Thursday 9-28-2006

Just a couple of items before the update...

I figured out how to get video up on my blog so I added a little video from when we went to the tide pools. Check out "9-16-2006 Video Highlights" over in the archive.

Below is a link to the survivor story about a man named Walter Leaman. The week or so after diagnosis was one of the hardest of my life and this story really gave me a lot of hope after reading through some pretty horrible material on the web. I particularly identified with this story because the diagnosis was very similar - inoperable stage IV adenocarcenoma (pancreatic cancer), located in the body of the pancreas, and a metastasis in the liver. No one gave me a prognosis and at this point I feel that I will determine my prognosis (right now I have my eye on 80 years). One key difference is that it seems likely that I have a variation of adenocarcenoma, called cystadenocarcenoma due to the presence of a water balloon sized cyst in my belly. This variety secretes muscin, forms a cyst, and is much slower growing which usually results in a better prognosis (though the pathology and treatment of the two cancers are almost identical). Anyways, I hope you enjoy the story.

http://pancreatica.org/story_Leaman.html

The day was pretty mellow. I am still evaluating how my body is handling the chemo and I have heard that sometimes the day after or two days after the infusion it can be tough. I felt pretty good all day. I had some slight nausea here and there and I was a little tired but it was not bad. I made up for the last couple days in the bathroom and am back on track in that department.

I met Eva for lunch at Jerry's Deli where she was taking an interviewee out for lunch with another co-worker. It was a really pleasant lunch and the applicant was a very nice woman. She seems like she would be a great addition to Eva's lab. Whenever I meet with Eva and her co-workers for lunch, I always have these inner urges to say something like, "Work really hard and find me a cure. Quickly, now. Stop doddling. I am in the fight right now." I resist these urges as I do not want to become known as the crazy cancer guy. Other things pop into my head when I see people on the street, or when I hear people bicker or argue in the supermarket but I hold myself back in those situations, too.

I rested/blogged during the afternoon and in the evening, Eva and I went to shoot some hoops. We went to West Hollywood park (the closest park to our place) and found an assortment of characters hanging out. There was the business man in the suit on the cell phone, the bum smoking and sipping a Starbuck's coffee, the bum sleeping, the family with a couple of 5-year-olds, the man practicing throwing and twirling his rainbow flag by the wall so he could watch his shadow, and finally, a group of guys playing ball on the court. Eva and I shot around a bit and had some fun going one on one. Man, she plays defense like I play defense. It was intense. I could only go about one play, then I would rest for a minute, then go again. She is also just about as tall as me and she certainly can get in my face when I am trying to make a jump shot. I was pretty impressed with how reliably she can bank her free throws in. I think she could take Shaq in free throws, straight up. I did not last very long as I am pretty out of shape but my breathing was pretty good the whole time. No pain when I was out of breath and I recovered in reasonable time for my current fitness level. It was fun to shoot around a bit and felt good to move around. After basketball, Eva worked on her juggling a bit. My dad's buddies at the Sunday pick-up had game better watch out. Another few sessions and she could be trouble.

-TN