T-minus 13 days

We found out early Monday morning that Roberto's surgery is scheduled for Tuesday, November 12th.  Two weeks seems about the perfect amount of time so that we can prepare and so Roberto can enjoy "normal" life before recovering from surgery takes priority.  There are no major plans for now, but that might change.  Maybe this is the time to do some sky diving? 

We don't have many details about the surgery itself; I guess surgeons like to keep that information close to the vest.  We did confirm that Roberto will have a right side thoracotomy, so no breaking of the sternum.  Yay!  A thoracotomy is a major surgery so he will spend one day in the ICU (intensive care unit) and then spend a total of 3-5 days at the hospital.  The main reason the surgeon elected to do a thoracotomy rather than laparoscopy is to preserve the tumor so the pathologists can study it.  While the needle biospy was useful, it didn't give a complete picture of the tumor. 

Roberto is still suffering from his cold and his temperature has been climbing a teensy bit.  We asked if the cold would be a problem and the nurse said it shouldn't get in the way of surgery.  That's good because I don't think any of us want to delay the surgery unless it was necessary.

So, I'm thinking about putting together some sort of "care package" for Roberto when he's in the hospital.  I have running magazines and his iPad.  That really doesn't seem like enough, but maybe it is?  He probably will be sleeping most of the time.   Roberto has doubts that he can hold a laptop, but maybe there's a table he can use?  Then I can bring him a bunch of dvds.  Eh?  Let me know if you have a good idea. 

The Waiting Game

It's a bit frustrating to wait for the surgeon's office to call, but there's not too much we can do about it right now.  I've used some of the time to prep for pre and post surgery (I would help with the surgery if I could, but I doubt there's much use for a mathematician in the operating room).  Knowing Roberto, I will have to find ways to restrain his enthusiasm for physical activities and overcome his willingness to endure pain.

One new hurdle is that Roberto seems to have a cold.  He has an itchy throat and makes disgusting sounds when "snoring."  The symptoms started manifesting on Saturday so he must have caught it before then.  I'm easily the one at fault since I come in contact with so many different people.  Maybe I can blame it on our trips to the UCD campus?  Undergraduates are notorious for spreading germs, right?

My sister had a birthday recently.  Fun fact: our birthdays are exactly 6 months apart - we are 18 months apart in age, if you're trying to follow along with the math.  Anyway, that means it was my half-birthday (I had to bring the focus back around to me)!  My uncle gave me the newest Batman video game in celebration.  I might not have time to play it to completion any time soon, but Roberto, being the eternal Batman fan, dove right into the game once I brought it home.

We didn't get a chance to do any fun Halloween activities this weekend because of the birthday get together with the family.  Maybe we'll do something for the day of All Hallow's Eve?  There must be something fun we can do with Roberto's bald head.  Also, I've been eying a cupcake recipe that uses a candy brain as a topper.  Yum!

We're Boring!

There's nothing exciting happening here, and that's great!  Actually, it feels as though our lives are finally returning to normal.  We're going to campus to do grad student-y things, I can get Roberto to run errands for me (pick up food, pick up after himself), and we are making plans to do things with friends.  Of course, we only get to enjoy our slice of normalcy for a short, couple of weeks before Roberto's major surgery.  :(

A part of me want to keep enjoying the chemo-free life we have now.  I would rather have my mind occupied with wondering when Roberto's hair will grow back instead of learning about what a thoracotomy is and how one recovers from that procedure.  One thing that keeps me going is Roberto's constant optimism and confidence.  It's nice to sort of lean on him for now.  I know that once the surgery date draws near, I'll have to be the optimistic and confident one. 

Okay, time to get ready for the weekend!

It's Half the Battle

We finally know a little more about the surgery.

Roberto will have the surgery in about two to three weeks from now.  The thoracic surgeon wants Roberto to have as much recovery time from chemotherapy as possible - about six weeks in total. We don't have an exact date right now because the surgery has not actually been scheduled yet.  Don't worry, it'll be scheduled soon!

