Doing Well!

Well the last treatment seemed to have little side effect on Ted. He rested for the weekend and monday. He seems to be perking up and doing well. We had a little snaffoo and had to go to the ER to have the nephrostomy changed on Tuesday. It worked out to be quick and easy. yeah! something easy. Anyhow he is doing well and feeling good. It is nice to see him up and around and feeling much better. The pain is still there but they have uped his meds and he seems to be tolerating it just fine.

We are looking forward to fall. It's been so hot here that we need a break. We actually dropped down to 67 last night. Wow....amazing. But it was refreshing. The kids start school next tuesday. Sam went to open house and already doesn't like her teachers. haha. She only met them for less then 10 minutes. Typical open house, but alot of kids went this time. Kyle went to his open house and we found out he gets to build sand sculptures at the neptune festival this year. This will be fun for a kid who hates the beach. hahah. But he also has to start fund raising for a Senior trip to NY ad agencies and other places. He is definatly looking forward to that. Anyhow, have a great labor day weekend.

Miss ya all. Love, Karen and Ted

Treatment

Ted had his treatment on Friday. No chemo, just the avastin and erbitux. He isn't feeling real great today. I'm not sure why, it shouldn't be the drugs, they really don't have a side effect like that. This past week he had an awesome week. Felt great, went to work. He didn't over do it. I know what you are all thinking! :)
If he continues like this i'll call the doctor. But right now I think he just needs to rest. I'll update more as I know more.

Its all about choices..

You have control over what goes into your body and how you chose to live your life. I cannot make that decision for Ted only he can make that choice. I can give him an opinion, most of the time I'm not sure myself. We had our appointment today with the Oncologist. In my on of my last posts it said that we started another round of treatment at a lower dose. We were hoping it wouldn't be that bad since he hadn't had a treatment in the last 8 weeks. But it kicked his ass anyhow. A little over two weeks feeling like you have been hit by a truck, and your stuck in that haze. It was probably Monday in St. Louis that he felt better. Technically he should have had chemo again that friday before. The question became.. What to do....do you live in a haze till you can't live no more? No of course you don't. So the choice.......No more chemo (cpt11) this stuff kicks and kicks hard. Another choice.... continue with the avastin and erbitux or not. Hoping to add a few more months, even years so for now...it's avastin and erbitux. (In the begining I gave a defination for these drugs, in case you need to revist.) Hope is what it is all about. The time between the last chemo and the latest treatment, about 8 weeks. The CEA levels rose some about it's 21. More then we prayed and hoped it didn't. But that is ok. This is only a number. CAT scan shows nothing in other organs. Good Sign!! So our fight continues. Never think we will give up because we arn't. We hope that he will work some and play more. I vote for the play more. Visits to the beach, dinner out with the family. Living life to the fullest. Ted picked up a booklet to get his learners permit for a motorcycle. Now that's living life!!

Hi Everyone its ME!

well it certainly has been awhile hasn't. its about 8:00 in the am and i am sitg here feeling pretty good. I would be at work today but unfortunatley,i have meetings with doctors all day. should be getting the numbers for my cea levels and then off to pain managment for another tweaking of my system. You know if any of you asked me for years ago how i would feel about living the rest of my life like the way i have to now i would have told you , your crazy, theres no way. but all i can say, is it really hasnt slowed me down, all the implants and permanent devices i mean. The cancer slowed me down and made me fat! laughing ok who would have guessed the highschool graduate of 145 lbs. would one day way in at 268 lbs. yep that was my top weight. and as luck would have it, FLex magazine and body builders are us never showed up at the door....damn bastards. oh well.trust me i was big. still am but loosing weight now that i am off the steroids. i would like to go back to about 195 i was more comfortable and able to lift myslf. very tough these days moving around.anyways i feel ok today and wanted to pass it along Ted

Home from St. Louis

We got home late Saturday night. The plan was delayed for a bit, but it was all ok. Our Trip was great and like I said before very very hot. Of course it was hot all over too. Any way we didn't go to 6 flags because it was just too darn hot. Glad we didn't buy the tickets early. (if I repeat any of my other post, sorry) Ted did well and the pills that the doc gave him to help pull him out of his funk helped too. He hasn't been to work yet since we got home. He actually went in for about an hour on monday but just wasn't feeling well enough to stay. We have taken him off the steriods as they make him feel better but yet he put on 30 plus pounds again. So he is uncomfortable with his weight. Especially in the heat.



Well we made it too the game and almost didn't get tickets because they were so expensive. We couldn't get 7 seats together unless they were standing room only. They were 13 dollars, which was an awesome price compared to the 60 dollar tickets that were offered to use and not all 7 together. Anyway, then ted went to the window with leo and said that he would take the standing room only tickets but he coudln't gaurantee that he would make it through the game. He explained that he was disabled. She then proceeded to check again and came up with handicap seats. I think we had the best seats in the house. No one in front of us and no one behind us. It was awesome. And best of all the seats were only $12 and $9 for Sam. It was a great nite and a great game...and the cardinals won. Even though Ted and I are Redsox fan and Sam is Yankee fan, with Uncle Leo. We still cheered for the Cardinals for Kyle.



Well the trip was great and we tried to end it with a trip to the Arch. Wow...that thing is so big. Well we got to see it and touch it but we weren't able to go up into the arch because it was a 4 hour wait with a 1 hour round trip tour. We would have missed our planes so we walked around and then we went to get lunch and off to the airport. Well that is our vacation. A few pics at the bottom.



We have a Doctor appointment on Friday, so i'll update you all soon. Karen

Still in St. Louis

Just wanted to let everyone know that we are still in St. Louis. It is very very hot here. If you watch the weather channel they keep mentioning St. Louis and how hot it is....record breaking i GUESS. We are used to the heat for the most part because of being in VB. The first night we got here it was so freakin hot. you could have cut the air with a knife. since then it's hot but the humidity is only like 50% so it's not so bad. Ted is doing well. he has had a couple of good days. And I mean good. He has been swimming and playing games in the arcade. Trying to keep him hydrated is a challange though. Today he is resting so we can make it too the game. We were going to go to a game last night and we didn't go because my sister in law wasn't feeling good. Good thing we skipped. because there was a gasoline tanker overturned and they said traffic after the game let out was really bad. So we are going to take our chances. We aren't going into 6 flags this week , because it is just too hot to be walking around all week. They have nice pool here and game room. We played miniture golf last night. they dn't charge extra for too much here. I think if you want to rent a boat you can do that too for like 5$ an hour. They guys want to go golfing but it depends on how ted is feeling they don't have golf carts so it's all by foot. Well I just wanted to drop you all a note that way you know things are good. Will be back late on Saturday. Ted plans on working on Monday. Im keeping my fingers crossed that he will want too and feel good enough too.
Love to all....Karen

Pain Doctor

Ted hasn't been to work yet, like he hoped. Just can't get through that fuzzy feeling away. We saw the pain doctor and she added a new drug in his pump, buvocaine. Well something like that. Any how its an numbing agent. Hoping this helps in out in the pain department. She also gave him something for the fuzziness in his brain. She said it's worth a try. OK. So he is hoping to go to work tomorrow for a few hours. It's been real tough and I think he has only gotten in like 12 hours in the last 3 weeks. Ok....I'm very tired and I may read this in the mornign and say..."Who Typed This Anyhow" But I wanted to get it out there that he is doing a little better and coming out on the other side of the chemo treatment. Love to all.