Yesterday I was home from work because I was feeling nasty and in the afternoon I didn't take my normal amount of Tylenol. Shortly after the old batch ran out I started to get a fever. By the time we got a thermometer in my mouth (it was out of batteries) my temp was 102.3. We called the nurse care line and explained the temp, and the pains and the nurse said that her computer screen was telling her to "Call 911" and get an ambulance out to us to get me to the ER. I talked her down from that and told her that my wife was driving me to the ER right now.

On the way to the ER I was like, "Ok, what do you want to bet they do to me. I bet an IV and chest x-rays."

We got to the ER and there was no one there and they ushered us right into a room. I didn't have much of a fever when they checked it but my heart rate was going pretty strong and they didn't like that. So they pulled me into a room and gave me an IV with some fluids. While that was going the doctor came in and we talked about current issues, past medical issues, etc. Then she ordered some chest x-rays.

Good news, the chest x-rays came back 100% clean (so nothing like pneumonia, or any pesky cancer stuff), they also took blood and my white blood cell count is "normal" for the first time in 2 years at least. 8000ish. Wooo! She concluded it was a virus of some kind and recommended I keep up with the Tylenol for pain and stay home 24 hours after my fever went away.

So I am chilling at home again today. Thanks for all the prayers and support last night via twitter and Facebook.

~B.

Labels: medical

Today was interesting. I planned to spend almost the whole day dealing with issues related to setting up the new wireless bridge at work. That however didn't pan out like I had planned. After unhooking the old system and then running back and fourth twice between the buildings to switch over to the new system everything... well, worked! I had planned HOURS of post work, but in 30 minutes all issues had been fixed. That freed up my day... kind of. I was kept plenty busy with misc things here and there.

This afternoon I had my August oncology "followup" meeting. (I guess it would be the 6 month checkup.) He looked at the CT scan and my blood work and said that he can't see anything on the CT scan and looking at my blood work he said that it could take years for my blood work to get back to "normal" as what they did to me was "pretty extreme".

Next appointment with the doc is at the end of January! So praise the Lord for His blessings and faithfulness through healing. Thank you all for your prayers so much!

~B.

Labels: medical

I wanted to say "Thank You" to everyone who has prayed for Lisa and I this past year and has helped us through these tough times. As the news of being cancer free at the moment hit I was pleased to receive all the congratulations and warm wishes. Some of you that have conveyed this wishes in person have commented that I don't seem as "excited" as maybe I should be. While I am very, very glad to hear my current state you all must realize that just because I got good news doesn't mean that I am suddenly well again and have the energy I need. (To run around being excited all day long, or even to work a full day for that matter.)

I want you all to know that I really appreciate your enthusiasm because I feel like you all are doing for me what I wish I had the energy to do. My thanks my enthusiastic friends!

I also wanted to say thank you because, quite honestly, I don't know what else to say. I could go on about all the great things you all have done to help, but honestly I can't be more sincere than thank you. Prayers for us, thank you! Food brought to us, thank you!

My strength is coming back slowly but surely (I worked 8 hours today) and I hope my rising energy level will help me to be able to continue to serve the Lord in news ways. You all will have to simply be content with the energy my fingers can provide as I type out my thoughts here on the blog!

Thanks for the continued support. I'm not completely clear from all this yet, but that won't stop us from thanking and praising God for what He has done in and through us so far!

~B.

Labels: medical, praise, prayer request

If this last year has taught me anything (and let me tell you, it has) it would be that when a strange pain happens in my body (IE: My back hurts! I don't remember lifting anything...) that I should pay attention to it and shell out the 20 bucks to go see a paid medical professional who can look me over and say something like, "Hmmm, that's strange, lets run some tests... yep it's _____________ (insert life changing medical stuff here)" That scenario is always better than say something like this: "Hey, my back hurts for some strange reason... oh now I'm dead."

This is my public safety announcement. If you have medical insurance and have a strange pain, follow up on it. It might be God's subtle way of trying to tell you something.

