Tag: toe

Posted on by John Clark

CT Results – June 2020

Summary

Thank you all for your continued prayer. Here’s a very brief summary of what has been happening since my last post.

COVID-19 Tests: negative
Nausea: cured
CT Scan: good
Ostomy reversal: in progress
Toe: healing

The COVID-19 tests

In addition to the ferocious interrogation to which I am subjected upon entering the hospital, Ontario Health has decided to award all of us cancer folk regular COVID-19 tests. This may not sound all that bad unless you know what the test entails. Let’s put it this way: I prefer rectal examinations.

You know you’re in trouble when the nurse administering the COVID-19 test asks you to try not to punch her (the nurse seriously said this to me before my first test). It makes sense though once the nurse has driven the 10ft swab up your nose and into your brain as hard as she possibly can. Once most of the gigantic swab is inserted and your cries of pain are at a sufficient decibel level, the sadistic nurse then begins twisting the swab around which only increases the agony. I had no idea there was that much room up there. (It certainly gives some credibility to Homer’s crayon incident.) Both tests were negative, by the way.

COVID-19 Test

Chemo

No more nausea. After 3 unsuccessful prescriptions my oncologist finally prescribed me a nausea pill that works. A single pill is supposed to prevent nausea for a week. I only needed 3 days. It costs around $150 per pill (thanks Trillium) but I’ve taken it before my past two chemo treatments and have experienced absolutely no nausea. I was even able to eat a bit on those weekends. I still somehow managed to lose 10 lbs but I gained it back quicker this time than I did after the chemo weekends when I ate nothing due to the nausea. 

Last month, at my oncologist visit, he told me my CEA marker was down to 4. This is good. At my appointment today I was told my CEA level was now at 1.7. This is great. When I was first introduced to Tony my CEA was over 800. Obviously the chemo is working. The longer the chemo works the longer I get to live. My oncologist was pleased enough with how my treatment is going that he decided to reduce the dosage of one of my chemo drugs to help clear up my spectacular rash. With the creams, antibiotics and reduction of the chemo drug, I think I am noticing a slight improvement of my rash. It is hard to tell though, as my rash covers every part of my body now, from the top of my head to my feet, and I heal so slowly that new flare-ups can be difficult to notice.

My oncologist has also reduced my Grastofil again down to 5 injections per treatment as my white blood cells are still nice and high.

The CT Scan

They let me keep my clothes on! I had to drop my pants right before they slid me into the machine but it sure beats having to wear a hospital gown. My CT scan was last week and I just received the results today. Actually I had access to the images a few hours after the scan was done, however they don’t include the radiologist’s report so it’s kinda useless unless you know how to read the scans. They are fun to look at though. I think I can identify liver lesions now. My oncologist is pleased with the results as they indicate that the chemo is still working. The nodules in my lungs have “significantly decreased” since my last scans and the lesions on my liver have also decreased in size. The oncologist says that I’m in a good place to take a few months off from chemo. We decided to wait and see when my ostomy reversal surgery will be and then take a several month break from chemo at that point. Yes, I will be back on chemo after I recover from my ostomy reversal. I’m doing two more chemotherapy treatments in June (June 12 and June 26) and then hopefully I will have a nice break while I await my ostomy reversal.

Here’s one of my CT scans. I’ll include the report at the bottom of this post. If anyone else wants to play “radiologist” I’m happy to share the DICOM files.

Ostomy Reversal

I had a phone call with my surgeon a few weeks ago to initiate the ostomy reversal process. He has scheduled some tests this month for me to confirm it is safe to do the reversal. First, on June 16, I’m having a Flexible Sigmoidoscopy. The way it was explained to me is they are going to “inject dye up the bum” (yes, my surgeon said “bum”) to make sure there are no leaks. Next, on June 25,  I have a Gastrograph which, after scaring myself by accidentally searching for “Gastroscope”, is just a fancy word for stomach x-ray. Then on July 3, I meet with the surgeon for the results and if everything is ok, he’ll book me in for my ostomy reversal. I miss pooping.

Prayer

Thank God that my nausea seems to be cured. I’m also thankful to the real smart people who made the fancy anti-nausea drug.

Thank God that the chemo is still working!

Pray for my poor wife who has had to work extra hard these past weeks since my toe has been preventing me from helping out as much as I normally would.

Please pray that my pre-ostomy reversal tests will be successful. I’m not looking forward to the Sigmoidoscopy but it can’t be worse than the COVID-19 test… can it?

Please continue to pray for my protection from COVID-19.

My toe could still use some prayer. It is still not quite healed (7th week) likely due to the chemotherapy. It’s really annoying and scary as the toddler and the dog show no regard for my toe’s well-being as they frolic haphazardly around the house.

Next

If my Sigmoidoscopy proves interesting enough I’ll try to make a post then, otherwise expect to hear from me after I talk to the surgeon on July 3.

CT Report

 

Posted on by John Clark

Pandemichemotoe

Bottom line: I’m still alive. Chemo is hard. Please continue to pray.

 

It’s been awhile since I have posted anything. It’s taken me almost 2 months to come up with anything noteworthy to report. I even had to go to the trouble of messing up my toe again just so I could make this post more interesting.