The type of surgery will be a thoracotomy (rather than a laparoscopic surgery which is minimally invasive).  Just a warning, the Wikipedia page on thoracotomies has a really gross picture.  There are several types of thoracotomies and I'm not completely sure which type Roberto will undergo.  In general, a thoracotomy is an incision in the chest that allows access to the thoracic organs (think heart and lungs).  The surgeon stated that he'll make an incision on Roberto's side which implies, to me, that the surgery will *not* require Roberto's sternum to be cracked.  However, we don't know all the details about the surgery just yet and I could be completely wrong.

Also, I made the terrible mistake of watching a video of a thoracotomy and now I cannot get the images out of my head.  WHY DID I DO THAT.

Here are a few other details we got today.  Roberto will be in the hospital for 3-5 days after the surgery with the first day being in the ICU. Apparently he will be able to walk out of the hospital when he's well enough to go home.  Also, he will have pain from the incision for about six months afterward. 

We're on our way to curing Roberto!

Phase 2: Surgery

We'll be meeting with the thoracic surgeon Wednesday afternoon.  I'm not sure when I'll be able to post about the meeting, so your best bet is to check back on Thursday.

Hopefully, we'll get more information about the type of surgery and a timeline.  I'm thinking that surgery will be easier than chemotherapy; we won't have to learn about 7 or 8 different drugs and their side effects and won't have to rearrange our lives for three months. 

Roberto and I started watching Frasier on Netflix.  It started as an innocent journey of a popular 90's sitcom and slowly became an obsession.  Obsession evolved into reluctant viewing as we are currently struggling to finish the long series (11 SEASONS??).  Just today we watched an episode in which one of the characters needed open heart surgery.  His wife freaked out while waiting during the surgery and smashed a fire extinguisher through a vending machine.  It was a little more hilarious than my description.  Roberto turned to me and told me that I wasn't allowed to do the same when he has his surgery.  One might think that I would be offended at his implication of me being so violent ... but he knows me pretty well. 

On Monday, Roberto had lots of sushi with Adam.  He was so happy that he posted about it on Facebook.  With that wish fulfilled, Roberto has been checking to see if his hair has started growing back.  We were told that his hair would start growing back around 4 weeks after chemothrapy.  While he hasn't lost any more follicles, his hair seems to be taking its time coming back 

Okay, let's hope the surgeon has good things to tell us!

Return of Robo!

Whew, what a weekend!

For the first time in many months, Roberto was able to enjoy life outside of the house.  Sure, we had lots of fun with friends and family visiting us, but after the oncologist gave Roberto his approval for resuming life's more adventurous activities, Roberto dashed out the door.

On Saturday, Roberto, Jim and I went to the Hidden Falls Regional Park in Auburn for a hike on the numerous, scenic trails there.  The fall *is* totally hidden and we didn't see it during this trip (there's only one trail from which you can view the falls).  The park has several easy and moderate trails, and (bonus!) there were a bunch of brand new trails that were developed a couple of months ago.  Roberto was super eager to hike around the trails and kicked my butt!  Okay, we should all keep in mind that I had gone out for a run the day before and my legs were still sore from it.  That's my excuse story.  In total, we hiked an astounding 8.33 miles and still didn't cover all the new trails.  We'll definitely have to go back there some time to explore more.

We followed that activity with laziness: a How I Met Your Mother marathon thanks to Netflix.  Thanks, Netflix!  Amanda stopped by to accompany our viewing of season 8's journey of Ted and friends.  It was a good, relaxing way to end the day.

Wrapping up the weekend was a trip to the shooting range on Sunday!  I didn't go because I'm a little scared to handle a gun and I wanted to not use my legs anymore.  I'm pretty sure my legs were close to falling off my body.  Roberto went with Adam and Tania.  Roberto showed me the targets from the range and claimed that he was the best shot.  Suuuuure.  Also, he wants to hang the target posters in the bedroom.  That's *not* going to happen.  NO WAY.

