01/17/2012:

1:30: I wake up, my neck is in pain and I don’t want to move too much.  I wake my wife up who puts the feet down for the lazy-boy, and I get up and make my way to the bathroom.  All those fluids….

1:45: I make it back to my chair, but my wife is sleeping, so I do the best I can do not to wake her, I sit in the chair, lean back a little and doze off.  Not the most comfortable position, but I am able to fall asleep.

4:00: I wake up, and I wake my wife up as the pain is just unbearable, and I need to reposition myself in the chair.  She then gives me one of my pain pills, fixes a pillow under my head just right, and my feet are back up in the reclined position on the recliner.

5:00: My parents get up, my wife goes into our room to continue sleeping as all the lights that will be on with them getting ready since we are in the den.  My stomach is growling too.  I get some Honey Nut Cheerios, and I also get an apple cut up while watching the news as the are getting ready.  All from the comfort of my chair.

5:55: My mom head out to work.

6:10: My dad heads out to work.

6:15: I get online and start going through all my client accounts for backup.  I send out emails to everyone that needs their backup account renewed.  I get an email back from one client right away telling me to renew it, and asking me how I am feeling, I shoot back an email and update her that my neck is in pain because of the surgery I just had for the biopsy, but not too much info back just yet.

6:45: I catch up 2 days on my blog for my surgery day, and the day right after.

7:45: I start to doze off.

9:00: I wake up when my wife moves back on the sofa to continue sleeping.  I doze right back off.

10:10: I wake up, go to the bathroom again, so much fluids.

10:30: I doze right back off in the chair again.

10:40: My wife leaves for work.  My sister has arrived and has brought over a pecan pie she bought at Gambino’s.

11:10: My sister leave as she has a lunch date with a friend of hers from College.

12:00: My mom calls me to see if I am ready to go to the doctor.

12:10: We head on out the door.

12:25: We get to the parking garage and luckily find a spot right on the level we need to be on.  We walk, very slowly because of my pain, to Dr. Jacob’s Office.  When we get there we are shown to the back.  My sister is already there meeting with him for her appointment as she is going out of town next week and wants to make sure she will be well for her trip.

12:30: The doctor comes into my room.  I am not looking forward to this.  I unbutton my shirt, he empties the drain first.  He then proceeds to rip all of the tape off of my skin from my chest and neck and yanks the bandage off of the stitches as well.  It hurts like a (#$@#.  He then snips the stitches holding the drain line in and then pulls that 6 inches of tubing out form underneath my skin.  OOOWWWWW!  That really hurt!  I feel that burning for a good bit!  He then tapes a piece of gauze over the hole where the drain line was to catch any additional drainage that comes out.  He then sends me on my way and says that he wants to see me in a week to take those stitches out so I make an appointment for 3:00 next Tuesday.

12:50: We get back to the car in the parking garage and drive out of this garage and over to the garage adjacent to Dr. Veith’s office building.

1:00: I sign in at Dr. Veith’s office and pay the copay.  I then just sit with my mom and sister and talk a few different things over.  My appointment is for 2:10, we are just here early.

2:00: We get called to the back.  My weight is 272, my oxygen level is 93, my temp is normal and my blood pressure 133/83.

2:10: The doctor steps in.  He starts talking to us that the pathologist have not issued the report yet, but are pretty sure its the same Nodular Sclerosis Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. We go over a number of different options of just treating it with more chemo and if that doesn’t work go to a Stem/T Cell transplant.  I asked him about trying just the chemo first and then if that didn’t work then try the transplant, but he said that the numbers showed the longer you waited for the transplant and the more regimens you through at the body, the numbers, although not significantly, do drop for chances of remission.  After much discussion we decide that the Stem/T Cell transplant will be the best option.  I will need to come into the hospital 2 or 3 times every 3 weeks for 2-3 days out of the 3 weeks to get a continuous chemo infusion.  This will clean out my system and get me prepared for the transplant.  I schedule the first dose of this chemo to begin next Tuesday, which means I will stay in the hospital to Thursday.  The office staff will call up the insurance company and go over all the specifics with them, and then they will call me up with the scheduling for those days.  I make my next appointment to see him again in 5 weeks.

2:50: We are done talking over everything with Dr. Veith and actually heading out the door now.  He did not rush us or anything.  He answered all of our questions and could not have been more helpful.

3:00: We drop my Percocet prescription off at the CVS pharmacy that is only a block away form my house and they said it would be ready in an hour.  We head home.

3:10: I get home and I eat some shrimp jambalaya and some meat loaf.

3:45: My mom goes and gets my Percocet from the pharmacy.

3:55: My mom arrives back home with my pills.

4:15: My dad get’s home.  He has brought me a pair of sweat pants, and also a button long sleeve shirt since I don’t have too many and with all the treatments and the surgeries and not being to always be able to put a polo shirt on, this will make things a lot easier.

4:30: My mom, sister, dad and I talk about what the Doctor said and the next course of treatment we plan on doing with the stem cell transplant.

5:00: I turn on the TV and watch a few episodes of NCIS.  I am dozing in and ouf of it from just being tired and a long day to adding the Percocets on top of that.

9:00: I get up and time for me to go get a bath.  I can’t get my stitches wet, so a bath will have to do.  Just some more of a sponge bath with the dial soap since I have to be careful with what I can and cannot get wet.

10:30: I am up out of the bath.  Back to the den in the lazy-boy to relax.

11:45: I start to doze off.  My dad is laying on the couch watching the History Channel with me.

11:59: I am dozing in and out of it, another day gone…