8:00:  I am up.  I put on some Lidocane cream on the port and get ready.

8:30: Heading on over to Tulane.

8:49: I check in.

9:27: I sign the paperwork.

9:45: I am called to the back.

10:00:  All vitals done.

10:15: They attempt to access my port.  Problem is the needle is not going in.  It seems that the port has flipped and the back is facing up.  2 nurses confirm.  They attempt to flip the port, a little painful.  They were going to wait before playing with it some more because it was uncomfortable, I felt it and told them it felt like it was flipped back when they walked away, they felt it and confirmed that the port is back facing the right way.  They give me some time to recover as I am not feeling great from the needle probing and port flipping.  I get some ice water to drink.

10:30: My nurse accesses the port with no problems this time.  Pulls blood for my labs and then leaves me accessed.  We need to wait for the blood results before continuing with the chemo.

11:00: No results yet, just working on client issues and things while waiting.

12:35: Blood results back, liver enzymes still elevated, getting 120mg dose of my Brentuximab.

12:55: I start coughing really bad.  My nose starts running non stop as well.  I feel my throat closing.  I tell the nurse this, she asks if I have had this before.  I told her, I was coughing bad like this the past two nights.

1:05:  My throat definitely feels tight.  I tell the nurse this and she asked was it from the coughing or something else. I told her it never felt like this with my other coughs.  She calls the PA.

1:07: The PA comes in and starts accessing the situation.  I think they give me a steroid into my IV and some benadryl.  I tell them my stomach is hurting as well.  My stats are low so they hook me up to some oxygen, but my nose is stuffed.

1:15: I ask if whatever they gave me would make me feel loopy/tired, they said yes the benadryl will do that to me.  Makes since now that they said they gave me benadryl.

1:45:  The oxygen isn’t helping me and I am breathing through my nose but it is hard to breath because of the congestion.  My stats are still 80.  They are thinking about admitting me.

2:00: They are seriously thinking about admitting me now, no improvement on the benadryl.  I started breathing through my mouth and my stats jump up to 95.  This surprises them.  The nurse tells them that I sound very congested and probably can’t  breathe well through my mouth.  I agree with her. I can take deep breaths though my mouth, but not through my nose.

2:15: They are just monitoring my stats now that I am breathing through my mouth they vary from 88 to 100.

3:00: They are most probably going to let me go home, just need to wait for a response from the doctor.

3:10: My mom calls infusion since she can’t get a hold of me.  I tell them that my cell phone is dead.  One of the nurses happens to have a cord for android.  I plug it into my laptop and start letting it charge.

3:15: My port gets deaccessed.

3:20: The PA tells me I can go home, and gives me a card, incase I ever go to an emergency room, I give them a card to isolate me from the general public so that I do not pick up anything anyone else has as my immune system is compromised with the chemo.

3:30:  I call my wife and my mom and update them that I am going home.  I then update the blog.

3:45: Done updating the blog, time to pack up and head home!

Craig:

7:45: Up…Wake up Wife…

8:04: Wife driving….Off to the Hospital for infusion.

8:30: At the hospital.

8:50: Led back to infusion.

9:20: Port Accessed.

9:25: Blood Taken for testing.

10:35: I am just waiting for them to figure out what to do as my liver enzymes are high.

10:50: They need to redo all of the paperwork, as the quantity needs to be reduced because of my elevated liver enzymes, so just wait some more.

11:50: They start pumping my chemo into me… 30 minutes of pumping…

12:00: This time the chemo is pumping, was just pumping saline.

12:30: Chemo Done.

12:40: Flushing done…

12:45: Port deaccessed.

12:50: Going home, then to the office.

2:00: At the office.

6:30: Back at home.

10:00: In bed dozing off, I’m drained!

04/09/2015:

12:00: Off to see the Doctor, the wonderful Doctor of Tulane.

12:50: Arrive at Tulane and check in.

1:15: I am called into the back.