Speaking of pains, I went to the doctor this morning about my face pain and the doc poked, prodded, asked me lots of questions and looked over scans from the past couple months and came to the conclusion that she didn't know what was wrong with me. While it feels like a sinus pain I don't have any other symptoms of a sinus infection. She also didn't see any symptoms of allergies. One thing she suggested was that sometimes chemo can cause nerve damage. (Which could explain the pain) She didn't know much about that, so I think I'll follow up with my oncologist and see what he has to say about that.

I am feeling better this evening, thank you for your prayers. I am hoping to be able to sleep through the night tonight!

~B.

Labels: medical

Thank you all for your outpouring of love and support as I dealt with the earlier parts of this week and the outcome to my scan from Monday. I have to admit it's been kind of strange these past few days knowing for the moment that I am cancer free. It's been just about a year now since I was told the opposite news (and all but handed a brochure on coffins) and I've been laboring away this past year to remedy the situation. Now here I am with the news that I (we) had been praying for.

Of course I still am just as weak as I was before the news, hearing the information didn't suddenly give me the strength I had lost, so it's kind of sinking in slowly. I am very thankful for everyone's excitement around me though. I can't think of better news honestly.

This last year I prayed very strongly for healing, and I continue to pray for it, so being as God has answered some of my prayer I think it only appropriate to spend this year fervently thanking Him as well. (Of course we should ALWAYS thank God for everything, but while 25 was the year of Cancer, and praying for healing, 26 is going to be themed the year of Thanks.)

Thank you all, please continue to pray for my continued healing, but please also remember to thank Him for what he has done.

~B.

Labels: medical, praise

To a cancer free life!? Our appointment today was amazing. We checked in at 4pm, and we were into and had seen the doctor and were out again at 4:30. Pretty impressive.

The other thing that was pretty impressive was the scan. The doctor couldn't see anything out of the ordinary. Everything looked just fine to him. The word "remission" was tossed about as well. (I even LOOKED at the scans myself this time... pretty cool)

My blood counts are still low, but the doctor said it can take 6 months to a year for those to come back to normal after what I have been through and he's not worried about that.

I guess I am still in a bit of shock. I pretty much was trying NOT to expect the worst, but I was. I got the complete opposite of the worst news, I got the best news.

My prayer before I went in was that if the news was good I wouldn't slip into mediocrity in my life, and if the news was bad that I wouldn't let it effect my attitude. Well, the news was good, so it looks like I have a more difficult task ahead of me.

My next appointment is in August and I won't require another scan until October. Great news all around.

Thank you all for your support, prayers, letters, notes and thoughts. Praise God for His blessings. Thank you all. Praise the Lord.

~B.

Labels: medical, praise

Just a short note to say that my meeting is at 4:20pm this afternoon. I would appreciate any prayers that you would offer up for me. My guess is that the appointment probably will be close to 5 (Oh boy, the Oncology waiting room for an extra 40 minutes) but I'll updating the blog as soon as I am home.

Thanks.

~B.

Labels: medical, prayer request

Drink horrible contrast, get stuck with needle, and get body flooded with radioactive dye... Check.
Results of scan... Pending.

Thank you all for your prayers and support this morning. I had my scan at 10:30 and it went really well. The guy who did the IV had been doing it for 30 years and he did it WELL. Thus far the numbers look like this: Eastside Radiology 0, Central Radiology 2. In the past I have just felt abused coming out of those Eastside CT scans. (Which is probably why I fear and dread them as much as I do)The Central group does SUCH a better job it's not even funny. (Compare: Hour and a half to put in an IV after 3 attempts and lots of pain OR under 2 minutes and nothing worse than a blood draw prick.)

Appointment on Wednesday with the oncologist. We'll see if this craziness gets to start over again or if I'm free and clear until July for another follow up visit.

~B.

Labels: medical, prayer request

I wasn't feeling well this morning and so I staid at home today. No church, no baseball game, no baseball stadium treats. I did however get some marvelous lay-down time here at home. Listened to a sermon from last week, caught up on Stargate SG1, and my father came over and helped figure out some electrical issues here at the condo.

The picture is the "Still life leftovers" of the fruit salad we had with dinner tonight.

