Same Bat Channel, New Bat Time

In order to have both surgeons present for the second surgery, we had to bump the date to the 21st of August. This is very positive for several reasons.

1. Hand surgeons are important when working on the hand area.
2. Chemo will start early September most likely, leaving room for the annual dove hunt at the farm.
3. This allows more time for my arm to heal from the radiation to better heal from the surgery.

We're doing great, thanks for checking in.

On deck

I went to Duke this past Friday for my pre-chemo screenings, basically baseline tests on my heart and kidneys. Not only did my being a 6'4" 30 year old at the Pediatric Clinic entertain the nurses, but Marshall Rich telling them "he never had trouble finding a vein in college" when they were trying to set up my IV made sure they knew the big kids were in the house. We did learn a few interesting things. Most importantly, veins have feelings too. They can get mad, spasm, and make noise when they're tired of being harassed all day to give up your blood.

August 15th will be the date for the second surgery. Unless there are complicating factors, it should be an overnight visit and I'll be back to normal by the weekend. Between now and the surgery, there won't be alot of news to report. If anything worthy of noting comes up, I'll make sure to post it.

Thank you for all your comments. Not only are they show your support and shock my family and parents' friends, they make me laugh. Please keep them coming (just under the radar of the "Trash Comment" option I have as the host).

Finding Chemo

We met yesterday with the newest member of the team. He's a perky fellow at the Pediatric Oncology Clinic who uses big words like "puke" to make Ashley laugh. After testing the limits of his patience by asking 328 questions (most answered with a "we're not sure" or "we don't really know the answer to that yet"), we uncovered a wealth of information regarding my chemotherapy treatment. To save everyone the effort of trying to decipher the details from the sarcasm, I'm just going to list them.

• Chemo will involve doxorubicin and ifosfomide
• These agents will attack fast growing normal cells and cancer cells
• Normal fast growing cells would include cells found in the hair, mucus membrane, bone marrow
• The treatments will go in three week cycles
• There will be 6 cycles for a total of 18 weeks
• Chemo will be administered through an access port that will be surgically inserted into a major blood vessel in my neck.
• The port comes out after the treatment is over
• The port wine goes in after the recovery is over
• Potential side effects include permanent heart and kidney damage, but are unlikely (less than 5%)
• Hair loss and "puking" are pretty standard
• I'll typically spend 3 or 4 nights in the hospital after a treatment
• My immune system will be down the first week and require me to be careful about infection and getting sick
• This is a one shot deal. Remaining cancer will be resistant or unaffected in the first place
• My type of cancer has a 30% chance being eradicated by the chemo
• The smaller the groups of cells treated, the more likely they are to be completely eliminated if they respond. (The earlier the better)
• Chemo will begin the end of August after the surgery

That's a thick steak to swallow, I know. Adding whether or not to do it because "we don't know for sure if it spread but there is a 30% chance it has" to the decision process makes one hell of a sauce to top it off.

All jokes aside, this step is pretty serious and intense. We're still extremely positive and very optimistic.

To help ease the down time along, Dad has offered to read "the classics" to me in the hospital. His hope is to learn us Wilson boys on all the great literary works that neither of us have ever had the pleasure of being exposed on more than a Cliff's Notes level.

Gut laughing at him, I refused adamantly and told him I had notified hospital security to deny access to any book older that 12 months and most definitely anything that included the words quixote, expectation, dick, grapes, musketeer, war, peace, moby, and without a doubt pride or prejudice.

Actually a little Homer or Mark Twain my be decent between the CSI Miami marathons.

As always, thank you, sincerely, for everything.

If you have ANY questions, feel free to axe.

Just checking in.

Nothing new to report this week. I have an appointment with the doctor whose going to be handling the chemo on Monday. Chemo patients under 35 are treated in the Pediatric Oncology Clinic, so the visit could be a little intense for everyone. Regardless, it almost feels strange not going through any type of treatment currently. Participating in the different processes of fighting creates a very proactive feeling. In light of that, I've got a few non-conventional treatment methods up my sleeve that I've been at since the beginning. I'll keep working on those while I'm on deck at Duke. Maybe one day I'll write about the alternative non-conventional journey I'm taking. Don't start harassing me to share my west coast herbal remedies. I don't have any...yet.

Chemo will begin most likely the end of August.

Hope everyone is doing well. I'll update everyone ASAP.

Thanks.

Like Our Good Friend Ice Cube said....

Today was a good day.

I finished my radiation treatments this morning.

Had the scans of my chest and arm yesterday with the results being clear. No difference in my chest and no evidence of any tumor recurrence in my arm.

The second surgery will be the middle of August and after talking to the surgeon yesterday, it appears that the tumor was in the superficial muscles of my forearm. These muscles are incased with a membrane which should have contained the tumor and prevented spreading locally. The second surgery should not involve the median nerve and should have little effect on the function and sensitivity of my hand. Chemo will begin after the surgery.

Scans will continue every three months for the next few years and gradually move to an annual schedule. Getting the call that everything is OK for the second time now is an indescribable relief for Ashley and myself. Thanks for all the love.

Off to the beach....

P.S. I didn't even have to use my AK

Decision Center:

Let me start by thanking everyone for their enthusiasm about the blog. I encourage everyone to keep making comments. Apparently there are alot more people out there than Ashley and myself who are entertained by this site. I sincerely hope that the idea of making a comment doesn't intimidate anyone. Trust me, some of these "witty" comments, including my own, are the result of wasting WAY too much time trying to sound overly intelligent in front of an eagerly awaiting audience. (that sentence took 3 hours to conjure) Both sincere and unintelligent comments are equally welcome.

Next week will host my last three radiation treatments. The Radiation Clinic is closed on Tuesday. Apparently cancer takes the 4th off as a holiday. Good to know. Anyway I'll finish my treatments on Thursday then Ashley and I are going to head to the beach for a long weekend. My doctor wants me and especially my bald arm to stay out of the sun and wear a shirt if outside, so we figured the beach would be the perfect place to make that impossible.

We did meet with the hand specialist at Duke who is also the chief of plastic surgery and the president of the microvasular surgeons association this year. After a grueling interview process and intense review of his resume and references, we decided to hire him and Duke as the team to accomplish our goals with the second surgery. The combination of professionalism, reputation, location, and several other factors lead us to choose DUMC. Ashley thinks the reason I chose them is because I feel comfortable wearing flip-flops at Duke whereas I always wore loafers to MSKCC. Of all the reasons to hinge a decision between the two excellent centers, that's probably the best. Let's be honest. All the surgeon's I've met in the last few months sit on the Jedi Council.

The chest and arm scans are Wednesday as well as scheduling of the surgery and my appointment with my original doctor who will be doing the second recection. Let's kick the Prayerometer up a notch and I'll let everyone know how everything went on Thursday.

Love and thanks.

PS "The Decision Center" is a fictitious place with an 800 number Clark invented. The kind people there take your calls and make tough decisions for you like where to eat, what movie to watch, or which hospital to treat you for cancer. If you don't understand this, don't worry.