1:30: Dr. Safah sees me.  The results from my right supraclavicular lymph node biopsy are in.  The cancer is back.  The same exact cancers, same markers, same everything as before, no changes or mutations, the same thing is back.  Dr. Safah says it’s time to move forward with the Stem Cell Transplant plan.  We find out that my sister Sarah was not a match.  However, they do have a possible 10 out of 10 match for me.  My sister Katie is with us and today she gives her blood for them to run test to see if she is a match for me.  if not, they will follow up with the other possible match for further testing.  I will receive Brentuximab for at least 3 preferably 4 cycles, so that’s one cycle, one chemo administration every three weeks.  So I am looking at at least 12 weeks before having the next PET/CT scan.  Once a positive reaction is confirmed from the Brentuximab, then transplant will be scheduled and moved forward with.

So the last chemo will be on June 12, 2015.  So transplant probably starting in August.

I also found that my biopsy from my nose came back negative, so my nose is clear.

I will be back here tomorrow for chemo.

2:15: We leave Tulane.  I need to stop at a client’s office to recrimp a RJ11 connector, aka a telephone plug, to bring a sidecar up on a VOIP phone that I installed yesterday.

2:30: I am at my client’s take care of what i need to take care of, and sure enough a few questions arise, so I handle those as well.

3:15: Back downstairs and picked up.

4:00: Back home.  I take care of a few work items from home.

5:30: Off to supper.  May as well go enjoy some Medium Rare steaks before the chemo starts as all  foods will need to be well done again.  Blah blah blah…

7:30: Back home.  Watching Impractical Joker’s and working on the computer, just another evening for me…

I rest all day, but Patient Room 4 at one of the doc’s office is not booting up, so I will need to head there later today.

8:00: My dad and I head out.  We go to my office first to pick up a computer as a backup replacement to have in case we need to replace the computer in question.  We head uptown to the doc’s office.  We find that the computer’s hard drive has failed and we swap it out.  My dad is doing all of the heavy lifting, as I have been told not to do any heavy work or lifting for three weeks.  I reinstall windows and setup my remote access to finish up the computer from home.  We install speakers on three of the computers that were also not having any audio coming from them.

11:00: We head back home.  I get back in the lazyboy when we get home and watch tv and finish doing all the updates and configuration of the patient room computer.

I am taking today easy.  Not much pain at all, and I haven’t touched any of my Percocet Pain meds.  The only issue I am having is blurriness, and issues reading.

21:00: My business partner picks me up and we go to a client’s office to hook up a computer and 2 printers that have been moved.  I am there more just for overseeing the work.  Jamie is going to do all of the hard lifting, wire cleaning up and zip tieing and routing.  Jamie cleans up the Com Closet and the Rack looks great now with everything in order and neat.  The printers and fax line are hooked up and the phone is hooked up at the desk that was moved as well.

22:15: We are done hooking things up and on the way back to my house.  Jamie drops me off and then continues home.  I am back in the lazyboy relaxing and watching TV till i fall asleep.

4:00: I been up all night finishing up some computer work for a client.  Oh well, I’ll have a good rest in a little bit when the good drugs hit me.

4:15: Shower using the special sponge first then the plastic bristles to clean the area that are going to be operated on.

4:30: We head out to Tulane Hospital.

4:50: We are at Tulane.

5:00: The checkin staff isn’t here yet, 1 or two other people are there, and I sign in where they have signed in and sit down and wait.

5:45: My name is called, I am processed in and then assigned to Room 18 in the outpatient surgery area.

6:00: I change into my sexy and stylish hospital gown, and just sit in bed waiting and talking.

9:30: I remote into a client’s machine to fix a printing issue.  I have 6 computers to work on, I am finishing up the forth one when my driver arrives.