Lisa has been keeping herself busy lately with some "deep cleaning" around the house. She came up with an interesting idea as well. Kind of a "work trade". She invited a couple friends over and they help her clean for a bit, and then she has scheduled times with them to go over and help them clean stuff. She, and her friends, have liked it so far because they can chat while they do the cleaning and learn a little bit about each other's cleaning secrets. It takes the boring out of cleaning from the sound of it. I'm pretty proud of her for her innovation and drive to clean.

Tomorrow morning I have my CT scan. Which means no eating starting in about an hour. I've been tired all day. I could use continued prayer for my weight as well. I weighed myself this morning and I have effectively lost weight. (Not good) Thank you for the continued prayers!

~B.

Labels: food, medical

Well, I hope you enjoyed the last two days worth of blogs. It's not easy or handy on time to do that new quantum blogging. I'll recap though for those of you that don't have a QB reader.

Last night (Friday) Lisa went out to a birthday party with a friend so to avoid sitting at home by myself all evening long I called up a friend and he came and rescued me. (Only 1 car in our household) We played some (collectible) card games, then some video games, talked tech, and generally did other things that make us certifiable geeks. It was a good time. (And I wasn't at home by myself)

This evening Lisa and I went with a few other people to a pub in down town Seattle for some "pub grub" and fun chatting it up with some friends we haven't seen in a while. Once again a good time was had and again, I was not home by myself. (Being as I can have a fairly decent time at home by myself, we (Lisa and I) have determined that that is a fairly good measure of how an evening fared. If I find myself wishing I was at home (by myself or otherwise) it's probably a good sign that the evening needs to wrap up. However "It was better than being at home" is a good way of also saying, "That was a nice evening! I enjoyed myself and my loaner tendencies didn't feel like exerting themselves!")

While I am not exactly a social butterfly I have worked on becoming more of one since I got married and now do such things as throwing parties ('Tween, etc) and planning other events where people get together and hang out.

Tomorrow will find us sitting in Safeco field for a couple of hours watching the Mariners (probably) sweep the Angels. AND (thank the Lord!) it looks like it will most likely be cloudy, which means that the mid-day game will not burn me to a crisp! It will be a double adventure as well because we are going to try taking the bus and being "Metro Natural".

Healing has continued slowly. Shingles, or what remains of the little buggers, buzz occasionally. (Maybe once every day or two) Thank you for the prayers of healing for that. I think it is going along nicely. Praise the Lord.

Physical rough time on Monday morning coming up, could use prayer for that. Then a mentally rough time on Wednesday evening. I could also use prayer for that.

~B.

Labels: medical

It's Wednesday. Well, I guess it's almost Thursday at this rate. I've been enjoying a leisurely night here at home with Lisa.

Funny how some things have changed since chemo. Case in point: sinuses. Before I got sick I never really had to worry about such things as sinus pressure aside from a mild headache here and there. Now I get these tooth pounding, face pummeling, shoulder squeezing pains that last at least a day. I am kind of hoping that as my body heals up and I get stronger those will go away.

Looks like Lisa and I are going to a Mariner's game on Sunday! Don't know where we're sitting, or what the weather will be like, but we'll be there to watch the Mariners (hopefully) win over the Angels. (No reason to go and break my streak though with games, so even if they loose a good time will hopefully be had by all. (That's the point right?))

The coming home half way through the day is only partially working for me. The goal was to come home and take naps. Between phones ringing and my interest in "side projects" (or even normal work projects actually), I haven't been able to nap. (Or when I start to think about it it's time to go get Lisa.) I need to work harder on getting a nap when I get home and not putting it off. It'll make the next day a LOT easier.

I'm going to bed now. Thanks for the continued support. CT scan and Dr's visit next week. Please pray for strength for me for both events as I am already kind of starting to be more than a little anxious about it.

~B.

Labels: medical

Yesterday I picked Lisa up from work and when we got home she promptly flopped down on the couch. I took this as a sign that maybe now was not the time to ask what was going to be for dinner.

She spent some after work time on the couch while I surfed the internet trying to figure out what I could possibly throw together from the "standard misc." that was available to me in our house.

