Giving Thanks!!!!

So as of November first it has been two years since I went into the emergency room at Banner Desert Hospital and was diagnosed with Diffuse Large B-Cell Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma. Since then I’ve made it through multiple chemotherapy's, radiation and a stem-cell transplant. And I’m still here rocking and rolling and it’s because of all the amazing people in my life and all the prayers that everyone said for me. When you go through something like this you find out who your true friends are, and I just want to say that I have THE best friends in the world. All of them were super supportive and always there for me in ways I never thought possible. I was never alone and never needed to ask for anything, they just kicked ass and helped me through the last two years. I also had the best and nicest Doctors and Nurses. All of them were super awesome and took amazing care of me. They have a tough job and they made my treatments and procedures easy for me to get though. Then there is my family, Arizona family, New York family and all the relatives I have throughout the states, that were there for me and did so much to make sure that I got through this. From staying with me in the hospital to staying with me while I went through all of my chemo’s and all the prayers from everyone, you all just made it so easy for me to stay positive and get through the hardest part of my life (so far). So I just want to give all of you a HUGE THANK YOU from the bottom of my heart, I love you all so much and am so blessed to have you all in my life.

THANK YOU!!!!

Getting Back Into The Swing of Things

So now that I’m back to normal I can do all the fun stuff that I couldn’t before like drink, and eat whatever I want, and drink, and go to shows, and.................drink. But don’t worry, I’m taking it easy and drinking lots of water and trying to eat healthy foods while still enjoying all the things I missed. We went to Las Vegas for Gregg’s 21st B-day and Kurt’s 25th B-day, stayed at the Excalibur hotel and had a ton of fun. I fell in love with this gorgeous lady who took all my money, and her name is the roulette table. Man that game is fun and so are all the free drinks you get while playing it!!!! But now it’s time to get going on the stuff that’s important, I’ve got my room all set up, been practicing my guitar everyday, getting the band’s web related stuff going, working on logos and what not. So I’m staying rather busy which is good cause I don’t have my car and am stuck at home most of the day. We are trying to get a couple songs recorded and to start playing shows by November, which I need to get into shape for so I can rock out like crazy!!!!!! Well It’s late and I need to get some sleep, so much to do.

Day 100!!!

So since the last time I blogged I went thru a crazy week of chemo treatments, then got my stem cell transplant and then spent about three weeks in the hospital. The worst part of the process was about a week after my transplant when all my cells started to grow back and my mouth was full of sores and hurt like hell. I couldn’t really talk and I couldn’t swallow anything but liquids and that still hurt. But the had me on a morphine drip, which gave me the most CRAZY dreams I’ve ever had, but it helped with the pain so I was okay with the dreams. I got out of the hospital earlier than was planned which was really nice. My diet was really restricted so I’ve been living off of frozen pizza, ramen, and chicken wings and all I’ve really done the last couple of months has been rearranging my room, going thru all my boxes of stuff and organizing it and playing video games. We also started practicing again and it’s been really nice to be playing music again, hopefully soon we’ll be able to record some stuff and start playing shows again. I’m so excited to be able to eat and drink what I want now, there are so many things that I want that I don’t know where to start, it’s gonna be fun.

-8

So tomorrow marks day -7 and it will be the first day of chemo. The way it works is on day -8(today) I have to take ten pills and then I go to Good Sam tomorrow at 7 in the morning. I start a chemo sometime that day and for the next three days I have more chemo pumped into me. Then a day of rest. Then another chemo. Then a day of rest. Then on day day zero.......................transplant time!!!!! So everyday after day zero is a plus day and they should keep me quite medicated for a good part of the time (I hope), but around end of week 2 of my stay is when I will probably not be feeling very well so that will be fun but I’ll have the xbox 360 with me and movies to watch and some books to read so I will be plenty busy with that. Plus I got one of those fancy wireless modems so I will have internet when I’m in there!!!!! I will keep you all updated as much as I can and thank you for all your prayers!!!!!!

And So It Begins...............Again

So I finished all 25 radiation treatments and was looking forward to some time off from treatments, but the monday after my last treatment I had an appointment with one of the transplant doctors at City of Hope at Good Samaritan Hospital.  I knew that it might be a possibility that I would need a bone marrow/stem cell transplant so I was okay with going and talking to her.  So my mom and I go and talk to her and she says she wants to start the process of doing the transplant right away, and I'm just like......................fuck...................................there were a bunch of things I wanted to do in the next couple months and with what she said, the whole thing will take like four months till I'm back to normal.  So that means I'm probably gonna miss Nine Inch Nails' last tour for a long time, band practice is gonna take a big hit and I really don't get a break from treatment.  So today is when all the stuff starts, I go in to Banner Desert today and tomorrow I'll get a bone marrow test and then a round of chemo.  I'll be in the hospital 4 or 5 days and then I'll have to get a shot everyday for like 10 days and after that they'll hook me up to a machine, filter out my stem cells and then freeze them.  After that I'll go to Good Sam and start another chemo that will kill everything in my body.  Then they'll reintroduce the stem cells and then we just wait till they make me healthy again.  I'll be at Good Sam for a month probably.  The reason we're doing this is not because the radiation didn't work, it did I think I mean I feel better after it, but because my doctors feel it is the best chance for us to get the cancer for good and have it never come back.  So that is what is going on, I'll keep you all updated as much as I can!!!!

sssssooooooo tired.................