9:50: Time to be driven to the holding area to get prepped for surgery.  Two Doctors of Anesthesia come in and tell me that they know my mom.  I tell them that I am a hard stick and that some Lidocane would be greatly appreciated while they probe.  They agree.  They bring in the ultra sound machine.  They both take turns sticking me on different sides of my body.  First stick near my outer wrist, no flash back though. The second tries near my right wrist, no luck.   The third stick is in my right foot, thank goodness for the Lidocane,  he blows that vein up as it was too small for the smallest needle they had.  The finally the ultra sound machine is used and he sees that he just barely missed the vein.  This time with the ultra sound machine, he positions the needle and starts probing.  I don’t feel a thing because of the lidocane and then finally he hits it and gets a flash back and slowly feeds the line into my vein near my left wrist, then hooks me up and let’s the saline start flowing.

10:15: I am happy they are done.  They tell me they are going to go visit with my Mom and give her the good news that I am ready to proceed.  Megan is the CRNA who will be taking care of me during the procedure.  She hits me up with a small dose of some good cocktail, although it doesn’t hit me much at all, usually it takes two rounds of the cocktail to get me started.  Shortly after I am rolled into the Operating Room.  I move myself to the operating table.  They then strap me down, then strap each of my arms down so that I am laying there resembling a crucifix.  Next thing I know they are telling me to take deep breaths and then I’m out, for a great good nap.

12:30: ish I think I wake up in the recovery room.  I am alert.  The portable XRay unit roles in to take an XRay of me while laying in the bed to see if the Port is placed correctly.

1:00: ish I am rolled to the recovery room.

2:00: Transport has arrived to take me to the car.

2:15: At the car.

2:45: I am at home.  I lay on the Lazyboy and fall back asleep…

9:40: Appointment with Dr. Jacob at EJGH.  He tells me that he has met with Dr. Page and that he wants to biopsy the tissue inside my nasal cavity to send off to the lab to see if it is anything after it appeared on the PET/CT Scan.  He sprays some numbing medicine up my knows, then comes back in 5 minutes and stick the rigid scope up my nose.  He sees he wants to biopsy and has the nurse get the forceps and then starts feeding the forceps up my knows.  He clams down on what he wants to biopsy then rips it out my nose.  Ouch!  He does this 3 or four times in each nostril.  Quadruple ouch.  The right hurts worse than the left.  Much pressure and tearing sounds.  Next time I am taking some relaxer or non caring drugs or something before such a procedure.  Very painful.  My nose drips the rest of the day.  No blood seen by me, as if there was any blood it would just drip right down my throat because of the position of the area to be biopsied.  I take my biopsied tissue to the 2nd floor of EJGH and drop it off at the lab.

11:15.  I am leaving EJGH.  On my way to my office, still drippy  nosed.

I take it easy the rest of the day, making sure my nose heals up as I have surgery on Monday for the biopsy and port placement.

8:30: Appointment with Dr. Weaver.  He starts going over things, but doesn’t feel anything when he feels my neck.  He says I can either wait, or come back for another appointment to review what needs to be done during the surgery.  It takes a while as they do not have all my images from the latest scan in the system either, but I would prefer one visit, so I wait.  He is only going by the  so I wait while Radiology burns a disk for Dr. Weaver to review.  Dr. Weaver comes in later and says that everything is good to go.  He sees the imagery from the latest PET/CT scan and see’s the lymphnodes that he wants to biopsy from the right supraclavicular lymph node.  He knows what he wants to do and says we can do the surgery biopsy and port placement next week.  His assistant comes in and explains everything that I need to do in full detail the night before and the morning of the procedure.  She tells me that I will need to get blood drawn and a urine sample as part of the preop workup.

11:30: On the way to the Cancer Clinic I meet a Doctor of Anesthesia that my mom works with.  She says she can do the preop for me so that I do not have to keep running back and forth to the Tulane and back.  All my vitals are taken and questions about past procedures are answered and I am good to go as far as anesthesia.

13:00: I finally make it to the Cancer Clinic and check in with the front desk for a visit with Suzette.  Suzette makes an appointment for me.  I am a hard stick again, but I have not had anything to eat or drink all day since I have been here at the Hospital all day.  A nurse from infusion finally comes in and she pulls the labs from my hand.  I also take a urine test.