Ultimately, I went rouge. Armed with an idea and nothing more I grated, shredded, mixed, and I layered my way into a kind of strange piece that I hoped would come out after 20ish minutes in the oven. After a few minutes out of the oven I grabbed a spoon and ladled some of my work onto a plate and tried it. I rolled it around my mouth and was VERY thankful it actually turned out. (After 45 minutes of waiting for dinner the following sentence was not one I was ready to utter; "So, what kind of Pizza do you want to order?")

While it was lacking some of the spicinesses I was trying to imbue in it, it did come out rather tasty. I will not share the recipe here with you however as I really have no idea how much of anything I put in it, and it wasn't exactly the type of dish that would be kind to someone who was looking to trim a few pounds here or there. (Should I make it again I will pay more attention to what I am doing and try to compile that down into something you can make at home on your own.)

Lisa enjoyed it, the bird sampled some and found that he liked it as well, so I think we have a winner and I am a touch more confident that I can put together something "on the fly" out of left-overs and things we have sitting around. It is nice to have the energy and strength to do cooking like this again. I missed that a lot when I was in treatment.

Speaking of which I am getting stronger every day, again. I've decided to try working half days so that I don't wear myself out completely at this point. It allows me to get some work done, build up a little strength and spend some time recovering. Dr.'s appointments next week. I am not looking forward to them at all, but honestly, it's part of what God has for me. If it's back to treatments for me, then so be it, if not, praise the Lord and I'll keep getting stronger and praying that it is all gone. I look forward in some ways to seeing how my life is going to go after next Wednesday. Thanks all for the continual support!

~B.

Labels: food, medical

I'm not really sure how I felt about this weekend. I took Friday off to rest and heal up, and on Saturday I was feeling pretty good. Tired and worn out definitely, but I was able to do a few things. Sunday I just felt nasty most of the day. It started to go away towards the end of the day, but then the weekend was over.

Mornings have been excessively rough on me since cancer treatments started. I don't know why that is either. Mornings used to be a great time of the day and I could get up without too many problems. Now if I don't feel slightly ill in the mornings I feel worn out.

I am sure this has something to do with my body working to heal itself. I assume that that type of thing doesn't happen overnight either. (Well, my body IS healing overnight, it's just going to happen all at once.)

Maybe I should try to start some form of exercise. Might help me feel not so nasty in the mornings. Maybe a nice long sunset walk along the street would be nice.

Thanks again for all the support.

~B.

Labels: medical

"Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord."
-Romans 8:37-39 (NKJV)

I have been reminded these past couple of days from a few "random" sources that God loves me and has my refinement in mind for me through all that I have been going through. I read through Romans 8 tonight and was reminded of so many of God's promises to us in trials and tribulation. I would encourage you to read it over, it is a worthwhile thing to do.

I think these messages are coming at an appropriate time as my meeting with the Oncologist gets closer and I have to really honestly face what is going on inside my body. I think God is trying to remind me of the things I read tonight in Romans 8. No matter what the outcome nothing (cancer) can separate me from God's love. It has been hard, it will be hard, but God has something for me. I hope I'm paying enough attention to Him to know what it is.

Thanks for the support these past couple of weeks. Today was a good day of rest and I am looking forward to a further weekend of rest as well. Maybe I can get back to work soon.

~B.

Labels: medical

I left work after a couple hours today because I was feeling dizzy. In hindsight I probably SHOULDN'T have driven home, but I made it safely and without incident. have been lying down for the past couple hours but the dizziness is still with me. I could use some prayer and wisdom for this.

I'm going back to bed.

~B.

Labels: medical

Today the shingles pain had dialed up another notch so I only put in a few hours at Taproot this morning. I came home and started the process of making "Pasta Salad". (Which as my mother pointed out isn't anything "special" per se, it's more of a "lets put X and X that we have in the fridge into the salad!") I've been craving something like this for a while and honestly I don't think I've eaten as much food as I did tonight in a long time.

