good morning everyone. its very foggy here and its kinda making me understand the way i feel under chemo. physically i feel fine. mentally you know i really never was all there. but the fog sets in only moments after getting chemo. everything is still ok just takes more time for me to adjust to things and my response time is off a little. hmm maybe i shoulnt drive? oh well. like i said i feel great and im weighing in at...sorry for the delay i needed to run over to the scale; 222 not to bad. ok i need to kiss sam good bye for school talk with you later. Ted

Mediport & Erbitux

On Friday the 23rd, we went to have the mediport put in. That is a device inserted in the chest and the major vein in the neck. This is so they can give him chemo and such everyother week without him having to get an IV and he won't have to have the picc line anymore in his arm and will be free to swim this summer. He also had his second dose of erbitux. So far so good. No major side effects except for some nausea last week and just feeling yucky. His blood counts on Friday were 37. For any one that doesn't know 40-52 is the normal range. Last November he was in the bottom twenty. That's when he needed the blood transfusion before and after the surgery. This is the highest the red blood counts have been yet and with the dose of chemo last week that is a good sign. Hopefully they will stay up high. He continues to take the Vemma vitamins and we hope that along with the procrit is helping. Either way it can't hurt. The leg is doing so much better. The swelling has gone down tremendously. So we hope the chemo is doing it's job. YEAH! Love ya, Karen

good day

hi all, ok so yesterday we were in the 60's here, i decided to take some time off. i went and had my tattoo finished i had been working on since Christmas. a few of you saw it but as soon as i can i will send pictures for you to see. i miss you all so much and i appreciate all the love and support. now if i could just get someone to give me my massages....hmmm..oh many of you know i am writing a book about all the experiences that we have been through, i hope you will all enjoy it, i may post from time to time excerpts from the book here. love to all. T

Hi all, just finished with some work on the house and decided to take a little break. i feel pretty good after the chemo treatment, just a little tired. my head is sort of in a haze and i am trying hard to fight through it. my body is very tired but well prepared for what we are doing it bulked up to 236 lbs. figure i would loose most of that during the treatments. anyways hugs and kisses take care. Ted

Chemo starts today

Hi Everyone .... Just wanted to welcome everyone. I hope this will be a great new way to keep in touch with you all and keep you informed of Teds daily progress. I have the options set so that you can respond and leave comments without having to register.

Ted started chemo today and erbitux. Erbitux is a targeted drug. Not chemo. The definition or class of drug is described like this Class: monoclonal antibody, binds to EGFR inhibiting cell growth and inducing cell death. This is suppose to work in conjuction with the Chemo or Camptosar (Cpt11). Definition for Cpt11 is Class: topoisomerase I inhibitor, causing breaks in the DNA so the cell cannot divide and dies. Eventually he will start Avastin but we have to wait till his mediport gets put in next week. Then about a month or so later. Avastin prevents you from healing and so they have to wait to start that. So these drugs that they give him start with a few other things like anti-nausea and then some benedryl and vitamins. Its a long process and today they must give them to him extra slow. So it's an all day affair.

As for his leg, his oncologist said that it could be fluid from his lymph glands that can't find it's way back out because of the enlarged lymph nodes. He is still taking the antibiotic in case it is the infection that the ER doc said but his oncologist said that with treatment it should get better soon. Possibly even with this first dose of chemo and drugs.

I hope that Ted will be doing much of this posting. He is a much better writer then me and has a flare with words. Have a wonderful day - Karen