14:30: We are finally done.  Now we must head to EJ for my meeting with Dr. Page the radiologist.

15:30: My dad meets us there.  Dr. Page is not pleased with the results at all, and agrees another biopsy needs to be done along with further treatment.  At this time, radiation is not part of the treatment plan, he tells me to keep him posted.  He also said he would call Dr. Jacob and Dr. Safah to touch base with him on the results of the PET/CT Scan.  Home I go…

03/19/2015:

I meet with Dr. Safah.  She is not happy with the results at all.  She said that the Lymphoma appears to have relapsed.  There are new small spots showing, and the abdomen where the Shingles were, has only continue to grow bigger with an SUV over 10.  She said it is time to start preparing for Transplant #2.  This time it will be an allogenic transplant, rather than an autologous transplant.  This means that the stem cells will come from someone else.  My sisters will be worked up to see if they are a match, if they are, they will need to go through everything that I went through last time, in preparation and harvesting of their stem cells, the constant shots to increase the number of stemcells in the blood stream, and then the pheresis process to collect the stem cells pulling blood from them pulling out just the stem cells and then putting the blood back into their body.  Anyways she orders bloodwork, and swabs.  I will be meeting with a Dr. Weaver on Tuesday to discuss how the biopsy will be done to obtain access to the lymphnodes in question.  It will most probably happen via Mediastinoscopy.  Once the biopsy is in and if it confirms the progression of the disease, then brentuximab for 3 or so cycles, then Transplant #2.  Transplant #2 includes additional risk, as now I am getting someone elses’s cells.  Graft-versus-host disease is the main concern as the transplanted cells may start to attack me, which is wanted to cure the cancer, but not completely as then greater life threatening risk come into play.  Dr. Safah assures me this can usually be kept in control with blood test and open communication about anything and everything with me and her.  The fun has just begun.

I step out of the room where my blood is drawn and two swabs of one side of my mouth, and then two swabs of the other side of my mouth for matching me for the most compatible donor.

Then off I am sent.

My parents and I visit a few St. Joseph Day altars, then head home.  Still sinking in.  I got work to do, ahh, time for work to become a distraction all over again, but also time to start keeping my blog up to date again with the happenings and my progress and what is done and my journey with everything.

Time to get #2 over with!

03/18/2015:  PET/CT Scan # 10. – Happy Birthday Dee 🙂

Of all days, 2 over turned vehicles on the I-10, closing the Interstate and traffic backed up for at least 10 miles in every direction.  All the alternate routes are heavily congested.  Almost didn’t make it on time.

8:30: Check in at radiology.

8:50: Walking downstairs to the trailer.

9:00: Stuck, 134 Glucose reading.  Loaded with the radioactive glucose for the bad thins to uptake.

9:50: Put into the PET/CT machine.

10:20: All Done.

11:00: IHOP for breakfast, I just get the all you can eat Popcorn Shrimp, after my Transplant, eggs and many foods are disgusting, Hospitals just ruin great dishes.

12:10: At my office, catching up on a few things.

2:00:  Off to see a museum with Dee for her school paper/project.

4:30: Return home.

7:15: At Carrabba’s for Dee’s Birthday Dinner.

9:00: Home, watch TV, take it easy, tomorrow will find out the results.

11:00: ZzZzZzZzZz

03/07/2015:

Just coding, and while looking up a few things, I find a quote that humors me on a forum as part of a signature:

“Some days when I think about the next 30 years or so of my life I am going to spend writing code, I happily contemplate stepping off a curb in front of a fast moving bus.”

How true that can be when code can be never ending and ever changing, there is never a final solution as that solution grows into more and more things.

My next PET/CT scan is March 18th, 2015.  Less than 2 weeks to see if I am all clear and in remission or if we start up another attack plan.

Just for {uZa}Mattbaker… Your welcome, easy to keep you updated here.  I’ll see ya next time…  Ya know, I can’t really see you right now, right?

