Vince's Journey

Another lo-o-o-o-o-ng day down at the Chemo Parlor yesterday. We arrived at noon and finally were sent on our merry way at about 7:20 pm. Since it was the first day after the holiday break, things were pretty busy. I had to meet with Dr. Leming first and was finished with him at 12:50. The best news to come out of that visit was that all the affected lymph nodes have all been shrunk and are the normal size. That was actually great news! It tells me the Rituxan is working and we are on our way to getting rid of the lymphoma. The worst news to come out of the visit was I've gained about 13 pounds since being diagnosed! I guess like John Candy in 'Stripes' I've been swallowing alot of aggression....and alot of Ben and Jerry's ice cream!

They did my blood counts and everything looked good. By the time I finally was hooked up to the IV it was close to 2:00 pm. There were really no problems this time. I took the rituxan well and didn't have any problems with the CHOP chemo infusion. It took almost 5 hours but we expected it would be 4 to 5 hours. We just didn't realize it would take 2 hours for me to get hooked up. Anyway, I brought the laptop along and watched some edisodes of The Simpson's seventh season and the movie The French Connection to pass the time. I had never seen The French Connection...pretty good movie with probably the best chase scene I've ever seen.

I probably could have gotten out a bit earlier but one of the other patients had a pretty bad reaction to his treatment. He fainted several times and they actually were planning to take him to the emergency room when we were leaving. That was a difficult thing to watch. I know the guy from my work at Xavier and I tried calling him this morning to see how he's doing but there was no answer. They said he would be alright but he sure looked like he was struggling when I left. Anyway, all attention was obviously directed toward the other patient and since I've never removed an IV from my arm, I had to wait my turn.

Last night was fine. Jane brought us some homemade Skyline and it was very good. Unfortunately, I woke up this morning with a somewhat upset stomach so I probably should stick to foods that are a bit more bland...at least for the time being.

Today I'll get a shot that is supposed to boost the white blood cell count. In the first 7-10 days of this chemo treatments your white cell counts can drop which leads to a greater risk for infections. They'll keep a close watch on this and I'll get checked several times throughout the 3 week cycle just to make sure the counts don't dip too low.

So we're off and running! One cycle is down and hopefully there are only 5 to go!! My hair will probably start falling out within the next 2 weeks. I guess I'll be looking like Kojak for a while. There are a bunch of other side-effects to look for but I won't bore you with all the details. I think they compile a list of everything that happens to people during this type of chemo treatment and tell everyone, this MAY happen. At the same time Dr. Leming is saying...'You'll be fine!!' Anyway, its quite an eye-opening list of side-effects and if you really would like to see it, I'll show you sometime.

As always, thanks to everyone for all your support and prayers. It was 3 months ago today that I was diagnosed and at least I now know that the nodes they can feel are no longer swollen. We'll continue to keep you all posted. I get my port put in on Friday. Hopefully we'll have a great weekend and the Bengals can knock off the Steelers again.

From our family to yours....peace and blessings!

Vince, Julie, Judd, Aaron and Abbey