Vince's Journey

I'm sorry I haven't posted for a while. I wanted to see what the plan for this stent is before I put out any new 'news'. The whole plan is still a bit cloudy but I've been getting a lot of questions so here is the latest... I met with Dr. Bennett (the urologist) last Thursday. I thought I was going to get a sonigram but he told me that really would help in determining whether he could remove the stent or not. He said the only real test would be a CT scan and Dr. Leming would have to order that. So I had a treatment yesterday and told Dr. Leming about my visit with Dr. Bennett. He said he'd get a CT scan ordered and if everything is progressing as expected, perhaps we can get rid of the stent next week. That would be awesome. I don't know what I'll do getting back all that wasted time I've been spending standing over the toilet only to have little, if anything trickle. Probably 'too much information' for some of you but that's been my life the past 4 weeks. I haven't excercised in 2 weeks, it's just too damned uncomfortable. The good news is, the treatments have gone well - no hives, no complications, pretty uneventful. I've actually gotten to the point where they can do the tranfusion in about 2 hours - a far cry from the 6 hours it took the first time. No let's pray that the damn things are working! Other than that, I've been spending a lot of time plopped on the sofa watching television. We did go out to dinner at the Montgomery Inn Boathouse with a great group of friends on Saturday night. It was a private dinner that the Bruces picked up at an Our Daily Bread fundraiser and it was nice to get out of the house and enjoy some good food. My taste buds have been somewhat screwed up by these treatments and I've been eating a lot of bland foods. Fortunately I was able to enjoy the meal on Saturday. And I was even more than happy to serve as the designated driver as beer drinking is not a good idea when you constantly feel like peeing, no need to exacerbate the situation (or as a co-worker once put it...exactabate the situation. On Sunday Judd was given two tickets to the NCAA games in Dayton and asked me to go. We had a great time and got to see two fantastic basketball games as Ohio State beat Iowa State on a buzzer beater by Aaron Craft and Indiana nipped Temple in a physical and fun game to watch. Hopefully Ohio State can go out to LA and take care of business and head to the Final Four for the second straight year. This team has had it's struggles but they appear to be jelling at the right time. I guess that covers the latest. I'll be sure to keep you posted on the latest and hopefully greatest news. Wishing everyone a blessed Easter week.

I had another Rituxin treatment yesterday. It was fairly uneventful and I feel pretty good today. The best part was the Benadryl knocked me out so I was able to get a 2 hour nap in which was much appreciated following my 4 hour drive home from Cleveland. I had to go up to Cleveland Monday for a Xavier alumni activity at the Cleveland Cavs game. What a horrible team! I know they have a couple key injuries right now but passing that team off as an NBA squad is really pushing it. Indiana was also playing without a top player and they basically toyed with them. Tomorrow I have my three week follow-up appointment with the urologist. I should get an ultrasound and if everything looks good, we're going to move forward on getting this stent. It is absolutely incredible how much this little piece of plastic (or whatever the hell it's made of) has impacted my life the past 3 weeks. I think my thoughts have been well documented on this blog but I can't wait to not feel like I have to pee - it has been way beyond obnoxious. I wish I would have kept count on how many times I've gone to the bathroom the past 3 weeks - it has to be some kind of record. I'd estimate 20 times a day for 21 days - I think that makes 420 times! I know you'll probably think that is an inflated number but I'm confident it's pretty accurate. I'm typically up every 90 minutes at night and probably go 3 times every two hours during the day. And keep in mind that every trip is accompanied by intense pain in the area of the stent when the 'flow' begins. What amazes me is for some people, stents are used to improve their situation. All I know is, this preventative stent sucks. I'm looking forward to the NCAA games. Judd was given some tickets for Sunday games in Dayton which should feature Ohio State so I'm looking forward to heading up there with him. Hopefully Ohio State can make a repeat trip to the Final Four, unlike last year when Kentucky blitzed their way to the title, this year's tournament should be wide open and a lot more interesting. At the same time, I actually think the title is heading back to Kentucky - only Rick Pitino will be the coach hoisting over his head, Louisville looks like a team on a mission. Today Xavier was announced as one of the 3 new members of the Big East Conference along with Butler and Creighton. We had a big celebration on campus which was nice considering the Muskies didn't make it to post season play. I'm looking forward to next season and seeing teams like Villanova, Georgetown, St. Johns and Marquette come to the Cintas Center, hopefully Coach Mack and the team will be up for the task. I guess I'll end here. My next treatment is next Monday. I'll be sure to report back on the latest news regarding 'the stent'! Go Bucks!!!