The pandemic

So far we are unaffected. I have a nice spreadsheet of all reported cases from around the world because I like data and spreadsheets. I’ve been working from home for over 7 years now and we’ve been homeschooling for roughly the same amount of time. We are all quite used to being together all the time.

I am one of those people with an underlying health condition due to my immune system trying to heal me from the havoc of chemotherapy every two weeks. If you have a little extra prayer time after you have prayed for the people who have COVID-19 and after you have prayed for all the nursing home residents, you could pray for a little protection for us immunocompromised folks.

Chemotherapy

I do not like chemotherapy.  My treatment is considered “essential” so I still get to go to the hospital every other week for my dose of poison. I get to wear a mask now at the hospital. I didn’t like the ones they gave me so my mother made me a Mario one.

Mario mask

To comply with social distancing the hospital removed half of all the chemo chairs in the room so it’s really nice and spacious now. The downside is that no visitors are allowed. As usual, I bring my laptop and I get to work in peace and quiet for 5 hours or so.

As someone who was hospitalized for 15 days last November, I especially feel for all the patients in the hospital that can’t receive visitors right now. Staying in the hospital is bad enough but I can’t imagine being stuck in there without your family or friends being able to visit. Please pray for all the hospital patients.

My chemo treatments have still been tolerable, although I have been extra nauseous during the past few. I’ve been dry heaving multiple times on day 1, 2 and 3 and even managed to actually vomit a few times now. This is different from last year. I am trying some new nausea pills this time, so please pray they do the trick.

It’s been very difficult to eat or even drink anything on the weekends I have chemo. I traded in my water for apple juice which has helped me drink more fluids. I don’t even bother trying to eat because my appetite is non-existent. This only lasts until Monday, Day 3, when I feel about 95% like myself. By Wednesday, I am back to 100%. My current post-chemo craving is a Mango Pineapple smoothie from McDonald’s. I’ve been having one every time after we return home from my Day 3 hyperthermia session.

On my last two chemo treatments I managed to drop over 10 pounds from Thursday night to Monday morning. I gained most of it back over the following week, but I thought 10 pounds in 3 days was impressive (or perhaps disturbing would be a better word). There has got to be a weight-loss product idea in there somewhere…

My next chemotherapy treatment is booked for May 15. I can’t remember how many more I am to have but there should be a CT scan coming up soon.

My rash is still quite present. It’s on every area of my body except my feet. I am taking antibiotics and have a few skin creams to help keep it at bay.

When I am not on chemo I still feel great.

Leanne and I are old pros at ostomy care now. I need her help due to my lack of depth perception. She’s better with stickers and scissors anyway. I was hoping to have my ostomy reversed soon but that is a non-essential procedure so I’m stuck with my bag for awhile longer.

My dear wife is now an expert at giving me my Grastofil injections. All the post-surgery daily anti-blood-clot injections must have helped build her confidence, because Leanne is now an expert at stabbing me. She was worried about hurting me in the beginning, which actually made it hurt worse. Now she doesn’t hesitate, she just jabs that needle in my leg and we’re done in no time. The injections are merely a slight distraction from our conversation.

On my last visit to the oncologist my white blood cell count was so high that he told me to do fewer Grastofil injections. Instead of 7, we are now doing 6 per treatment and will likely be going down to 5. This would be much more significant if we had to pay out-of-pocket for these needles that cost $140 each, but the manufacturer and Trillium are still footing the bill. (Thank you all for paying your taxes.)

My toe

Remember my ingrown toenail I had back in August? Well it came back. I was SUPER careful, I was too scared to cut my toenail at all, but it still came back. I didn’t let it get as infected as last time though before going to my family doctor. He had his colleague, a nice young doctor who couldn’t have been more than a year or so older than Harry, do a different procedure which essentially removed the overgrown skin from the sides of my toe.

This Vandenbos procedure has a longer recovery time than my last toe fix in the ER (6-8 weeks vs. 1 week). As of yesterday, Tuesday, it will be 2 weeks since I had it done. I still have to soak my toe 3 times per day for 4-6 more weeks. The pain isn’t too bad but much worse than in August. I have some neat photos but Leanne won’t let me post them.

If there is still room left on your prayer list, I suppose my poor toe could use some prayer as well, although I’d still prefer you pray that God will heal me from the cancer.

My next post will likely feature something regarding a CT scan unless something else exciting happens to me in the meantime. You know I still have 9 toes that aren’t currently ingrown…

Posted on by John Clark

August Update

Chemotherapy is done, at least for now. I was feeling great until I developed an ingrown toenail that is causing me a bit of pain and preventing me from walking. I’m actually writing part of this post from a bed in the ER as I wait for a doctor to fix my infected toe. Otherwise I feel great, although I don’t exactly look great. My rash has come back fairly severely and the doctor does not want to give me any more antibiotics. I still have some of the prescribed cream that I am using, which is helping. They are hoping the rash just goes away on its own since I am done chemo, but it is a little annoying (and a little fun to pick at the scabs).

I keep forgetting to mention another fun side effect of the chemo. My eyelashes are freakishly long.

My Freakishly long eyelashes
My freakishly long eyelashes

 

I have a CT scan scheduled for September 3. If the doctors like what they see, the next step may be surgery. I have a follow-up appointment booked on September 11 to discuss the results with my oncologist. Please pray that the scan will prove that the chemo has been effective and that God will give us strength for the next part of this journey.