Saba Beats Cancer

The previous two MTX I was pretty nauseous day 2 and 3.  Had a little nausea yesterday but woke up starving this morning.  Rare in the hospital.  Had a waffle and some eggs. But they are doing it different this time with a diuretic. I don't think I had one the last time and believe me and old fart taking diuretic mean a lot of peeing.  So maybe the stuff is flowing better this time.  I did 3 miles yesterday along with the sumo band and spaced it out so I walked three different times. Still not planning on getting out til Tuesday but I will just take the fact that I feel really good today.  My blood work was a little down yesterday but finally creeping back up. So just killing time in the hospital today and tomorrow.  But will be really glad if that was the worst of MTX as I go through the final two times.

I guess you do settle into a groove. It seemed that things were so much more hectic before that I had now  time to breathe and catch up. Now it seems like things are moving very slowly. A snails pace which is not overly bad. At least I get some time at home. And I am working at home. The blood cells are still down so I don't want to pick up an infection at work and have a set back. Not really worth it since I can do everything by phone and email. The nurse yesterday did dash my hopes for early release saying they just do the six chemos no matter what. Seems a little counter intuitive to MD Anderson's claim that every treatment is customized but since.  But when Cancer, like Apollo Creed says - "Ain't gonna be no rematch" - I will take the Rocky approach - "Don't want one". So we are half way there. Two months in and getting some of the other fun side affects like tinnuitis (everything sounds really harsh), a little neurpathy (tingling in the fi...

Apparently Lee and I have a reputation for knowing how to celebrate.  We got a lot of texts and calls about how we should celebrate all this great news! Most involved drinking emogis. My boss even sent an amazing bottle of champagne. And we certainly had a lot to celebrate with the news about remission. However -I am still in the middle of chemo and certainly don't feel up to it.  Staying alcohol free and mostly sugar free until all this crap is out of my system. Alcohol can still affect all the millions of chemical interactions with the chemo and I can tell you I see a beer or glass of wine or people drinking a single malt on a movie and it looks so tempting.  But my taste buds are way off and I have heard that some people no longer like the taste of things the used to like. Too big a risk. So the celebrations wait until we are done with chemo. If it is 6 sessions, that means we complete in  June with this stuff out of my system in July. And that bottle of cha...

The food here is not good at all. So yesterday I used Uber Eats from my room for the first time to get Chinese delivered and it was magical compared to the normal dinners here.  Had plenty of left-overs for tonight and we do have a patient fridge so all is much better.  Got my fortune below Doing little things well is a step towards doing big things better Interesting - I guess getting the chemo done s the little thing towards being cured. Reached out another double hit guy who is on chemo 5 and he just went into remission. He is on the board of the Lymphoma Research Foundation and says docs probably will not shorten treatment if at all.  Double hit is so bad that if it comes back, it is tough to beat a second time. So they want to make sure it is really gone. Oh well - this is still the halfway point if it is full treatment and I will be done in June, recovered in July. When I walk every day, there are not many places I can go - so I walk the halls and there a...

On top of the great news on Friday, we also got the news that my blood count was too low for chemo.  So we got some Zarxio and go inject the stomach all weekend and try again on Monday. I must admit that after the great news and feeling pretty good that a weekend off of no hospital was exactly what I wanted. So we stay at home and give it another go on Monday - will be the 6 days in the hospital for chemo #3!  I think we need to push for no more mid-course methotrexate since there are no brain issues and it keeps pushing back the standard chemo. I did look up what it means to go in remission early - and I am sure my 15 minutes of googling will be invaluable to my doctor who is an expert in his field, has med school and 15 years experience - but it does say that chemo usually goes 2 sessions past remission to make sure you clean up the cells. So I am hoping for a shorter sentence.  But at this point I don't care. Also, interesting that a high school classmate who i...

Not even kidding.  Below are the scans. The one on the left is me riddled with cancer in February -the one on the right is  me today in comp lete remission. This doesn't mean I am cured - it just means that after two cycles of treatment we saw " a diminution of the seriousness or intensity of disease or pain; a temporary recovery."   So now we go for the cure. Note - there is nothing going on in the brain (joke intended), nothing going on in the spine and nothing going on in the lymph nodes.  Yes, we have no cancer.  Even the doc was a little surprised at how well my body responded to the treatment.  For all those who worked so hard to keep my spirits up - it worked. To the prayer warriors around the country who kept lifting us up in your prayers - it worked.  Team Saba has a huge victory today and we thank you all.  We are still going in for Chemo #3 but it got delayed since my body has not fully recovered from all the other crap t...