I am mentally drained. I had two treatments earlier this week and I'm still in a great deal of discomfort due to the stent. Consequently, I can't sleep! I haven't had a decent night of sleep in over 2 weeks. I wake up about every hour feeling like I need to go to the bathroom - sometimes I do, most of the time I just get a weak trickle...very frustrating. Last night I took some Tylenol PM and actually had my longest sustained sleep in 2 weeks; about 90 minutes. I'm hoping that I'll be able to get the stent out following my urologist appointment next week but that's still 6 days away. it just can't happen soon enough...this has been a struggle. So I came home early from work today. I felt so sluggish and everyone kept telling me I should go home...so I finally did. Now I'm sitting here watching Wisconsin play Michigan in the Big Ten basketball tournament and it is a God awful game....16 to 10 with 4 minutes to play in the first half. Imagine how bad it would be if Wisconsin didn't have the greatest coach in the conference, Bo 'frickin' Ryan....what a joke. I'd rather watch 'the Sorrow and the Pity' than an entire Wisconsin basketball game. Right now they've missed 11 three pointers and an equal number of chip shots - they're 3 of 20 shooting. I guess I could change the channel, maybe Family Feud is on. Here is one for the books. All Aaron wanted for Christmas was tickets to see Kobe Bryant and the Lakers play. We looked and saw that the Lakers would be playing in Indianapolis in March and the game was during Aaron's spring break so it all came together. The game is tonight. Unfortunately Kobe sprained his ankle on a bonehead play Wednesday night and most likely won't be playing this evening - I can't believe it. Kobe has been Aaron's favorite player for 10 years and the day before he gets to see him live, he gets hurt. Oh well, I hope they have a great time at the game and maybe Kobe can pull a Willis Reed and play a little tonight. Unfortunately, a game against the Pacers in Indianapolis is not quite as important as the final game of the NBA championship. Halftime score alert - Michigan 20, Wisconsin 17...does it get any worse than that? Well, yes it does....how about the uniforms that Adidas has decided to make some of their higher profile schools to wear....how humiliating it must be to walk on the court wearing the stylish fashions they're making Cincinnati, Louisville, Notre Dame and UCLA play in. Michigan is also getting in on the act today but their uniforms are always putridly colored so I doubt anyone will notice. I guess that's about it for now. I plan to lay low this weekend and hopefully catch up with some rest. If anyone needs me you can find me on the couch with my legs propped up, contemplating my next trip to the bathroom. And if you have to be laid up for the weekend I guess its good that its a weekend full of basketball. As always, thanks for all your thoughts and prayers. I'll be sure to check in with an update soon.

Today was a long but uneventful day at the chemo parlor. I arrived at 10 am and was on my way home at 4:50 - a 'swift' 6 hour and 50 minute visit. The good news is there was no allergic reaction to the Rituxin which probably cut a good 2 hours off the length of the day. In previous first time transfusions of Rituxin, they've had to stop the process because I was breaking out all over my body in hives - today that was not the case. When the hives break out they need to pump me full benadryl and slow the process down so the lack of hives was huge! What also helped was I didn't sleep well at all last night and fortunately was able to doze off through most of the 7 hour process today. So day one is in the books. Tomorrow I'll go in for a quick dose of Bendamustine and I'll be off until next Tuesday, March 19. I think I've worked through the worst part of the stent pain. Dr. Leming said if all goes well I should be able to get it out at the end of March but at this point the pain is not nearly as bad as it was and the only real annoyance now is a constant urge to urinate which is my life anyway so we'll deal with it and hope when the stent comes out there is remarkable improvement in regard to the duration between bathroom trips. We had a couple great events for the LLS this past weekend. On Friday, we kicked off the 2013 Man and Woman of the Year campaign. This year we have 9 candidates (6 women and 3 men) and are hopeful that they'll be able to continue the great tradition this event has established over the past 14 years. Last year a group of 10 raised $406,000 in Cincinnati - what a remarkable achievement. We're looking forward to see the great efforts this year's group will put forth over the next 10 weeks - our Man and Woman finale is set for May 17. On Saturday was our annual Race to Anyplace spinning cycle event at the the Mason Community Center. We had an enthusiastic group of participants and well over 2,000 miles were pedaled over the course of the 6 hour ride. The coolest part was seeing our neighborhood survivor, Maya Collins, come out and pedal a couple shifts on the hero bike. Maya has been such an inspiration to everyone and seeing her pedal that cycle is an image I've looked forward to for a couple years and one I will never forget. Thanks to all the people who made the Ride to Anyplace such a success - especially committee chair Dave Feck and my dear friend and fellow survivor, Ken Murawski, who helped establish this event in Cincinnati a few years ago. Switching gears a little, last year on the final day of the regular basketball season Ohio State knocked off Michigan State IN East Lansing ON Senior Day to forge a 3 way championship with not only MSU but also Michigan.The Wolverines, who were watching in their putrid piss yellow and maize lounge emerged from the room as if they had just won the national championship...it was the one negative about OSU forcing the tie - it allowed Michigan a championship. Well yesterday IN Ann Arbor, ON Senior Day they Wolverines had a chance to even the score as a Michigan win over the Hoosiers would force a four way tie between Indiana, Ohio State, Michigan State and the state up north. And with under a minute to play it actually looked pretty good; Michigan was up 5 and Indiana was forced to put them on the foul line. Unfortunately, the piss and blue were not up to the task - missing 3 foul shots at the tip in to allow Indiana to escape with regular season championship. Yesterday was the first and only day I will ever root for those guys to win - even thought I think Tom Crean is a pompous, arrogant ass - I'd rather see him win those morons running around in ridiculous uniforms with 'We On' emblazoned across their warm-up jerseys. So I guess that covers the past several days. As always, we certainly do appreciate all your thoughts, prayers and support. I'll be sure to keep everyone updated. We've got a full house right now as Aaron is home for his spring break - this should be his second to last break before graduation in May - I can't believe he will soon be a college graduate! Judd came home last night and it was great to have everone together - thanks to the Bruces for having us all over for dinner! That's all for now, peace and blessings to all!

