Mike Judge vs Ewing's Sarcoma

With 2014 coming to a close I thought it would be a good idea to sum-up 2014 with a blog post as well as provide my thoughts on what 2015 will bring. I'll probably go off topic at points as I'm writing whatever I feel like, but I'll try to keep this not too long. 2014 was a very eventful year for me and I think this year can be broken up into three main parts: Late December/Early January-Late March 2014 were my last three cycles of chemo. Looking back at it now; the hardest part of my treatment. Especially the time from cycles 4b-5b, I just hit a roadblock. I was more tired, my body just wasn't bouncing back as easily as it did before surgery. Then I had the bladder issues, bone pain, and other nasty side effects from my treatment that I just didn't experience in the beginning. It was really demoralizing. And to add to all of the pain from the chemo, my arm was never healed from surgery and pretty painful. The second section of the year would be from April(tre...

Happy holidays! I hope you all are enjoying the holiday season. Family and Friends are what I enjoy the most about this season. In the next day or so I'm going to update this blog to catch you up on what's been going on since my last update. I have a lot that I want to write about so stay tuned. Here's a picture from this morning before Church.

On Monday I had an x-ray and an appointment with my surgeon to check on my arm. Let me first discuss the bad, and then I'll move onto good news. A large focus of the appointment was regarding the pain I've been having in my arm. I was told that this is not normal, and she's now confident that this is attributed to the hardware rubbing in there. She's thinking that I'm going to need injections, but I should wait until I'm doing rehab to get them. This is because I can only receive so many of these injections, and my pain is going to be a lot worse when I'm actually using my arm to its fullest in rehabbing it. I shouldn't waste them now. Taking Advil 1-2 times a day is definitely not where I want to be, and I'm getting to that point now where I don't think the Advil is helping all that much. In the morning it's a constant dull ache. By the afternoon the achiness goes away, but it's still sore when I do even basic things like open a door, dr...

On Thursday I was in Philly for my six month follow-up appointment with my oncologist. I had blood-work, a CT scan of my chest, and then saw my oncologist a few hours afterwards. Good news! I'm still cancer free, and my blood levels are improving. It was a good appointment. I had my questions answered, and now I feel a little bit better about how I'm recovering so far. Let me explain. The first question I had was about the whole sterility thing. (I discussed this in my last blog post if you want to read more about that.) My oncologist at first kind of freaked out because he couldn't remember if I stored or not. I have to say that this issue was not really pushed on to me by Penn before starting chemo. If it wasn't for my mom I may have never stored a sample, and I would be in a very bad spot right now. But as far as my last analysis he told me that this does happen, and it could improve, but like everything else it's going to take time if it ever does come back. H...

It's been three weeks since my last update. Here's how everything has been going since then... First I'll start out with the bad. My second week of school I had my first test. I prepared for it really well. I understood how to do every problem from the homework, and I was ready to receive a really good grade on my first test since returning to school. I received my Physics test, and we were given 45 minutes to take it. I began to read the first problem, and couldn't concentrate at all. About fifteen minutes passed and nothing was on the paper, but my name. At this point I began to panic making it even more difficult to concentrate, and also I began to feel very tired. I honestly felt like laying my head down for a little bit, but I already lost a lot of time. For the last 20 minutes I finally got a little bit of focus, but the damage was already done. I rushed to get whatever I could on the test, but my thoughts were filled with so much negativity that I couldn't ...

This week I returned to school! Here's how this week went... On Sunday I was so excited to go back to school. Not like a college kid's first day of college excited, but like a five year old on Christmas eve excited. Yeah... I was extremely excited, and how could you blame me? My number one goal after my health related goals from the cancer treatment was to return to school. Returning to school is the ultimate indicator to myself that my life is moving forward from the destruction that this past year caused. School brings a little bit more "normalcy" to my life. I made sure I had all of my school supplies and books etc. I double and triple checked it. I checked my registration status and my class schedule online a dozen times; Half of the time in disbelief that I'm actually going back to school, and the other half making sure that everything is ready and I didn't screw up the registration after the confusing leave of absence process. I was obsessed with mak...

Yesterday I had a follow-up appointment for my surgery. I don't have to wear the sling anymore which is great! That thing was getting really annoying, and now I could start using my right arm again. Right now it's really stiff and painful, and I lost a lot of flexibility. She suggested that I just start out slow, and work my way up but don't progress to anything crazy like swimming or shooting hoops for at least six weeks from now. I can drive now, but I have to be really careful because I can't react quickly with my arm at this point. I didn't have an x-ray yesterday because it's way too early to tell if the bone graft is taking. I will go back for my next appointment at the end of November. Then I will have an x-ray, and hopefully it will show that it's finally taking, and I could move onto strength rehab(cross fingers). In summary when the end of November comes around, my arm won't feel any better than it did before my second surgery, but if the bone ...