So I realized just how much the radiation effects me, it makes me insanely tired. I’ll go get my treatment and on the drive back to the house I can feel myself just ready to pass out. As soon as I get home I pass out for a couple of hours and then wake up and eat something, then I try to do something around the house like clean or try to get on the internet but then I pass out again. I also found out the other effects of being on the steroids for a long time, like I shake a lot and my muscle strength in my arms and thighs has gone down so like walking up stairs is a little difficult but that should all go away once I’m off the steroids. The combination of the exhaustion and the steroids and with my vision still messed up it has been really hard for me to focus on anything, but I keep trying and I get at least one thing I want done a day, even if it takes me all day long to do it. I should be done with radiation treatments on March 12th so that will be awesome. Oh and my Mom introduced me to boba tea, and we found a little place on Alma School and Warner called Lollicup, holy crap it’s frakin’ delicious!!!!! Yesterday I had a peach tea with boba and it was crazy good and today I had a taro smoothie with extra boba and it was super-crazy-karate good!!!! We’re gonna go back tomorrow and I will either try a strawberry or peach smoothie, or get the taro one again cause it’s that good. Band stuff is going good we have four songs done and one with some lyrics done, two more musically done and one that needs a bridge. We cleaned the studio and took the fridge out and have so much more room. And we’ve almost got a name and as soon as we do I’ll start working on a myspace page and get some pics up and all that good stuff!!!!

It's been a week.

So today I had my my 6th radiation treatment, everything seems to be going well so far. Waking up hasn’t been to hard but still not fun and I’ve been trying to keep myself busy during the days by going on walks and cleaning different parts of the house, which has my body going all “What the Hell bro?!!!!!” and I’m all “I’m frakin’ bored, man!!!!” and then my body’s all “Yeah, well this shit hurts man, I’m used to being lazy!!” and I’m like “I know me too!!! But this will be good for us so shut up and do it.” So that’s been fun. I saw the doctor on tuesday and he said I could cut down the dosage of the steroids that I’m on which is awesome cause the side effects from the steroids are lame, I get all swollen looking which makes me look all fatter than I already look, and they make me a bit irritable, which I REALLY HATE CAUSE I DON’T LIKE BEING MAD FOR NO STUPID REASON!!!!!!!!!!.............................sorry, stupid steroids. So hopefully with a smaller dose it will be a bit better!!! I’ve been watching a lot of food network and the travel channel cause of the food shows that they have on there and have decided to try and find all the cool little places here in the valley, you know all the hidden restaurants that have the best food but you have to find it to get that delicious food. It’s gonna be awesome. I’ve already found a super awesome little pizza place right down the road from my house called Jimmy and Joe’s, it rules. The slices are HUGE and delicious. I’ve been searching the net and have a list of places to go, but if anyone has any suggestions or know of any places that I should go let me know!!!!

Say Hello To Sunshine, Wake Up Your Radioactive!!!!!!

So today was my first round of radiation, I got up at the lovely time of 5:40 in the morning and got ready, then we drove to the treatment center and missed the turn in cause the lights weren’t even on yet. I’m pretty sure I’m the second patient of the day. We got there early cause it was my first one and I like to make sure everything goes well. We sat there for about 10 minutes and had some hot chocolate and then I got to go back and wait in the second waiting room for about 2 minuets and then they called me into the room, I got on the table and they put my head mask on and beamed me with the radiation. Then I was done. That was it. It took about 20 minutes total and the first one was supposed to be the longest with all the others being really quick, so I guess that I’ll be in and out of there everyday faster than it takes us to actually drive there. The radiation doesn’t feel like anything, I kept my eyes closed but I could see a burst of light thru my eyelids, and really the only thing that went thru my mind is “So is this what a Hot Pocket feels like?”

Radiation!!!!!!!

So after four treatments of the Methotrexate that I went thru and all the wonderful time I got to spend in the hospital, I find out that............it didn’t work the way it was supposed to. The first two treatments shrunk the masses by 50% but after the next two the masses had grown back to about the same size they started out as. So the chemo worked but didn’t have a lasting effect. So the next step is radiation, I’ve already done all the setup scans, which involved a regular M.R.I., a pet-scan, a M.R.I. and mask that fits over my head and then a full spinal M.R.I. that lasted about an hour and half. But I’m a frakin’ ninja and the M.R.I. tech said I was the best patient she’s ever had cause I stayed so still. That’s right I kick ass. So all that has happened in like the last two weeks and stating on wednesday the 4th I get to go in for radiation treatments at 6:45 in the goddamn morning. That is gonna suck, I hate the morning, I’m actually more upset about having to get up at 6:45 in the morning more than I am about getting radiation treatments. That doesn’t bother me, it’s just the next step in beating this crap, but I really, really don’t like the morning. Oh well, I’ll deal with it, do the five weeks of treatment, kick ass and then we’ll move on from there!!!!!!

Nerd D.M.C. #1

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