I hope my stupid title was as funny as I thought it was in my head. Tumor -> Former? There’s so many layers! If you don’t think it’s funny, too bad, you have to because I’m the one with the cancer.
It was a rough morning today. Woke up at 5am with cold sweats and feeling super nauseous. I jumped out of bed to throw up in the garbage can and kind of just collapsed on the floor. I laid there for a few minutes breathing really heavily and sweating buckets. I really should have called the nurse the moment I started feeling badly because I had no way of contacting them from the floor. I had to pull myself back into bed and kept pressing the call nurse button while in the fetal position. Finally they came and gave me a bottle of water and a cold towel to put on my forehead. I needed to completely change my clothes because they were soaked in sweat.
I never really went back to sleep after that because they started checking my vitals and drawing more blood for tests. I feel like I need to start eating stuff that helps blood production because at this pace, I’m going to be running out soon.
Jason, my manager at BIW, ran a marathon last weekend. He told me that he changed his first name to Andrew so that when he runs, the crowd would yell “GO ANDREW YOU CAN FINISH THIS!!!”. The intention was he would be reminded of me and get motivated to keep going since I’m running a different marathon of my own.
Dad’s biopsy this morning was slightly delayed but it went very well with no complications. Thanks to everyone who was praying for him during the procedure. He’ll find out the results later this week. The only issue he’s having right now is that his butt hurts.
The urologist came early in the morning to talk about my fertility issues. Based on the lab tests and his knowledge of my type of cancer, my body stopped producing sperm a few weeks ago. If he moved forward with the biopsy and stuck the needle in my junk, he expects that he wouldn’t find anything. If my reproductive system does not get damaged from chemo therapy, I should expect it back up and running between 1-2 years after treatment. However, 1/3 of men that go through chemo become completely sterile. Also, if it comes back online, we run the risk of birth defects.
They scheduled my chemo to start later this afternoon but the lab asked that I provide another “sample” before chemo began just to double check there really is nothing there. At the risk of providing too much information, I spent over 2 hours trying to provide the sample and failed. I was really hoping this would be my 2nd chance but with my body having the fever yesterday and feeling fatigued from battling the tumor, I just had nothing left to give. I also didn’t have the best “material” to work with either…Andrew Zimmern and food porn don’t exactly cut it in this situation.
I told my sister that this is just going to have to be one of those miracle things that you put up to God as you have no control over the outcome. I’m definitely disappointed I wasn’t able to do sperm banking as an insurance policy but my own health needs to be my focus.
The scan results came in from last night and they were very surprising. In the last week and a half, Derek has grown from 3.42 inches x 5.47in x 4.29in to 3.819 in x 6.26 in x 4.48in.
They also had my updated scan images
Before -6/4
3.42 inches x 5.47in x 4.29in
After – 6/19
3.819 in x 6.26 in x 4.48in
In this top down CT scan view, the tumor has grown so much that it’s greatly reducing my ability to use my right lung. I’m getting tired just from talking to the point where I have to take breaks in between sentences when I talk to people.
I was also able to see the results of my PET scan from Friday, remember the one that I had to become radioactive to do? The black parts inside of the tumor show necrotic or dead tissue which shows that the thing is growing very rapidly and dying in the middle to make a chewy nougaty center.
Since I was admitted to the hospital they needed to monitor my liquid input and output to make sure that I’m properly being hydrated. Since I’m considered a “fall risk” they wanted me to call the nurse to tell them every time I had to pee just to give them a heads up. There’s a measuring cup hanging on the inside of the toilet bowl that I have to pee into. The nurse will come in and record the measurements. I felt like it was a hassle to bug the nurse every time I needed to go so they said I could just write it up on the whiteboard.
I call this my leaderboard even though I’m the only one playing right now.
I started feeling feverish right before we got started. They measured me at 102.38f temp which is probably the tumor fever spiking up again. I asked if I could take a shower just to freshen myself up. They thought it was a good idea and gave me a fancy garbage bag sleeve to cover my IV and wrapped tape on both ends.
After being here for two days, I felt like I had a rind on me. The shower was so comfortable, it made me feel almost normal again but I had to finish up quickly because they were waiting for me to get started.
Ashley, the nurse, tried flushing my IV line that was put in yesterday with saline. She couldn’t even get 1ml in without it hurting my arm. She called in a couple of older nurses who pulled out the old IV saying that my body probably tried healing around it. They were so quick in putting in the new one on the top side of my arm.
The were 2 parts to today’s chemo therapy session. The first part is all the preliminary fluids:
Amend -anti nausea
Zofran – anti nausea
Dexamethazone – steroid
It took about an hour to get through all of those.
Next they moved onto the Bleomycin and Etopside chemo meds. I asked why Aren needed to wear all the stuff while he connects the chemo meds to my IV. He said that chemo meds will burn your skin upon direct contact, which is totally good to know because they’re about to put it in my body. /sarcasm
I didn’t feel anything with the Bleomycin but the Etopside made my mouth taste metallic. Water is now starting to taste funny like muddy and sour. I might ask Joanna to make me some water infusions with mint, crushed berries, sliced citrus fruit, or something just to freshen it up.
I’m glad that I got ginger snap cookies from my co workers and Joanna’s friends Jon and Kathryn bought me a bag of Werthers hard candies as stuff to munch and snack on while I do my chemo session.
The whole thing started at 7:30pm, it’s 11:30pm and I’m about 3/4 of the way done. I’ll be doing these sessions for the next 4 days and I’ll be discharged to go home on Monday morning.
It’s expected that I’m going to lose a lot of weight while doing chemo. The nutritionist came by this morning saying that I can eat whatever I want as much as I want. ESPECIALLY Soylent. The recommended daily caloric intake should be around 2500 calories which I found hard to follow even when I was healthy and working out.
The picture on the left was taken in March when I was at the peak of working out (145lbs) . The picture on the right is today, the first day I start my chemo therapy (134 lbs). I think I’ll take a picture at the beginning of each chemo cycle just to compare how tough my body gets beaten up by this.
I’ll be getting dem gainz back in no time
You can see the rib bruising on the right side of this picture
Andrew, you are a warrior! I admire that you’re taking the time to document this journey of trial. I feel like you are and will continue to be a testimony. I have been and will continue to pray for you! It also helps to read these updates to know what to specifically pray for!
P.S. I grew up going to church with Landon and Aaron. Mrs. Beth shared your blog after I answered her request of prayer for you!!