The thing I like about Pasta Salad is that it contains all sorts of things, they all taste pretty good together, and it is WONDERFULLY colorful. My version, this time around, contains: Pasta (duh), Italian dressing, mozzarella cheese, feta cheese, tomatoes, cucumber, red onion, pepperoni, garlic, olives, and corn. Combined that with some "Italian Seasoning", garlic powder, touch of salt and pepper and a bit more olive oil. The great thing about this salad is the longer it sits the better it tastes. I have no problem having this for lunches (Breakfasts?) for the next couple of days, in fact I am looking forward to it. (And you carb haters out there will probably freak out when I say that I will probably have a nice slice of bread to go with that as well.)

This of course is not the first time I happen to have spent a little extra time making up this delightful salad.

The next couple days my boss at NSB is going to be gone so I will be "minding the fortress" while he is away. NSB people have a strange way of coming up with strange problems that suddenly and miraculously fix themselves. Thus I am not overly worried about having too many things on my plate while he is gone. (Have fun in Oklahoma Erik...)

Picked up a book on Python programming this afternoon as well. Reminds me of the first time I opened up a programming book with the intent of teaching myself a thing or two. QBasic for Beginners. Yep. Good times... gosh that must have been more than 15 years ago now. I've tried QBasic, C++, Visual Basic, Perl, and now Python. I am hoping that Python will stick and my desire to use it will be such that I actually DO use it. I would go back to trying QBasic, but that has no application in anything other than DOS 6.x... and even then probably not THAT much application.

Thank you all for your continued prayers on my behalf. These shingles aren't making life any easier at the moment, but these too shall pass right?

Night...

~B.

Labels: food, medical, technical

Here we are in April. I with held posting yesterday because I couldn't think of anything suitably "April 1ish" to post. We are approaching a year since all this cancer stuff started. It's a little intimidating.

Shingles continue to heal up, however this morning it really feels like I have been hit by a car. Don't think I'll last very long at work today. See if I can't take my work home with me.

Don't feel like I have much more to report right now honestly. I appreciate all the prayers and support you all have given me this past year. I look forward to another year with you all.

~B.

Labels: medical

I had ever intention last night when I went to bed of getting up this morning and going to work. (I had a sneaking suspicion that Taproot had need of me) This morning, however, proved to be harder than I thought it would be. I woke UP feeling fatigued. Tell me that's not supposed to happen. I knew when Lisa's alarm went off and I had this kind of tied feeling in my chest that this morning was NOT a morning in which I was going to make it to work.

I've effectively been worn out all day. This does not mean though that this hasn't been a productive day. I was able to sort through all the email I had accumulated from being gone for 2 weeks at TTC, fixed some phone issues there, and seriously considered what else needed doing at the 'root.

Tomorrow will be car-less for me, but I have every intention, again, of attempting to go into work. Hopefully I can grab the up-swing of feeling good and start feeling stronger again and do some of those jobs that I enjoy so much.

Nancy, my mother-in-law, made an interesting comment last night that I hadn't really thought about before. She asked if I felt like I have been recovering from a hard flu. Well, the answer is yes, I do feel like that, however if got me to thinking. It's effectively almost the same thing. My body is fighting of a virus, weather that is the chicken-pox virus or any other kind of virus my body has allocated resources to beat the bad bugs back. No wonder I've been feeling tired. Just because I haven't felt SICK doesn't mean my body hasn't been fighting. I have a little better grasp now if why I felt so horrible.

The shingles themselves now are starting to look on the old side. I thought they looked nasty at the peak of the pain. Nope. Anyway, that was probably approaching TMI for a lot of you. (Maybe even myself honestly)

I spent a good part of today reading up on various programming things. First it was Javascript, then I had an interest in PHP, but realized that I needed a bit more programming chops before I tackled that, so I dusted off a book on Perl I have and started reading that. Maybe this time instead of saying I am going to learn to program and then finding anything BUT that to do, I will actually learn something and further my career and actually be able to start some of the projects I have in mind to get started.

Thank you all for the continued prayers for healing. My appointment with the doctor is coming up and I am not overly excited about it. Thank you all!

~B.