Anyway, I'm glad Roberto is able to do all those fun things.  It's been such a long time since he's done something other than video games, board games, and watching TV.  Also, we don't know when the surgery will be, and he might not be able to do those things again until the next calendar year.  :(  One thing he is excited to do again is running.  He so desperately wants to run again.  He's planned a soccer date with Adam for this Saturday.  I guess that's a step in the right direction?  Well, at least this way he won't be miles from home if he gets too tired.

Woo-Hoo!

We just got back from the oncologist.  He gave a big OK for Roberto to resume normal life activities!  He can now eat raw foods and go hiking.  :)  Roberto has already scheduled a day for pigging out on sushi.  The oncologist confirmed that the tumor that is in the CT scans are probably the teratoma type of cancer cell.  Now it's time for part 2 of the cancer battle: surgery.

The meeting with the surgeon will be on Wednesday.  Hopefully we'll have more information about the type of surgery and how long it will take for him to recover.  For now, time to (cautiously) par-tay!

CT Scan Comparisons

Here's the story about the CT scans.

June:  First diagnosis
July:  Weekend before chemotherapy
August:  After two cycles of chemotherapy
October:  After four cycles of chemotherapy

The next four pictures are at approximately the same spot in Roberto's body.  You can see the progression and regression of the tumor over the months.  

The next set of images are further down Roberto's body (further from the head).  In this set, you can see his heart.

Post-Chemo CT Scans

Roberto wrangled a CT scan appointment for Tuesday!  I've worked my magic on the images and created movies.  If you want a quick recap of the previous scans, I have links to them on this page.

The first movie has the scan moving from Roberto's head towards his stomach.  Roberto's front is at the stop of the image and his right side is on the left (I'm still not sure why the image is mirrored in this way).

This next video has the scan moving from the front of Roberto's body to his back.

We also have a bonus right-to-left perspective of the scan.  Roberto's chest is on the left side of the image and his back is on the right (you can see his spine).  The right lung appears first and you can see the tumor on the left side of the image as a gray blob.  Then a bunch of squishy organs (like the heart) appear and finally the left lung.

Overall, the tumor is much smaller.  The difference in the tumor's size from August to now (mid-chemo and post-chemo) is not as dramatic to the difference in size from July to August (pre-chemo and mid-chemo).  Still, we're glad to see that the extra two weeks of chemotherapy were worth it.  

Now we wait for Friday when we meet with the oncologist.

Tomorrow I'll post CT scan comparisons!

Happy Bartolome Day!

Ah, you thought I was going to say Columbus Day.  The link goes to a kinda long article, so don't click unless you have some time to burn.

Roberto has received a couple more cards and I finally have a new picture of the card wall.  The certificate of chemotherapy completion is in the upper left.  Also, he recently got another gift card to In and Out!  I've bought some extra tofu for dinners this week in an attempt to counter-balance all the burgers I see in my near future. 

Also, Roberto's special thank yous were ALL returned by the post office for insufficient postage!  That automated teller lied to us - the machine uprising is starting.  So, Roberto will be making a fun visit to the post office tomorrow.

Sunday was the last day of the recovery part of Cycle 4 which makes it Roberto's last official day of chemotherapy!  This is the week we learn how much of the tumor is left and the oncologist's thoughts.  We already know the next step after this week is consulting with a thoracic surgeon, but it's still good to get the last word on the tumor from the oncologist before surgery.  There is a minor setback to this week; the order for Roberto's CT scan was not processed or something equally bureaucratic.  Roberto's other fun errand for tomorrow is to call the hospital to make sure the CT scan is scheduled.  Yay!

Roberto also relinquished the downstairs bathroom and cleaned it so the non-chemo people are no longer relegated to running upstairs to relieve themselves.  Yay for convenience!  

There's not much else to update about Roberto's condition.  He's doing more but still gets pretty tired during the day.  We were planning to go hiking on Sunday, but I had to do some grading and Roberto didn't want to go hiking with our friend without me.  He knows that I'm the only person obligated to carry him if he can't make it back to the car.  It has something to do with "being my fiancee" and "you can't just let me die in the wild."  We'll try again next weekend.


