Some Basic Info

I was first diagnosed with malignant brain tumors on 11-20-08 and I finished treatment for those on 4-13-09. I was recently diagnosed with a recurrence on 12-08-09. I set up this blog so people could follow along with my progress and keep up with what is going on in my treatment. I also wanted to put up information from my first go round so people could learn a little bit about what happened to me before.
The blog is set up with the newest posts first. Sometimes I will post stories from my first experience, in which casse it will be slightly out of order, but the titles will let you know. If you want to look at older posts, which may provide a better idea of the whole picture, use the "Blog Archive" tool on the right side of the page to browse them. The titles of the posts should be pretty self-explanatory. If you don't really know that much about me, or what happened, you should check out these two posts first: this one about what's happening now, and this one about my first experience.
Feel free to leave comments, it should be open to everyone now. Thanks for visiting, I hope this little blurb clears up some confusion, and I hope you like the blog.

Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Stem Cell Rescue (Pictures!)

I started the stem cell rescue portion of my treatment on Friday the 5 of March. This marked day minus 10 in my stem cell rescue. Currently it is day minus 5 and I have finished the first five days of chemo, which were pills called temozolomide.

That's one dose: I had to take 7 pills twice a day.

Today I start two other chemos: carboplatin, which I have had before, and thiothepa, which I have not had before. These chemos will be done by day minus 3, and day minus 2 and 1 are days of no medication and being moved into isolation.
Isolation is just a single patient room with special air filtration to keep out all chances of infection. Then on day 0 they give me back the stem cells that they had harvested previously to help jumpstart my recovery process. After that, I just have to wait for my blood levels to get to an acceptable level to be able to go home.
So far days minus 10-6 have been alright, hopefully the rest goes smoothly as well.




P.S. Sorry for the lack of links and pictures, these most recent posts have been from my phone, so it's much harder to do that kind of stuff. I do plan on posting a whole bunch of pictures as soon as I can though. (You can forget that last part now.)
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4 comments:

Gillian said...

Hi Miles- so glad to see your words again. You are in our thoughts and prayers every day. You are strong. Keep sending your body the healing message as the mind/body connection is powerful stuff. You have a special spot in my heart. I'll never forget our Cubs game in the rain, and how you stood up to catch every single pitch for over two hours, convinced that a home run was headed your way. Love, Gillian

March 10, 2010 at 8:36 PM
Anonymous said...

Hi Miles I am friends (and neighbors) with your Aunt Margaret. I played the piano to you trombone solo once at her house. Amazing Grace I think. Anyway I sure wish I could help, maybe I will drop food off for you Dad. He needs to eat decently to keep up his own strength. Sending healing thoughts your way! Get well soon. - Roberta Fox

March 13, 2010 at 4:08 PM
Aunt Margaret said...

Hang in there Miles!!! I need YOU to get well so we can watch the rest of "I, Claudius" together, since your pa jumped the gun on us! We'll show him... Your adoring family is all rooting for you. Stay strong!

March 15, 2010 at 8:10 PM
Further From The Truth said...

Yo Miles. There really is no excuse for the lack of links and pics. I'll consider accepting your apology, but I can't guarantee that I will. Either way, the whole thing about how "it's much harder to do that kind of stuff" on a phone is really stretching the truth. I mean, what kind of phone do you have? I could post pics and links from my phone. And my phone is a landline. So really, dude, come clean and just take full blame for this egregious omission of links and pics. No ifs, ands or buts. Alright. I said my peace. Feel better.

March 16, 2010 at 1:40 PM

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