On Tuesday I had surgery on my arm and hip. The procedure went well and I have no signs of nerve damage. I can move my fingers, and wrist freely. This time I was given a patch before my surgery to help with the nausea and it worked! I was a little bit allergic to the patch(my chest and arms got hot and red. It looked like I was sunburnt), but the pros far outweighed the cons. I only threw-up twice which is a lot less than last time. The surgery went as planned except for the surgery's duration. I was told it would take 1-2 hours, but it ended up taking almost 4 hours! When I woke up from the surgery and noticed that my surgery took a lot longer than expected I was really afraid to hear bad news(remember the mri on my arm didn't prove there was no cancer in my arm; it was clear with the little visibility of the scan, but it didn't show the whole picture). That was the type of news I was fearing, and was largely the reason why I threw-up in the hospital. Then they explained t...

I'm in Philadelphia right now sitting poolside at a hotel. Just a few hours ago I had an x-ray on my arm. The radiologist thought there was a little bit of growth, but my doctor doesn't believe there was any at all. There was a chance that I wouldn't have surgery, but at the last appointment I was told that it would take a miracle for this procedure to not be necessary. Whether there was any growth or not, I need to have this surgery because the longer that this isn't fused the more of a risk I will run for the hardware failing. With school coming up soon, this is the best thing for me to do. The surgery is going to happen tomorrow. The procedure is pretty much a toned down surgery from December. I will have my left hip opened up in which they will scrape my hip for bone cells, open up my arm, and put those bone scrapings in the gaps between the cadaver and my humerus bone fragments. The procedure can take anywhere from a little over an hour to over two hours dependin...

Exactly one year ago my journey began. In early June I had an appointment with my local orthopedic surgeon to get my shoulder/arm checked out. The x-ray that day showed nothing so he scheduled an MRI and a follow up appointment for July 22nd, 2013. I walked into my appointment hoping that I didn't tear my shoulder.... the worst case scenario, or so I thought. That day there was no closure on what was wrong with my arm. There was a mass found in my arm, but he didn't know what it was. He said it was probably a hematoma, but could be a torn tricep, or....cancer. I was absolutely shocked. How could I have cancer? Young, healthy people don't get cancer! I walked out of the appointment hoping for the torn shoulder or hematoma...my old worst case scenario. The world I had known was flipped upside down in a matter of minutes. For the next grueling five weeks I had numerous tests to figure out what was going on in there. Week after week passed, and never would I return home with ...

On Friday I had my three-month post treatment scans. And they were.....clean! The final report isn't available yet, but my oncologist was pretty convinced that they were clean from his examination during the appointment. (I had my chest cat scan a few hours before the appointment so that's why they weren't looked at by the radiologist at that point). My oncologist said that he would call if anything was caught on the scan. It's monday so I think I'm safe now which is why I waited to post anything on my blog until now. This was my first follow up appointment to check for signs of recurrence. It was also my first time at Radnor since my final day of treatment. The last time I was in that building I was exhausted and sick. On Friday I was a completely different person than I was on March 21st. It was great to see my nurses. They were so glad to see me so healthy. It was the healthiest they have ever seen me.  The appointment went well. He answered my questions...

So yesterday I had my appointment with my surgeon to discuss the progress of my arm. I had an MRI, and X-Ray at 8 a.m followed by an appointment  with my surgeon at 10:30. I was a little late to the 10:30 appointment because the MRI took so long though. I don't know why but the test took around 90 minutes. Before my MRI's would take 45-60 minutes. I also had to wait a while for the machine to be open which contributed to being late. By the time I was finished with the MRI, and X-ray it was 11:00. The length of the scan probably had something to do with the different MRI machine I had to use this time. I had to use a special machine because of all of the metal in my arm. The only difference I could tell with the machine was that it felt really hot in the scanner. I was sweating like a fiend in there; I thought I was going to pass out. Here are the results from the tests. The good news is there is no recurrence of the cancer. The bad news is that my humerus isn't fusing wit...