01/04/2015:

Happy New  Year everyone.  I have had a few people asking what’s up since I haven’t been updating my blog lately.  I have been really busy with life again, especially work.  So that’s where I have been.  However, here I am updating my blog for everyone 🙂  I put up the scan results for my past two scans today.  I am going to make it an effort to drop in here more often to give updates to what’s going on 🙂

I am feeling pretty good, just one day at a time until my next scan.  Letting work keep me busy and distracting me from all this craziness…

I am just fighting a cough for the past few days, but other than that all is swell.

I wish the best to everyone this year, and will be updating you as always!

11/27/2014: Happy Thanksgiving 🙂

At City Park for the Turkey Day Race @ 8:30 AM.  54 Degrees

5 Miles Completed in 1:22:34

My Dad, Wife and I did this race together.

I’m feeling great 🙂

09/18/2014: PET Scan Results from 09/17/2014 – Scan #9:

Dr. Safah is still pleased with the results in the chest and neck as everything is showing little to no activity which is normal.  So as far as my chest and neck are concerned we are pretty much in the clear, however the spots in the abdomen are still there.  It has been 6 months. since the shingles, and the third scan that shows these spots.  Dr. Safah gives me an ultimatum.  We can either biopsy the spots now and find out what they are if anything and begin treatment if they are something, or we can wait another 6 months and take another scan then and then take action if needed.  She said three months is not enough time to wait this time, since we have the same results the past 3 scans which have been three months apart each.  She feels safe waiting 6 months and then doing another scan.  I opt for waiting the 6 months and then doing another scan since there has been no major changes, and everything has been pretty much stable and not really increasing in size or uptake.  Dr. Safah tells me that if the spots are still there in 6 months, then we will go ahead and do a biopsy to find out what it is, and then begin treatment.  More chemotherapy, another stem cell transplant, and more radiation are possibilities if needed, but she did not want to get into any of that yet because it could turn out to be nothing and clear itself up, and if that’s the case then worrying and planning would be for nothing.  So that’s the plan, to wait and see what happens.

06/17/2014: PET Scan Results from 06/11/2014 – Scan #8:

Dr. Safah is still happy with the results in the chest and neck, however the spots in the Abdomen are still there.  Dr. Safah hopes that this is still from the Shingles, however we still cannot be sure.  The only thing we can do is order another scan again in three months to see if the spots are still there.  The spots in the Abdomen have seemed to stay the same if not shrink minorly, but not much, but are about the same, but we still need to watch them.  So I will be back for another scan in 3 months.

05/31/2014:

7:45: Raining, but ready to get started.

8:15: On our way…  Drizzling, but already wet…

8:55: They start making everyone turn back to the finish line as the weather is getting worse, but I have already done all my loops, and on my way back, so I will complete the entire race.

9:05:  I finish the race…   5K in 50 minutes according to my phone…

9:15: Good Eats…  After it is all said and done with my dad and I each have 2 helpings of just about everything.  2 Pulled Pork Sandwiches, 2 Krispy Kreme Doughnts, 2 Rotolo’s Pizzas, 1 helping of Jambalaya, and 1 Snowball.  We ate better here than at the Crescent City Classic…

10:00: We are home.  I am tired, but manage to get on my computer and do some work…

12:00: I just rest in the chair and watch some TV, maybe nap…

5:45: Head out to eat at Coyote Blues on Veterans, we get the meal that they bring out a nice helping of meats that can feed for with 3 tortillas each, and 2 sides of each.  The sides are OK, but the meat is great, and nice and cheap, 4 people can eat for under $50…

8:00: All done, time to head home 🙂 Great meal!

8:30: Saturday Night CTF – Call of Duty 2 Game Night, Need I Say More?

