And just when you thought it couldn’t get any worse

I show up at Washington Dulles Airport for my Johannesburg flight only to be told that they had cancelled it and I was rescheduled for the next night. I tried to explain how important I was and what a tight schedule I was operating on but they didn’t buy it.

 

So I got my trusty travel guy (MH) to help me out and he came through. I was re routed by him to go through Frankfurt and then on to Johannesburg. I would lose a day of the trip but at least I would be getting out of Dodge (snowy Washington).

 

So here I sit in the lounge in Frankfurt (very comfortable) but slightly miffed at what has transpired. What made this whole thing worse was that I subsequently learned that my SAA flight did indeed leave for Johannesburg a couple of hours late ! How the hell did this happen ? Who knows, but you can bet that they have not heard the end of it from me.  

 

Stay tuned.

 

Carpe Diem.

The flight better be on time !

Off again

Tomorrow I leave for Southern Africa again. I am really excited about this trip as I'm sure my two guests must be. I will try and keep up with the blog and pictures. I'm particularly looking forward to a bit of heat and sunshine as we are currently getting dumped on here in Baltimore. Over 10 inches of snow !!!

Carpe Diem.

24 hour pee test results

I just got an email from Dr. Schraeder. Here is what he had to say:

"24 hour urine protein was elevated at 270 mg in 24 hours.  While that is elevated (normal 50-80 mg in 24 hours) and likely due to Avastin, it was way below the point that I would need to hold Avastin in the future.  (if > 2,000 mg in 24 hours, it is recommended to hold Avastin).  I will resume Avastin with your next dose of Alimta"

Barring some other problem, I'm glad to hear that we will resume the Avastin at my next treatment on February 14th.

Carpe Diem.

 

Chemo 7 (Round 7)

Finally, a twist. Month after month and the "everything is normal" cycle is broken. Nothing too sinister but allow me to explain.

My weight was stable, my blood pressure was good and the blood work was fine. But the urine test was not. It showed protein in my urine. One of the effects of being on Avastin is they have to keep a close eye on your blood pressure and signs of protein in your urine. With both of these tests elevated you can get kidney damage from the Avastin. Even though my blood pressure was fine the protein was too elevated to give me the Avastin so I was only given the Alimta. Still with me ?

I now have to do a 24 hour pee collection and they will check the protein figure again. This, apparently, is much more accurate. If everything calms down I will be given the Avastin at my next treatment on the 14th of February.

What's interesting is I have been on Avastin for quite a long time and until recently the tests were always negative. What the hell happened.

Carpe Diem.

What's coming up

Saturday Man U football game. Monday chemo. Whoopee. Thursday off to Africa. Yeehaa.

Carpe Diem.

My appointment with Dr. Sidransky

I had a good and informative meeting with Dr. Sidransky today. We discussed a number of things today including a complete gene sequencing test for me and whether or not I could take a break from the chemo treatments.

Probably in the next few months I will go ahead with the gene sequencing test. It still is very expensive and in all honesty the longer I wait the cheaper it gets. Dr. Sidransky is in no hurry to get these tests done as medically, things are stable with me right now. Once the tests are done then they pair it up with the molecular study (that I had done previously) and come up with a medication that is ideal for me. That's how it works in the perfect world ! By the way, I was told that there are very few people globally who have had a complete gene sequencing. BFD.

It's a good time to be alive right now as it is truly mind numbing what is being discovered every day that could help eradicate this awful disease.

Dr. Sidransky also advised against stopping or taking a break from my chemo regimen. With regards the Avastin, once you go off it there is a chance of the cancer "blossoming". In essence, growing wildly. That's not what we want. It is the current treatments I am receiving combined with a slow growing cancer that is keeping bad things at bay. I'm tolerating these drugs quite well right now and they are still working for me. Eventually their effectiveness will diminish and we will have to try something else. I'm the eternal optimist so in the mean time, travel, travel, travel.

Oh, the best part of the appointment was that they validated my parking.

Carpe Diem.

Thank you South African Airways

Whenever I travel back to Zim I try and take as much medical supplies and assorted other ZimKids stuff as I can. I usually end up with 3 suitcases of which only ¾ of 1 case is my stuff. What has happened in the past is that I end up paying $200 for the 3rd suitcase.

I wrote a brief email to an individual at the South African Airways office in Ft. Lauderdale and she was able to get the extra suitcase charge waived for this trip. Thank you Heather and thank you South African Airways.

Carpe Diem.

One of my favorite quotes

"And now we are Free. I will see you again... but not yet... Not yet!"

Carpe Diem.

Thank you

I feel compelled to thank someone close to me. I'm sorry to shroud this post in mystery but I would just as soon keep all this anonymous. A very generous donation has been made to ZimKids in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe.

You know who you are and I and all the recipients of your incredible largess are truly grateful.

Carpe Diem.