I had my follow-up meeting with Dr. Leming today and I now have a 'plan' that can shared with everyone. The PET scan from Monday confirmed that the lymph node identified with the CT scan a couple weeks ago is the only area of concern. As I mentioned in an earlier blog, had it not been for the node's proximity to my right kidney, the recommendation would have been to simply watch and wait...unfortunately with it so close to the ureter, we can't do that. The good news is Dr. Leming thinks we can knock it back down with a mix of steroids, rituxin and bendamustine and if all goes well I can get the stent removed within the next 3 to 4 weeks. The plan is to start with a 4 day blast of an oral steroid which I can't recall the name of. I'll start this tomorrow morning. The biggest side effect for the steroids will be a continuous feeling of edginess but that should subside a few days following the last dose. On Monday I'll go in for a rituxin treatment...this will be a long day as the first infusion generally takes 5 to 6 hours; they need to make sure I don't have an allergic reaction since it's been a few years since I was last exposed to this drug. (FYI - I did have reactions the first 2 times I had rituxin so they'll take it slow and be ready with the benadryl at the first sign of any hives or rash.) On Tuesday I'll go in for a much shorter treatment of bendamustine - this should only take an hour or two. The following week we'll repeat the process (without the steroids) and then we'll do a sonogram to make sure everything is working. If it is, we'll stay the course for a couple more weeks and then back off for a few monthly maintenance treatments of rituxin. (We'll also get rid of this stent!) I've been through this process before (minus the stent) and trust me, this is the best possible scenario. The treatments aren't overly harsh and I should be able to do pretty much what I want while being treated. Had I needed to go the cytoxin route it may have been a different story. So at least we now have a plan. I'm a little surprised that we're jumping right in to this tomorrow but obviously the sooner we start, the sooner it will be over. As long as there are no complications this should all be behind me in a few months. It's highly possible the treatments will be over before the renovation of our master bathroom (which began the third week of January) is completed! And with the NCAA basketball tournament just around the corner, there will be plenty of diversions to take my mind off the frequent trips to the chemo parlor. Speaking of the basketball tournament, I'm starting to get excited about Ohio State's prospects. Since their horrible game at Wisconsin a few weeks ago, the Buckeyes have been playing great basketball and with the win over Indiana last night, they have a great chance for a 4th straight Big Ten title. I don't enjoy cheering for Michigan in anything but if it means Ohio State can stake claim to a conference championship, I'll grudgingly do it. Last night we had a fairly heavy snow storm which knocked out our satellite dish for a few hours so I didn't get to watch the game live. The satellite feed came back on about 2 AM and luckily ESPNU was running the game replay so during my frequent trips to the bathroom (again, DAMN STENT) I was able to catch most of the second half. I would have rather been sleeping but I did enjoy watching the Buckeyes ruin IU's Senior Night! Let's hope Illinois doesn't do the same thing to OSU's seniors on Sunday afternoon. Tonight is Xavier's senior night - beating St. Louis will be a tall order. The Muskies have had a rough year but through it all they've stayed together as a team - it would be so nice to see our seniors end their home careers with a win over the first place team in the A-10...perhaps that could build some momentum for the upcoming conference tournament. I've been at Xavier 14 years and I think the Musketeers have only missed making the NCAA 3 times in that stretch - I can tell you it's far more pleasant talking with alums and donors when the basketball team is doing well...obviously the recent basketball conversations have been a tad low key! A win tonight might be a kick start to a nice run at the end of the season! That will do it for now - as always thanks for checking in. It's nice to have a plan in place and my goal is to successfully execute this plan over the next several weeks. Bring on the steroids!! I will keep you posted!!!