11:59: Still gaming…

05/04/2014:

Just working on getting these 5 computers out the door tomorrow because tomorrow brings more work 😛  Busy Busy Weekend…

05/03/2014:

So after a good late sleep since I didn’t get to sleep to 3:30 after working most of the early morning at my office, I came back in and my business partner’s computer is sitting there with a dead screen because of the graphics card.  I try to reseat the graphics card, no luck.  I then decide to see how much a new one would be.  It is an Old School NVidia 8800GTX, and has seen its days, but I don’t want to purchase another card just yet…  I accidentally stumble across some websites that talk about baking the graphics card.  I figure what the heck, its already past its life, I can’t hurt it any further, its not working right now, and not under warranty.  The reason it is not working is probably from cracked soldering on the card, and their solution online is to bake it, so ok, sounds crazy but sure, let’s try it.  I prep it, take off all the screws from the back of the card to detach anything that holds on, the fan, fins, etc, just a graphics card, and the chips on the card.  I wipe down the card to get all the thermal paste/grease off of it.  I bring it home. Turn on the oven to bake @ 395 F.  I line a pan with aluminum foil, then make a ball of aluminum foil to put under the processor to hold the card level and so that it is not touching anything.  Once it hits 395, I throw, I mean place the pan with the card on it into the oven to bake, and set the timer to 10 minutes.  After 10 minutes, I take the pan with the card on it and set it on top of a towel to cool off.  After about 10 minutes I am able to grab the card with my hand, so back to the office I go.  I put on new thermal paste, screw the 20 screws back on to hold the heatsink in place, plug it into the computer, and figuring its not going to work, I turn it on.  WOW, well what do you know the screen comes on, I can log in, and launch COD2…  Now time for me to get back to work on the 5 computers i got sitting in the back of the shop either killing XP and replacing 7, or repairing Vista or 7 issues…

Oh I am feeling great lately. No problems walking, eating, sleeping, all good.  I am still walking at least 3 or 4 nights a week with my dad preparing for the next race to walk.  The 5K Fat Boy Race…

04/19/2014:

My printed interview hits article in The New Orleans Advocate:
http://www.theneworleansadvocate.com/sports/8925530-171/metairies-craig-denny-nears-a

5:30: Up and ready to go, put on my Team Craig shirt, wake up My Wife, put on my socks and shoes, sunscreen.

6:30: Bro-in-Law driving, and he picks us up.

6:45: Parking at the Superdome.

6:50: Lacing up nice and tight.

7:55: 5 minutes till start…

8:00: Take your marks, get set, Go! The runners are off… We are just standing here waiting…

8:07: We moved 15 feet…

8:16: Moved about another 50 feet…

8:23: We are crossing the start line…

8:40: Mile 1

10:05: I finish the race, from start to finish, actual time, 1 Hour, 41 Minutes…

04/18/2014: Good Friday

10:30: My sister and bro-in-law came and picked me up as we had to head down uptown first to pick up my sister and my dad from their nine churches walk at St. Stephens on Napoleon Ave. and then up St. Charles heading to Champion’s Square and the Hyatt to pick up my shirt and my poster, and also to sign up my wife for the race and to pick up her shirt and bib, and also for the rest to pick up their shirts and bibs.

11:00: On the way down there I check the Advocate’s site on my phone looking for an article on me, and sure enough the video was posted as seen below…

Video: The Crescent City Classic is more than just a race for Craig Denny

12:30: We are done with the expo and heading back home. I have to get back to work, it’s a Friday and clients need my help…

1:30: I drop off some shirts to the Twins who have been life long friends of mine from kindergarten.  They are walking the CCC and will be wearing the shirts too…

2:15: Back at the office, got work to do and clients to take care of.  I first take care of Chef Andrea who called me earlier in the week before heading upstairs to my office right behind his Restaurant.

3:15:  I am in my office, I post the video to my blog and update my blog for today so far.

4:15: Back to doing real work, catch ya’ll later!

7:30: Heading home for supper.

9:00: Out to scout the end of the race.

10:00: Back home, finish up some remote support.

11:45: Off to bed…

11:59: Another day gone. Race day tomorrow.

