experience today when his aunt Katie and Uncle Robbie took him to the pool! Melissa will post more later, but here is a cute picture for now.

1st Chemo Treatment

As many of you know from reading the blog, my first official chemo treatment was yesterday, Tuesday May 12th. We went in not really knowing what to expect, but knowing that we would be there for a while. I came armed with my blanket from the LoveKnots at Tempe 1st, my kindle that the family pitched in on for my Mother's Day present, my comfy sweats my sisters got me at Disneyland, and my mom and Rob.

When it was my turn they took me back into the area where they do all the chemo treatment and we met the nurses Jackie and Charlotte, both very nice and very reassuring that no question was a stupid question. We sat down in an open reclining chair, alongside eight other people. It took them a while to get things going since this was my first time. The first thing they did was get my port hooked up to a needle, which really is much nicer then getting pricked in the arm, let me tell you. Once that was done they could draw the necessary blood work and then hook me up to saline water before the chemo drugs.

They spent some time educating us on chemo and the particular drugs I would be taking. With the ABVD drugs there is a 99% chance of hair loss, so I am going to be running a vote for which head wraps you think I should buy. That will come later, when I can figure out how to set it up. After they gave us a bunch of information they had to make sure I wasn't allergic to the bleomycin, so I got a small trial dose of this first. Once they determined I was still breathing they got started on adminstering the various other drugs.

I finally convinced my mom and Rob to go and get lunch at this point, since I was finally hooked up, no more talking, and just sitting they decided they could dash to Applebee's an eat. I sat in my chair and read the book I had downloade, while making friends with some of the people around me.

Because it was the first chemo, they administered everything very slowly to watch my body's reaction. This made for a long first day. We showed up at 11am, and finally left at 5:00 pm. They tell me next time will only take 3 hours. I will be going back every other week on Tuesday's for 7 more times. So far I am blessed to not have too many side effects. I was a bit tired last night, but that was partially because of the long day. So far I have not felt horrible, but we will see how that goes. We promise to keep you posted.

Many of you have asked how you can help us out. North Scottsdale will be helping us with meals on Tuesday and Wednesday, on treatment weeks. If you want to help Nancy Gerberding is heading this up. Rob is working with 1st Tempe to offer meals as well. Many of you who don't cook have been asking where we like to get food To Go. We are lucky that we have almost any restaraunt around us: Applebee's, Outback, Chili's, Macayo's, etc.

Most importantly you can continue to send us your love, prayers and hugs. Without all of your support this journey woul be much more difficult Thank you.

Power Ports and Power Rangers

Today the treatment adventure more or less began. We arrived at the outpatient radiology unit at Scottsdale Healthcare Shea Campus at 9 a.m. to have Melissa's port installed into her chest. We checked in and tied up a few loose ends with the very nice billing girl. Melissa and I then went back to the lab so Melissa could have some blood drawn. After that we went back to the "Holding Room" where Melissa put on a hospital gown, jumped into a bed and was hooked up to an IV. A nurse then walked us through the procedure and let us check out a sample port (pictured above). The port makes it so each time Melissa needs blood drawn or needs chemotherapy or a dye injected for a scan, they don't have stick a needle in her arm.

After the blood work came back clear the doctor met with us and then it was time for Melissa to be wheeled back, get drugged up, then have the procedure. At this point they kicked me out of the room and invited me to grab something in the cafeteria. By cafeteria I figured they meant I should run across the street to the Red Robin. I'm not one to argue with medical professionals so I complied.

The procedure only lasted about an hour and when I returned Melissa was back in the "Holding Room" eating a turkey sandwich and drinking a Diet Coke. The only difference was that now she had a piece of titanium just under the skin of the upper right hand side of her chest with a small catheter running under the skin to her jugular vain. She also has two really small but cool incisions that have been glued shut. She won't be lifting anything using her right arm for the next two weeks until the incisions are completely healed. The port, however, is ready for use and will get taken for a spin on Tuesday when she receives her first round of chemotherapy. Apparently between the painkillers and sedatives they gave Melissa before the surgery, she was supposed to fall asleep. By the end of the surgery (and a Dancing With the Stars discussion) the doctor told Melissa, "That's funny, you should have fallen asleep at some point, oh well, we're all done!"

We only had to wait in recovery for about an hour and then Melissa was discharged and was able to walk out under her own power. We were even able to stop at Target on the way home to pick up some odds and ends. Melissa was pretty tired though when we got home and she took a nap for a few hours before we ordered some pizza and watched Grey's Anatomy with some of my Wesley students.

The joke now is that Melissa is a purple Power Ranger because she has a purple power port and she's a superhero. But we already knew that :)

As always, we need to thank everyone who have offered prayers, support and get well wishes. Today we would especially like to thank Craig who watched Colby and the ladies from Tempe First UMC who made Melissa a pink "Love Knots" blanket. She will definitely be using it on Tuesday.

For more info on ports:

http://www.bardaccess.com/port-powerport.php

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Port_(medical)