I'm pretty sure I mentioned last week that while we were in St. Louis recently we took the family to see The Book of Mormon. The show was great, very funny and nothing - God included - was sacred. One of the funniest parts of the show was when the 2 Elders arrive at their mission destination, Uganda, and meet the villagers for the first time. The village is full of strife, most of them have AIDS, and they teach the missionaries a new song that helps them cope with all their lives' struggles. The song is basically a ripoff of Hakuna Matata from the Lion King titled 'Hasa Diga Eboi'. The only problem is, it doesn't mean 'no worries for the rest of your days' - not at all - it's basically the same as extending your middle finger to the sky and yelling, 'God!'....like I said, nothing is sacred. (Whether Hasa Diga truly means FU or not, for the sake of this blog post we'll just assume that it does!) They were even selling t-shirts with the expression; I joked that I wanted to buy one so people would ask what my t-shirt means. I seriously wouldn't think of actually wearing such a shirt but I am very tempted of having a t-shirt with 'Hasa Diga, cancer' on it because cancer truly does suck. This past week I've been preparing myself for the next chapter in my ongoing battle with cancer. Today I had a PET scan to make sure there are no other hot spots in my abdomen and on Wednesday I have an appointment with Dr. Leming to talk about my options moving forward. While all this is going on, I've been talking with a couple families whose sons have recently been diagnosed with a blood cancer to help council them through the early stages of their battles, last week we lost a neighbor who had battled melanoma, we continue to pray for close friends who are recovering from bone marrow transplants and a day doesn't go by where we're not reminded of what a horrible disease cancer is...Hasa Diga, cancer indeed. The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society recently launched a new campaign...'Someday is Today'. Simply put, it's time to stop talking about curing cancer 'someday' and do all we can to make it happen now....today! I admire the LLS for having the courage and optimism to make such a bold and aggressive statement. LLS has been fighting blood cancers for over 60 years, they've made tremendous strides...now it's time to finish the job. It's been a long climb. And as is the case with any climb, the closer we get to the top, the more difficult the climb becomes. And when you get to the point we're at today there is no time to rest and catch our breath, we need to work that much harder to finish what was started many years ago. It's a tremendous challenge and we owe it to the people who started this battle back in 1949 to put an end to blood cancers once and for. A group of us are planning to go to Scotland in September to ride our bikes on behalf of the LLS. Our goal is to raise $50,000 to aid blood cancer research. We are all committed to achieve this goal. My recent relapse has me even more determined to see this through. Look for information on this ride in the very near future. We could use a few more riders so if you have any interest please let me know. If riding a bike isn't for you, any help you could provide would be greatly appreciated. I truly believe it is our generation's destiny to find these cures. Let's do all we can to make these cures a reality - there could be no better way to say, 'Hasa Diga, cancer!'

And I've been making a lot of water over the past 24 hours. So as I sit hear preparing myself for my next painful trip to the bathroom I thought I'd try to get out an update on the most recent developments in 'Vince vs Lymphoma, Part III'. Perhaps this will take my mind off the constant desire to 'go make water'. Yesterday's procedure to place a stent into my ureter was, by all accounts, a success. Everything looked healthy and the node was not as pressing against the kidney as they thought. Unfortunately the side effects of this procedure include a constant urge to 'make water' with minimal results. In addition what little that does come out is accompanied by excruciatingly painful spasms in the kidney area. I haven't kept count but my guess is I've attempted to make water about 24 times since the procedure, including 5 attempts overnight, which led to a very peaceful night of sleep. I have 3 bottles of meds and I think they're working a little bit but not nearly as much as I'd like at this point. On top of this, a nurse from the hospital called to follow-up on how I'm feeling and informed me that the kidney pain could last until the stent is removed - that can't happen until the node shrinks and I probably won't start any treatments until the week after next...wonderful! What's next? I'm having a PET scan on Monday and a follow-up appointment with Dr. Leming on Wednesday. At that time we'll discuss my options and hopefully get started on shrinking this lymph node. I'd like to thank everyone for your thoughts and prayers...it does mean a lot to me and our family. Sorry I don't respond to everyone but please know that we our overwhelmed by the support we've received. I'll do my best to keep everyone updated on the blog and link it to the Facebook account. So it looks like I'm in for a very low-key weekend. Im hoping to make it to the LLS blood cancer conference tomorrow morning...since it's just 5 minutes away from where we live I should be able to get over there for a while. Who knows, maybe these meds will kick in and make this experience a little less painful. Until then, I'm catching up on missed Family Feud episodes and watched an hysterical show about Sarah Palin called Game Change...I can only hope that most of the material was made up. There is no way she could have been that clueless. Thanks for checking in...I'll try to provide an update over the weekend! I'm off to go 'make water'.....OUUUUUCH!!!