Labels: medical

The redness has gone down a bit on the shingles. I was just telling Lisa that my skin feels like it has been burned and the muscles under it feel like they've been pulled. I was up out of bed today before 11am, and while I retired to bed for a bit today, I didn't actually nap. I am hoping to get to bed soon (making for a somewhat short day...) to make up for the lack of napping today.

Lisa made it home about 9:30 last night. We staid up talking about what I had missed on the rest of the trip until late at night and then we both went to bed. It's good to have her back. Unfortunately I feel like I could do with more vacation, and also unfortunately it is going to be the kind that I have gotten used to these past few months. The "sit around the house and heal" type. Guess my body isn't ready for the "go out and see people" type as of yet.

I am looking forward to forthcoming warm weather though. That was something I very much enjoyed in California. (Having lost as much weight as I have and having such a problem getting it back makes getting and keeping myself warm more difficult than it used to be, so any additional help I can get from those rays of sunshine I will take at this point. (We can cap it at lower than 85 though... no need to be excessive...)

Lisa and I still have the free trip from the timeshare presentation we went to so assuming my health is well we're going to try to go down to Cali for a few days in something like September or October. Maybe wrap up some of the trip we missed this time around. (Minus hours of driving)

Sounds like Lisa got back to work just in time as things were boiling over without her. (Seems to be that would be a sign to hire someone else, but hey, I just fix the computers...) They were all very happy to see her back early today.

I guess my "job" for this week will be to put together some sort of video collection of some of the pictures we took on the trip so you all can see them. (If you want to)

As always, thank you for the continued prayers and support. I'll sitting on my inbox if you feel like writing me any emails...

~B.

Labels: medical, travel

The pain pills I sucked down on Saturday night seemed to have taken the edge off of the pain and itching I was going through (making me feel crazy). I haven't taken any pain meds since noon on Sunday. Of course I spent a lot of the day yesterday in bed and today as well. I think I finally rolled out of bed around 1, made myself lunch and watched the extended edition of Fellowship of the Ring. Then it was back to bed for some more lay-down time.

There hasn't been much pain the past day and a half or so as I mentioned above, but it sure has drained a lot of energy from me. Didn't think I'd be spending so much "quality" time in bed this week. (Or anytime soon actually)

Lisa and her dad should be hitting Sacramento sometime soon and they are going to have dinner with all the family up there. I am sad to miss them all, but obviously I don't have control over things like this. Tomorrow they are going to make the Sacramento to Seattle run in one day. Should take them somewhere in the neighborhood of 12 hours.

Thank you for all the prayers for healing for me. I really appreciate it. Yesterday when my grandmother was over she took to calling me "Job" I appreciate the sentiment, but there is a LOT of stuff Job went through that I REALLY do not want to go through. For this fact I am glad God promises to never give us more than we can bear... makes me kind of impressed He's trusted me with so much thus far. I wonder what He wants me to do with it?

Pray for a safe trip for Lisa tomorrow!

~B.

Labels: medical

I made it home last night safe and sound. Did I mention that I got to fly first class? Not as nice as first class on the bigger airlines, or trans-ocean flights, but it was nice to have lots of leg room and be fed a fairly decent meal. (Airplanes? Decent food!?)

Went right to the ER after getting off the flight (my folks picked me up and drove me) and they prescribed some pain meds. I took them last night a couple times and they helped me to sleep a lot better than I have been. Also getting back to the Seattle area helped as well. It's raining here, and some of the allergies I had in the LA area have wrapped up. (I can breathe again)

The pain is really worse than it was after my surgery. Possibly the "shingle" most painful thing I have ever experienced. (haha)

I'll be staying with my folks until Lisa gets back sometime on Tuesday. (Her dad is flying down and they are driving up together) She is spending Easter with her cousins like we had originally planned.

I have to admit that I am pretty frustrated by how this has modified the plans we had made to see friends and family, but there is really nothing I can or could do about it. Same with cancer, there is really nothing I could do about it so I have to take it and see what God has for me. Please continue to pray for my healing and that I will be able to see God's plan in all this. (But hey, I get to see my family for Easter...)

He is RISEN!

~B.

Labels: medical