Riding for Roses

My Dad is full of hot hair. He is shaving his head to help kids with cancer. I am shaving my head to help kids with cancer. He thinks he can raise more money than I can. I am cuter than he is. I have cancer. Donate money to fight pediatric cancer and put the [...]

I mentioned before that I am balding for charity and how easily I was convinced to shave my head to help raise money for CureSearch via St. Baldrick’s. I haven’t spent a whole lot of effort on it, but last week Spencer challenged me. He wants to shave his head and raise money as well. [...]

We are in Jordan. We are having an excellent trip.

I was reminded by my sister Tracy that I haven’t posted in a while and that my (seven at last count) loyal readers tend to begin to think things must be going wrong. Fear not, things are indeed going wrong. It is probably best to summarize and highlight the important bits. I should probably start [...]

Spencer’s immune system continues to be non-existent. His energy is good and lips continue to be fairly red (which indicates hemoglobin is not too low, when it gets low his lips start to get white). Next checkup at the oncologist is Thursday with Dr. Shaffer (Dr. Sharp is out). All that’s in the plan is CBC though it’s possible he’ll need red cells.

Today we had another oncologist visit. The expectation was Spencer would need Neulasta to help with low white counts and platelets to help make sure his blood will clot. The day did not go as planned.

As expected, Spencer needed red cells today. We go back to the oncologist on Wednesday for Neulasta and probably a unit of platelets. He made it through the busy Tour de France viewing event and fundraising apparently without infection or virus. The frequent handwashing and cleaning with Purell possibly helped.

Every once in a while, I like to tell the story from the beginning. It helps me figure out what the highlights are. It gives me a chance to cry and as I have said before, that release is empowering. It also gives me a chance to tell the story to new visitors to this blog. I expect some new people these days with the Tour Watch 2005 event in full swing and my brother says they will be discussing this blog on WGN Radio tonight. Plus, with all the illegal fireworks popping off in my neighborhood, I am not really ready to sleep now anyway.

This is the third day of the third time we’ve had chemotherapy at home. The process is simple, but disturbing. Friday, we went in to the oncologist and Spencer had a procedure, chemotherapy, and they left a needle in his chest hooking his port to a tube we can use for IV access. I get [...]

Spencer’s counts looked good on Tuesday, so we anticipated going forward with chemotherapy today. We did that, though as it turns out his official counts are a little below the checkpoint requirement. Today the fun begins. Here is how today played out.