Book Award Video

Through school I was nominated for this thing called a Junior Book Award. Because I wasn't going to be able to be at the awards ceremony, the teachers who nominated me came to my house and we made a video that they could show during the ceremony. Here is that video:

Miles Book Award from Lindsey Caplice on Vimeo.

Miles For Miles Pictures

Also:

Last Day Of Treatment!

Today was my last day of radiation, so my last day of treatment. I'm incredibly happy to finally be done with it! Now I just have to focus on recovering and getting back into the swing of things. I will probably keep getting more tired for a few weeks because the radiation stays active in your system for a little while even after you finish treatment, but hopefully I'll start getting more energy soon. Also, due to the residual nature of the radiation and the fact that I was treated with it last year, my body has seen the maximum amount of radiation it can get, so I will never be radiated again (except for small things like x-rays).
So overall I'm pretty excited to finally be done with treatment, it was a pretty long shitty experience and I'm looking forward to a nice easy uneventful recovery. I'm already on that track: I'm pretty tired most of the time and I still don't have a lot of my strength back, but that's about all I can complain about.
I will continue to update the blog, just with updates on how my recovery is going and most likely more pictures, so thanks for reading and don't take me off your bookmarks list yet.

The PICC is Out!

Today I got my PICC line taken out. It had clogged up and the nurses were not able to draw blood from it, and it was really hard to even push fluid through it. The usual clot-busting medicine they use to clear up clogged lines, tPA, didn't work, and I'm almost done with radiation and I wouldn't need the PICC for anything else really, so I got it taken out today. Now for my weekly blood draws I'll just get poked, which isn't much of an issue for me because I have good veins and it's only once a week. And if I ever need transfusions, I can get them through an IV.

Overall, I've been feeling pretty good. Today was my 11th radiation session and I only have 3 more to go, then I'm done! Radiation was every weekday, but the actual treatment is only about 10-15 minutes. Most days I was in and out in about 35 minutes, just due to waiting until they were ready for me, changing into a hospital gown, and the actual treatment. As far as side effects go, I've been taking anti-nausea drugs since the beginning, so nausea hasn't been a problem. I have noticed that I'm getting more tired than usual. I'm overall more tired, and I get exhausted much more easily. Since all this has started I've rediscovered how nice naps are. I have been getting a sore throat which is because I'm getting full brain and spine radiation, and my throat catches some stray radiation. Other than those side effects, I've been doing pretty well. The hardest thing to deal with is the fatigue, and that'll probably continue to get worse for a little while after I finish radiation treatment. But in a few weeks I should start getting my energy back and start getting back into the swing of normal life.

So just to clarify: I have 3 more radiation treatments from this point, my last one will be on the 25th of May. That will mark the end of my treatment, and the only reason I'll have to go to the hospital after that is for check ups. I'm extremely happy that I'm almost done with all this, and I just have one thing to say: It's about time!

Pictures!

I've been home for almost a month now and I'm feeling much better than I did when I left the hospital. I'm slowly getting my strength back. I've stopped using a walker to get around, I just walk regularly now, albeit pretty slowly. Here's a picture of me with my walker from a while ago, note my "skinny chicken legs":

Also, for the past week I've been able to make it up the stairs to get to my room, so I've been sleeping in my own room again (!!!). That's been pretty nice, and it's good exercise to have to go up or down the stairs.

In order to leave the hospital when I did I had to be able to continue taking a certain antibiotic that was only available as an IV fluid. Luckily there are ways to take IV fluids at home. This particular antibiotic came in a pressurized ball so all I had to do was attach it to my PICC line, unclamp it, and wait about an hour and a half for it to finish pushing the fluid into me.

Before

After

It was a very strange thing, but I'm glad it exists, otherwise I would've had to stay in the hospital for a few more days to keep getting the antibiotic.

The only treatment I have left at this point is radiation, which will start on Wednesday. The radiation is outpatient at the Northwestern hospital downtown, which is nice because I don't have to stay in the hospital, but annoying because I have to go downtown everyday for a process that only takes about an hour. I'm going to have radiation every weekday for 2-3 weeks and then I'll be done with treatment and just have to focus on recovery. The radiation should be nowhere near as bad as the chemo, the biggest side effect is that it'll wipe me out and I'll be tired for a few weeks after I'm finished with the actual treatment. I'll keep the blog updated as I go through the actual treatment, and hopefully I can get some pictures of all the equipment.