Post-Chemo/Pre-Surgery - Day 1!

(This count may not be maintained.)

It's Friday, Friday, Gotta Get Down on Friday

Roberto's almost at the official end of his chemotherapy.  Each round includes two weeks of recovery after the infusion week; this is why I've kept up the countdown for Cycle 4.  For the past two days, we've actually biked to campus!  It's a short 15 minute bike ride and it's just right for Roberto for now.  That burst of high physical activity is enough to make Roberto fall to sleep right away at night.  We've been having fun taking different paths to and from home.  So far, I don't actually like any of the routes.  I think it's because I'm so clumsy on a bike that I am just uncomfortable biking for more than a minute.

The most significant part of the last two days was that I got to be around people for most of the day!  I think staying at home was great for a while, but it was starting to take its toll.  It was so refreshing to interact with ... people, and to talk about stuff other than cancer, although that definitely did come up.  I mean, it's fine that everyone is asking about how Roberto is doing and what's happening next!  I guess I was getting scared that I would be unable to talk about non-cancer topics since life has basically revolved around cancer for the last three months.  Anyway, it was nice to talk and laugh with my office mates and friends around the department.  I might have been having too much fun; I think the coffee kiosk on campus makes their coffee waaaay strong because I felt super hyped up today. 

Next week, Roberto gets a CT scan, I'll work some computer magic on the images, and we'll talk to the oncologist.  I'm really hoping the tumor is much smaller than what we saw in August, but you never know.  Arg, I'm trying not to speculate too much about what will happen next because my mind tends towards a more optimistic diagnosis such as: no need for surgery; Roberto doesn't need the open-chest surgery; or others. 

Hey, why am I stressing?  It's the weekend.  Time to relax.  :)

Cycle 4 - Day 19

Cleanliness is Divine

Life has been pretty boring since chemotherapy is over now.  One interesting side effect is that Roberto can do things around the house again!  He actually spent the last two days cleaning up around the house.  It almost makes me feel bad for not helping clean because he did such a great job but he was always the neater of the two of us  :)   He also spent the time writing thank you notes.  :D

Unfortunately, he isn't back to 100% because he gets tired easily.  After cleaning a bit around the living room this morning, he was ready for a nap.  However, he was disciplined and resisted the urge to sleep.  The side effects of the chemotherapy drugs along with just sleepless nights during the infusion week have finally worn off and Roberto's adjusted back to a normal sleeping schedule (yay!).  As long as he doesn't take naps during the day, he'll be able to hold on to his normal sleep pattern.  He's still twitching, though, so I might be sleeping on the edge of the bed a bit longer.

Despite not having his normal energy (remember, he ran 50 mile races), he is still planning plenty of activities.  Hiking and the shooting range are on the schedule so far.  I might opt-out of the shooting range.

So, here is something I just don't know how to categorize:  Roberto has lost most of his eyebrow hair.  It was a gradual thinning, of course, and wasn't as dramatic as the head hair loss.  There was just one day when I noticed and since then ... he hasn't looked the same to me.  I know!  I shouldn't be saying such things, but people need eyebrows!  I mentioned this to Roberto.  I know!  I shouldn't have said anything.  He agreed, though, that it looks weird.  On the same note, I get weirded out when I see pictures of him with hair because I'm so used to his bald head.  I know, I complain about him not having enough hair and now I'm complaining that he has too much in pictures!  My brain is having trouble.  

Cycle 4 - Day 17

CT Scans Explained!

Hello and happy Monday!

We had a pretty good weekend.  Saturday consisted of a bit of work in the morning and then lots of video games and watching shows on Netflix.  I managed to pull myself away from the TV just long enough to fulfill Roberto's lasagna request.  We hung out with the lovely Kat and super-duper Rob on Sunday and played some fun board games.  One of the games was based on the TV show Battlestar Galactica, and it was pretty fun!  I was a cylon (bad guy) and totally botched up my role but it was still fun.

