July 14

We got the results from the colonoscopy, catscan and blood work yesterday. 

Overall it's not great news. I have 3 tumors. The ones on my liver and large intestines are both 5 cm in size. A third is in my small intestine cavity, it is 12 cm long but narrow. Based on the results it looks like each of tumors has smaller ones with it. Several lymph nodes look larger but hard to tell if they are infected, best to assume they are. At this point they would not be able to get all of the cancer with surgery. 

                    

On a positive side the cancer has not spread to anything else. Nothing in my blood, lungs, bones ect. 

The only potential short-term complication is with a partial blockage in my large intestine. The doctors had a pow-wow today to discuss if they should do surgery first to remove the blockage or proceed with chemo. The question was if they should do the preventative surge's first and delay chemo or just start the chemo early next week as planned. 

Chemo is basically poison. Recovery from any surgery will be slower and riskier if I am on chemo. It is an either or choice. Start with the preventive surgery to avoid a potential blockage (this is not curative and will allow the other cancer to continue to grow) and wait at least six weeks to start treatment or start the chemo on Monday and hope the tumor does not grow any more or even might start to shrink with the chemo treatment. 

The recommendation from the pow-wow was to proceed with the planned chemo for next week. I'll be getting the port early on Monday and my first chemo treatment either late Monday or early Tuesday. This will be just under a month from first detection in Fredericton, faster is always better but I think this was a great turnaround time. 

To be honest the stats are not on my side. The median survival for people with my type of cancer at this stage is two to five years. That being said most people who get this are much older, have other complications and do not have the same overall good health that I have. The goal is to start chemo and see if we can shrink the tumors. If this goes week we can look at surgery as a curative treatment.

I'm also collecting my medical reports to get a second opinion. Dr Smith from Sunnybrook has agreed to review my files. (thanks to a neighbor for setting this up.) I'll try to get everything out to him early next week. I think the recommendation will be the same but you never know. At a minimum it will be good to get confirmation and another set of eyes looking at my files. 

My focus has been on improving my strength in preparation for chemo next week. My weight has stabilized but the daily workouts are improving my cardio and overall strength. I'm also started taking iron pills to bring my red cell count up to normal.

Spending more time with the boys has also been nice. Gone to see a few movies (I thought Super 8 was great!) and a day at Wonderland. With all the bad press about RIM it was nice to see most of the younger crowd had Blackberries. The difficult part was trying to avoid running over them with my wagon in tow. The younger crowd were walking, chatting to the person beside them, BBM'ing and not looking up. 

July 13

Sorry no update today, it has been a long day and the boys want to watch Harry Potter 5.

I'll provide an update tomorrow with more info. Overall some good news, some not so good news and a bit of a complication between chemo and some preventative surgery. The doctors are doing a bit of a huddle tomorrow and will have an update.

Tomorrow is another day and the weather should be nice.

July 8 - catching up

Sorry for the gap between posts. Had several people wondering what had happened.

The cat-scan last Thur went well. They did a full body scan which is just the torso. The process took 20min but I needed to show up early to drink some special fluid. Not sure what it was but agreed with another guy in the waiting room who said it needed some ice.

The results of all the testing will be ready today but my medical oncologist get back from vacation on July 11 and I have my first meeting with him on July 13. This is when I find out how good or bad things look and he assigns treatment. My shunt for chemo goes in on July 18 so the soonest things can start is July 19. Not sure how long it will take to get my first treatment. Trying to get this before going down east on vacation but it might be after.

Not much more on the medical front. Other than my doctor has put me on iron pills but my strength is still fine.  My gut still has a numb pain but I've been told that is to be expected.

This past week I have been avoiding anything with a keyboard as much as I can. Focusing on working out, doing stuff around the house and spending time with the kids. Outside of the pain in my gut I'm feeling great. Due to working out I've gained muscle tone and lost some more weight, according to BMI I am just over-weight.

Also spent time with the kids at Ontario Place some parks and biking around. The weather has been great.

The teams from RIM has been very supportive. Lots of notes of support and thoughts. The BBNews team took me out for lunch on Thur. It was nice to catch up. This blog has also been posted on BBNews app. If you have a blackberry you can download the app on your BB or PlayBook.

Outside of trying to keep busy, my next doctors appmt in on July 13th.  I'll let you know how things go that day or the next. Hoping that things will go well!

June 28 & 29

Yesterday it was nice to receive flowers from my wife's work, see below. Very unexpected but a  nice thought and they look great. I've never received flowers before but they do brighten up the main floor. Thanks!