There's not much to report on other than my hair coming in really fast now. Everything else is about the same that I have been mentioning. It's really nice to see my hair coming in the way it is now. The hair is really fuzzy on my head which everyone seems to like except me. Over the weekend we had a yard sale. My cousins, and my brother Joey worked a lemonade stand to raise money for sarcoma research. I was so happy that they did this. Thanks again guys! It was also my cousin Samantha's birthday. She's 8 now! Nice Job! It was really nice weather over the weekend. I have to take extra care to cover up the scar on my arm when in the sun to prevent it from burning, and also my head until my hair grows in more. A sunburnt head is not fun, I had that last year when I cut my hair too short. My arm will burn really fast if I don't protect it. The scar is still red right now. Since I have a pool, and plan on swimming a lot this summer, I bought a swim shirt ( ...

Since my last post, I have seen some improvements in my health. Here's the rundown in where I am now. -Hair. A few days after my update on April 18, my remaining hair fell out(legs, and eyebrows). My whole body was completely bald at that point. About a week after that I began to notice my head getting fuzzy. Within that week most of my body had at least a little bit of stubble. I actually shaved my face twice in the past few weeks. Pretty awesome since I haven't shaved since September. Right now I look a lot more "normal." I was never really embarrassed in losing my hair, but it's definitely nice to have it back. Give me another month or two, and I bet I'll have a full head of hair. -Neuropathy. I'm not sure, but I think its improving. I mainly notice it in the morning upon waking up. At this point it's not really that bad at all. The ridges on my fingernails are still working their way out. While I'm on the topic of nerve related stuff, my up...

On Tuesday I was in New York City for the start of the Miles2Give tour. For those of you that don't know what Miles2Give is. It is a run around the United States to raise funds for sarcoma research. The team consists of four runners, and they will run 10,000 miles in the next 8 months for this great cause! They will run counter-clockwise starting in NYC, and end their tour in NYC sometime in December. The goal of Miles2Give this year is to raise $500,000 for sarcoma research for the Huntsman Cancer Institute in Utah. The research grant will go to a very well respected research team there. The team is making lots of discoveries in Sarcoma which is really exciting. This funding will help push that research further, and hopefully lead to better treatment in the future. Check out this video below. Now that you know a little bit about the Miles2Give event. Here was my experience on Tuesday. On Monday my mom, Aunt Diane, and I traveled to NYC since the event started at 7:30 in the...

At this point since I have finished treatment, and cancer is potentially behind me. I plan on keeping this blog updated with my recovery from treatment. Mainly of my arm(which does have a long way to go), and the general recovery from chemo. My big goal right now is to be ready to go to school in the fall. The question with my arm is whether the cadaver will fuse. If it doesn't, I will have surgery; which will need to be moved up to avoid missing a few weeks of school. I just hope my next tests show a lot of improvement. My last day of treatment was March 21st. Now that I'm about one month free from chemo; here are my thoughts: It's going to take a while to heal. During the last three cycles I often imagined what recovery would be like. At first I thought it would be a lot like it was when I had my break before surgery. In that one month break I recovered pretty well, and felt really well by the end of it. I mean,  I felt so good that I was jogging on the treadmil...

I had a lot of good news today. At my oncology appointment I heard the news I have been waiting for, for so long... my scans are clear , meaning there is no evidence of the cancer in my body right now. My bone scan, and CT scan results were very boring which is good. The reason why I needed more images of my hip on the bone scan was because of my bone graft. It was creating a false red-flag, and so was my arm. Other than those two areas, there was nothing exciting about the bone scan test. The CT scan only showed the same nodule from before. It didn't change in size which means that it doesn't have anything to do with my cancer, and is nothing to worry about. My blood-work was pretty good, but I'm still anemic which explains why I'm still tired. I'm not going to take my daily supplement pills this week(Magnesium, and Potassium), and if my blood results are fine checking for those two supplements I will be done with those pills. That'll be really great because ...

I forgot to add this in my last post, but I get my scan results on Thursday April 10th. I also have an appointment with my surgeon that day. In my last post I explained that I'm not going to read my results when they become available online. They just became available this morning. I'm standing by what I said, and I will not check them. This last week has been really stressful for me, but I've gotten through it. During the day I try to keep as busy as possible. I do anything to keep my mind off of things like play video games, watch TV, computer work etc. Adding on my previous post. What makes post treatment such a scary thing for me is the lack of control that I feel. When I was receiving treatment I monitored side effects, and managed them accordingly. I handled the treatment well, and only got off schedule at the end. Having a lot of delays can impact the effectiveness of the chemo. When it comes down to it, the only control I really had with beating this cancer was j...