04/15/2014:

I have been busy lately with work, but have been managing to keep getting my training in for the Crescent City Classic.

Today my Dad and I are going to walk 3 miles on the Lakefront levee in training for the Crescent City Classic, but first an interview with the Advocate.

A busy day catching up on things from yesterday and new issues popping up today that need to be taken care of, luckily all from the comfort of my office.

I had an appoint with Dr. Yager for my yearly checkup.  Everything going well so far, he would like to change up a few things, but until I am in remission he won’t touch anything in order no to interfere with what Dr. Safah is doing.

After my appointment, I quickly finish the last bit of tiding up my desk before the interview, and then before I knew it, the photographer and the reporter, Lori, were at my office, 5:30, interview time.

It took about 15 minutes to get the camera and lighting setup, and then the questions began.  I think it went great!  About 6:30 and we were done with the questions, out to the lakefront we go for some action shots after the video interview.

The photographer takes some action shots of us walking on the lakefront levee for the story, and by 7:00 he is done, so my dad and I start our walk on the lakefront westward towards Clearview from Causeway.

On the walk my dad and I were talking about the questions and answers.  I realized then that I could have spun the friends/family answer a little better especially since I had my Team Craig shirt hanging behind me on the wall…  Oh well, too bad I couldn’t prep for specific questions…

We actually walk about 3.25 miles when we check out phone/watch when we get back to the car.  My dad drops me back off at my office and I stay to about 10:45 finishing up on work and billing…

11:00: I get home and eat, finish up some more work remotely.

12:00: Bedtime, Goodnight!

03/13/2014:

6:00: Ayclovir time…  Been taking that again since the shingles…

8:00: I am up.

10:00: I head over to a client to get some measurements of their com closet for another client that is about to build.

10:30: I arrive on site and start taking pics and measurements.

10:45: One of the clients grabs me and asks me to do a few things to their computer while I am there.  I take care of what they need.

11:45: Just as I am finishing up the other client located in the same building grabs me to do something else for them, I take care of that.

12:45: I finish grabbing the measurements I need and take the last pictures I need.

1:00: I head out and back to the office.

1:10: I take care of a few things at the office quickly.

1:20: I am off to my house.

1:30: We get in my sister’s car and head to Dr. Safah’s office for the results of the PET/CT scan.

1:45: We get to Tulane, and I check in.

2:15: We are brought to the back.  Weight 237.8

2:45: We get to see Dr. Safah and the test results.  She is happy with what the neck shows as it shows nothing at all.  The chest has a few minor spots in it, but since the SUV is below 3 she is not really worried about them at all.  However what does alarm her is that I have new spots showing up on this scan that is in my abdomen.  One has an high uptake of 9.4, the other two are 4.7 and 4.5.  She is not sure what to think of this, this could be bad if it is new disease spots spreading to my Abdomen.  I tell her that I did have the shingles about 3 weeks ago, and that I came in and saw the PA for it, however that information never did get relayed to her.  Dr. Safah said that if she knew about the shingles, she would had put off the scan for another month.  She said it can possibly be the Shingles causing the lymph nodes in the area to increase uptake and size as it fights the Shingles and is draining everything from the Shingles infection, however, she cannot say for sure that it is the Shingles causing it.  We will schedule another PET/CT scan in another 3 months to see if there is any change in the size and uptake of these lymphnodes.  Everyone leaves the room and Dr. Safah wants to look at the area in which my shingles are.  They are well scabbed over at this point and mostly gone away, but you can still see the evidence of where they have been, all over the left but cheek, upper inner leg/groin area.  After seeing how widespread the shingles was, she feels even a little better, but can’t rule anything out, and will just have to wait and see what happens in 3 months. If they are still there, then we are talking about doing a biopsy to find out exactly what it is, but she doesn’t want to get into those details yet because it could hopefully be nothing, but no one knows we will just have to continue to wait and see… Test Results Can Be Seen Here

4:00: We are leaving Dr. Safah’s office and heading home.  So today is good news and bad news, and more of the waiting game…

4:30: We get home.  We talk a little once home, and then my sister has to head back to Baton Rouge.