I had a few people tell me they have no idea what they are looking at when I post the CT scan movies.  I took a couple of images and put some comments on them so there's a bit more information about what the heck you're looking at.  The images are from the June and July CT scans.  I figure I can do a June/July/August/October comparison later after Roberto get the October scan.

The following images all are taken as the machine moves from Roberto's head towards his feet.  The whitest parts of the image are the bones.  Every thing else is squishy muscles and organs.

Below are images from about the same part of Roberto's body in June and July.  You can see how much the tumor grew in that month and that the bronchial tube shifted a bit.

The next set of images are further down Roberto's body (further from the head) and you can now see his heart!

So, hopefully that helped a bit?  In the June scan, they go all the way to the intestines which looks pretty cool (at least to my nerdy side).

When Roberto gets his next CT scan in about a week, we are really hoping that there isn't much of the tumor left over.  Whatever is left over is probably the teratoma part of his tumor. 

Cycle 4 - Day 15

Burgers

We just got back from Burgers and Brew, and I think my body is in some sort of shock.  Since Adam's been around and cooked dinner, I've been on a mostly vegan diet so the influx of a 1/4 pound of ground beef just feels so foreign in my tummy.  Although, I might be feeling gross simply because I ate 1/4 pound of ground beef.

Roberto had another good day with just hanging out and, of course, dinner with friends at Burgers and Brew.  He didn't have a great night of sleep but he was good and didn't take naps today so he should sleep soundly tonight.

I asked Roberto what activity he would like to do over the weekend and he immediately said, "Hiking!"  Then I had to play the role of the bad guy and tell him that he's not allowed to hike about the hills.  The last thing I need is him realizing the consequences on the body of having no physical activity for three months when we are a mile away from the car.

We got a couple more cards in the mail!   Thanks, again, for all the wonderful cards!  They make Roberto so happy.  The other day, I caught him looking at the wall.  :) 


Cycle 4 - Day 11

Kristin Versus the Bike

The cute noises of plants and zombies are in the background as I write this post.  Roberto is joyfully feeling better and is playing the flora-filled mobile game next to me.  He had another good day of eating normal food and enjoying a movie, games, and friends' company.  I had a pretty good day too except for some technical difficulties with a bike with motor oil-covered handles.  I got absurdly angry about it because the motor oil got all over my hands and made it impossible to hold on to the handles.  I am not that passionate about two-wheeled vehicles.

I found myself explaining Roberto's situation to some new ears today.  The whole process is still so emotionally draining.  I am looking forward to the day when I can recount this story without tears welling up in my eyes.  Or maybe that will never happen.  Maybe I'm an emotionally charged woman who can't hide her feelings.  I *did* get angry at that bicycle today.

Now that Roberto is feeling better, we might be able to go out and do something fun before he has surgery.  I'm sure he'll want to get out of the house.  The problem is finding an appropriate activity.  Movies?  Geocaching?  Laser tag? 

Anyway, now is probably a good time to reach out to Roberto now that he's feeling better and off of chemo!  Although, you might be distracting him from playing Halo or eating a hamburger.

Also, I might switch to MWF updates, but that means I have to post something for tomorrow.  So, this probably means I'll keep posting every day anyway.  *sigh*  What's wrong with me??


Cycle 4 - Day 10

Leaving the Chemo Behind

Finally!  We took a little drive to In and Out today. You know what that means - Roberto's feeling better!  He ate lightly for breakfast and lunch but wanted to go all out for dinner.  He said that he couldn't resist any longer after watching Bob's Burgers last night.  Enough about Roberto's eating (or lack of eating) habits.

Some other highlights:  Roberto wore the wolf shirt, he washed and gassed up his cars, we got two peppers from our plants and there's a lone tomato growing, and we played Ghost Stories and were quickly defeated.  There was still some trouble sleeping last night.  I think one of the anti-nausea medicines was causing him to twitch a whole bunch.  :( 

Now that we're out of chemotherapy and Roberto is almost back to normal, I will update the blog less frequently now.  How does Tuesday and Thursday sound?  Oh, I'll have to write a post for tomorrow!  Hmmm....


Cycle 4 - Day 9