Just Another Update

Just checking in to let you all know I'm doing much better since leaving the hospital. I've been home almost  3 weeks now and have been enjoying it much more than being in the hospital. I'm still pretty immobile, my legs are really weak, but I have noticed them getting stronger as the time goes on. I have exercises that I have to do that the physical therapists at the hospital gave me to do, and they are definitely playing a big part in me getting my strength back. They also make me quite sore, but that's a good sign.
Now I'm able to walk around my house a little bit and I have only been using my walker when I need to go somewhere outside of the house: like the hospital for a checkup. I'm still incredibly tired, and I get exhausted pretty easily when I walk around, but it gets easier each day, and the independence it affords is nice.
Recently I've been able to return somewhat to normalcy in some regards. Because I can now walk on my own, I can get up and get myself some water or walk to the bathroom by myself. It's not much, but not having to call out and get someone to help me get up and walk to the kitchen or the bathroom is a huge convenience. When I was so dependent on others to get around it was really frustrating because if I tried to do anything by myself, my legs basically just wouldn't work. Now they do work! (somewhat) and it's great!
Another big step for me was that I was able to get up the stairs and go to my own room yesterday. Since coming home I have pretty much stayed in my living room. I sleep on the couch and someone else sleeps on a futon mattress we brought into the room, just in case I need something during the night. I still don't feel comfortable getting up and walking by myself at night. But I did make it upstairs to my room yesterday. I had to go up backwards on my butt up the stairs, and I only stayed a few hours because I still thought sleeping downstairs was a better idea, but being able to see my room and lay in my own bed was awesome. The last time I was in my room was March 5th, so as you can imagine, I missed it.
Medically everything is going really well too. Since leaving the hospital, my blood levels have been good, either rising or staying at the same place. This is a sign that the stem cell transplant was a success and that the stem cells have started producing blood cells again. I did have to have a transfusion of platelets on Wednesday the 14th, but that's the only transfusion I've had since leaving the hospital. Usually, stem cell patients have to receive many more, so I've been lucky in that regard.
The next step of my treatment is going to be radiation. With the last time I was treated, they radiated my full brain and spine, including the area where the more recent tumor was. However, that area did not receive the full dose of radiation that it can handle, because there was no tumor there at that point. So I'm going to get radiation just to the area where the tumor was this time to bump it up closer to the maximum of what it can handle.
I'm not sure exactly when radiation will start, it hasn't all been finalized yet, but it should be within the next few weeks. The process will be pretty much the same as last year: it's going to be downtown at Northwestern, it'll be everyday from Monday to Friday, the actual radiation process will only take about 10-15 minutes a day (somedays longer if they need to take x-rays), and the whole process will probably take about 3-5 weeks. As I know more and as radiation starts, I'll update the blog to let you all know what's going on.
Just so you all know, I will eventually document my hospital stay during the month of March in more detail, so if that seems a little lacking it should be better soon.

To sum up, I'm really happy to be home, and happy to be feeling stronger. The time I was in the hospital for the stem cell transplant was really a pretty bad time, so I'm really glad it worked and I'm out now. I have a few weeks to recover before anymore treatments, so I have some time to just relax. And hopefully radiation will go smoothly and I'll soon be on the road to recovery!

Back Home, Finally

I finally got home on March 30th after being in the hospital since the 5th. Needless to say I'm so happy to be home.
The last week and a half in the hospital was a little crazy. About 4 days after getting my cells back I got a fever and 3 bacterial infections and had to be transfered to the ICU. I don't remember too much about the first few days in the ICU, but apparently my blood pressure was dangerously low and I had fluid build up in my lungs. I had to wear a special pressurized oxygen mask to help me breath for a few days. After a few days I stabilized and just had to stay in the ICU until they had an isolation room ready for me back on the Oncology floor.

There's a lot of stuff to cover about the last month, which I'll do at some point soon in the future, but for now I just want to put up a post to let people know that I'm home, and have been home a little over a week now.
I don't feel great, I'm really tired and I've lost almost all my muscle mass, so I'm really weak. I got a walker and it is huge help, I'm able to make it around semi-independently. I'm doing physical therapy to regain strength in my legs, so soon i should be able to walk unnassisted.
But all in all, I'm doing alright, and I'll update soon about the rest of March.