Not sure how but Mary-lou from Dr Gryfe's office was able to get me a full catscan for this Thursday. No idea how she was able to pull this off but I'm very appreciative. 

It will take 5 days for the catscan to be analyzed and the report sent. Dr Robert Burkes who is back from vacation on Mon July 11. My appointment with his is on Wed July 13. Don't think I will be able to get in any sooner. Based on what I've read and viewed  he is one of the top guys so I'm more than OK with this time line. 

The other dependency is the portacath on July 18. Once this is done I can start treatment. Just not sure if I will get treatment before going to the family reunion on July 25. Mary-lou thinks no but she is going to try and I'll see what I can do to help as well. 

Want to say thanks to everyone for all your help and support! Some times the small stuff really helps. Received many emails of support. They are all very appreciated and I hope to get back to everyone tonight.Feel free to send notes to my work or home email. 

From the blog I've also learned that a relative traveled to Europe with Dr Burkes back in 75. Also a neighbor

has refereed me into a doctor at Sunnybrook who he knows for a second opinion. Doubt they will find anything different but you never know. 

Outside of following up with health care next steps I've been focusing on exercising and catching up on some paperwork. The exercising is going well, want to beef up before chemo starts. The paper work has been harder to get to but I'm optimistic for next week. 

June 27 - Mon

Had the colonoscopy on Monday at 10am ish as planned. They took some samples and the process was fine. Not it is a matter of waiting for the results.

To be honest it did hurt. During the operation I did wake up and it felt very odd and painful. They do not put you out more like a sleepy dream state. It took a good  4 hrs after the operation for the bloating to go down. The whole preparation, process and post symptoms was not pleasant.

My big lesson was how many people have been through the process. I'd say that close to 70% of the people I've talk to about this over the past few days have had at least one colonoscopy over the past few years. Many of them have bi-annual checkups. Just not the sort of thing that you discuss over lunch.

The doctor was Dr Matti Warterman not Dr Robert Burkes, not sure if I had the wrong info or this was a last moment change. Dr Warterman was great, very relaxing and confident. This was going to be one of his last procedures before moving back home to be with his family.

Thanks to Tanya for being persistent with the date for the catscan. We should hear back on Tuesday. We have dates for our next meeting with Dr Robert Burks on July 13 and July 18th for portacath to help with the chemotherapy treatments. Now that we have a base line the goal is to see if we can improve the dates.

In summary, yes the colonoscopy hurt but I've had worse hangovers. With 20/20 hindsight on the pain vs risks I think the guys who have the process every few years are on the right path.

June 26 - Su

Not much happening. Preparing for colonoscopy on Monday by not eating, taking some meds and drinking seveal litres of water / juice.

The hardest part is stopping the normal habit of eating. Not snacking while making food for the kids or eating what they left on their plate. Not grabbing some left overs when getting more juice from the fridge.

I half expect to find myself accidentally eating a turkey leg while grabbing a side dish of potatoes out of the fridge .... good thing I don't have anything like that.

Real food again on Monday!

June 25 - Sat

Very Busy day

9am - near the end of each school year we have family photos take at Tangerine studio. We have been going to Natalie since Cameron was first born 8 years ago. They do a great job keeping the kids focused and we like going to an owner operated shop.

Forgot to mention that I pulled Gavin out of school on Wed and we both got a haircuts. On Friday I wanted to pull just Cameron out but Gavin saw us so I ended up taking both of them. Cameron is at the age when he is starting to care about his appearance, well at least his hair.

Our normal barbershop had closed early on Friday. On Wed I learned that one of the two brothers who run the place was going in for cancer surgery on Friday, I'll have to follow up with them next week.

10:30am - back at home to feed the kids

11am- back at home, I was heading off to Sobeys and Costco for shopping with Cameron. Tanya took Gavin to a birthday party

1pm - off to Burlington for my sister Colleen's birthday party. Got to see my brother and sisters plus most of their kids. It was great to see everyone was very supportive. Glad the focus of the day was my sisters birthday.

7pm - back home to start taking the medicine in preparation for the colonoscopy. I really didn't want to start taking this without very close access to a washroom.

8pm - made our final booking of RV for the Boyd family reunion at the end of July. We are picking it up in Halifax and driving it to Lakevale , just outside Antigonish Nova Scotia. Cameron and Gavin are looking forward to travelling in the "rust bucket"  for a week. If I need help with the driving I've asked my brothers son Ian to help. We will make it some how.

In some ways a very normal rushed Saturday with the kids but always had health questions in the back of my head.