5:30: My mom and I head out to get some Sushi.

7:00: We get back, long day.  I don’t feel like doing anything else today.  I just sit in the chair, put my feet up, and watch TV.

10:00: I move to my bed and just watch some more TV…

11:59: ZzZzZzZzZzZzZz, I am out, another day over….

03/12/2014:

So now I can officially glow in the dark!  LOL J/K…

6:00: I am up and out of bed.

6:15: In the car heading to Tulane with my dad for the scan.

6:30: Arrive at the hospital and check in.

7:00: They walk us from Radiology on the second floor down to the first floor.  My dad waits in the ER waiting room, while I enter the 18 wheeler trailer to start up my process.

7:10: I have 107 glucose, and they get the needle in my right hand.  Good, no blown vein, they inject the radioactive glucose solution and let me sit.

8:05: They lay me down in the machine and send me in to start the scan.

8:35: We are done with the scan and head on out.

8:50: My dad and I park across from the WWII museum.  We are going to go visit.  I havn’t eaten in over 12 hours since I had to fast for the scan so we stop at the Soda Shop and we both get a spicy and sweet chicken on a biscuit for breakfast.

9:20: We then enter the museum and purchase two tickets for the museum and two tickets for the Beyond All Boundaries 4-D Presentation for 10 AM.

9:30: We embark on their train ride that tells a few stories about the men and women going off to war.  Not a real train ride, but the cinema is modeled to resemble a train.

9:40: We walk across the street to get in line for the Beyond All Boundaries presentation.

10:00: The presentation begins.

11:00: The last time I was here was to watch all the Band of Brothers on the same screen that the Beyond All Boundaries presentation was presented on in 2011, it has come a long way since then.  There is still a building that hasn’t been built yet and won’t be open to 2015, and another new building that won’t open to November 2014.  The last time I toured it as a museum was back in 2000 maybe when I was a summer camp counselor.  We go tour the Freedom Pavillion which I havn’t been in.  B-17, B-25 bombers hanging from the ceilings.  Along with a P-51 Mustang, Douglas SBD Dauntless, TBM Avenger, and a Vought F4U Corsair.  On the gorund they have a M4 Sherman Tank, a WC-54 Ambulance.  There are 4 levels, so that you can walk above the planes that are suspended from the ceiling.  I took the elevator up, but was able to test out my knee with little to know problems walking down the stairs.

11:45: We head over to the original museum and go check out the new section involving the Pacific Theater of the war.  I am able to climb up the stairs with no issues.  We tour the Pacific Theater taking our time as we both haven’t seen this section yet.

1:45: We get done with the Pacific theater and walk through the original D-Day museum section.

2:30: We are done with pretty much everything in the museum.  Take it for granted we did not sit there and read every bit of information, doing that would have turned the visit into one that would expand two days at least…  We head on home.

3:00: At home. I sit down and rest, another long day on my feet.  Tomorrow I will find out my results of my scan today, hopefully they are great!  I just do a few things around the house, get on my computer and follow up with a few things from the day, some remoting in here and there checking up on things.

9:00: I am done for today.  I go lay in bed and watch TV.

11:59: ZzZzZz… Another day gone…

03/10/2014:

So I have an appointment today with my Dermatologist to check all my moles and especially my skin in the radiation field on my neck and chest from the radiation treatment in October.

She sees two moles on my back that she wants to watch, but everything else looks good.  Then she spots a small dark black spot on my left thumb that she wants to biopsy because its too dark.

She injects some lidocaine, I don’t feel the injection at all, thank goodness, then she cuts out the mole and will send it off to the lab.  It comes back 2 days later as being mildly atypical, so we are good, I don’t need to have any more area scraped out…

03/08/2014:  Happy Birthday Sis…

I can walk again without the help of crutches.  It’s a little painful, but I am able to get around…