Mike Judge vs Ewing's Sarcoma

Tomorrow I start my eighth and final cycle. Here is how the last two cycles went... Cycle six went much better than cycle five. The Zantac helped with the bloating which in turn helped with the nausea. I'm taking 150mg twice a day. I take one pill with breakfast and one before bed. I also switched to Marinol for nausea, and that worked better than Ativan which I took during cycle five. Ativan seemed to just knock me out, and not do a lot for nausea. Marinol makes me sleepy, but also reduces the nausea substantially. Another new thing I did was eat an apple everyday. They helped my bowels move which helped with the bloating. Overall, it was an event free cycle. I threw up less than cycle five, maybe twice all week. My mom was here with me for the week because cycle five didn't go that well. But, as I mentioned above, cycle six went great compared to the previous one. Everyday when we waited for the valet to bring the car to the front, we agreed that I would be able to drive my...

Cycle five was basically a treatment reboot. New drug administration, new environment, and new side effects. Here's how it all went... The big difference this cycle was that I had my treatment done through IV rather than orally. This change required me to have my treatment at VCU. I expected it to be cramped at the infusion center since the waiting room is always crowded, but there was a lot of space back there. The nurses were really nice and great about getting my chemo started quickly. Things seemed to move quicker than when I was at Penn which was awesome. We arrived at 7:30 and left at around 12:30. The support services were great too. They had service dogs on two of the days, and a preacher on two days. I appreciated seeing the dogs. They really took my mind off of what was going on for a little while, and put a smile on my face. The treatment itself was both better and worse than before. The big reason I switched was because of anticipatory nausea. I was getting so sick ...

I start cycle five tomorrow, so here's how cycle four went... In short, cycle four went horribly. Lots of vomiting. Lots of stress. This might have been my worst cycle of chemo ever. It was bad right from day one. When I took the medicine I used the lidocaine mouthwash first, and then took the chemo with cola. The mouthwash worked great with the pills, but didn't do much with the horrible taste of the Irinotecan. The cola did just as well of a job as the cranberry juice, which is to say not well at all. I got it all down, and then went to bed. A few hours later I woke up and immediately rushed to the bathroom to throw up. I barely made it, but at least I didn't throw up all over the back of my door like I did last cycle when I was home in Pennsylvania. I wasn't even close to making it that time. I went back to bed afterwards, and about an hour later it happened again. And again, and again, and again. I lost count, but I threw up like eight times that night. I felt lik...

I forgot to post this a few days ago. Right now I'm in cycle four and an update on that will be soon. Since my last update I have finished my third cycle of treatment, and also had a CT scan. The results of the CT scan were good. There was no evidence of disease. I was nervous with this one especially since my last nodule showed up on the scan following my last surgery. The odds of that happening were probably much less than last year because I'm actively fighting it with treatment. As for the chemo I'm still struggling with taking it. I threw up more times this cycle than the last, but luckily still didn't throw up the chemo. I did much better with the nausea throughout the day, but the nausea at treatment time was just as bad if not worse than cycle two. For nausea I would definitely recommend taking Marinol because it worked much better for me than Zofran/Compazine. The only negative is that it made me tired. It will be a challenge taking it while I work, but I...

I'll be starting cycle three this Wednesday, so here's an update on how cycle two went. This last cycle was definitely worse than the first, and the big difference was the level of nausea I experienced. I had a really tough time with it. I threw up three times this cycle. I'm mostly struggling with anticipatory nausea, but the nausea I experienced throughout the day was a bit worse than last time too. For those of you unaware what anticipatory nausea is, it is basically what you would think it would be. It's nausea caused by psychological conditioning. For example, back when I took chemo five years ago I hated taking the drug, Mesna (which is a drug prescribed to guard against bladder damage from chemotherapy). It would give me a horrible taste and smell sensation. After taking it a few times I eventually became nauseous just thinking about taking it, and it would get even worse as I was about to take it. I have struggled with this way more with my current regimen. T...

Since my last post I have completed my first cycle of chemotherapy. Getting started was a hassle as there were delays with insurance and the pharmacy at VCU. Irinotecan is typically an IV drug, and VCU has never offered an oral solution. To my knowledge the Cleveland Clinic has been one of the only hospitals to offer an oral solution, and that's to help out patients traveling from all over for the Vigil trial. There were multiple calls made from VCU to the Cleveland Clinic, and eventually everyone was on the same page. Luckily it all worked out and I got started on October 10th which was only two days later than I wanted. I pick up my Irinotecan at VCU, and I pick up the Temozolomide at CVS through their specialty pharmacy. Being on the oral chemo will be much less disruptive than if I were to go through IV. Every cycle I will have bloodwork to make sure I can start chemo. The Temozolomide is simple to pickup since the CVS is within a mile of my house. I pick up the Irinotecan at...

Two weeks ago I traveled to Cleveland for my lung surgery. The surgery went well as expected. I was the first surgery of the day. My mom and I arrived at the hospital at 6 a.m, and I was knocked out by 7 a.m. The surgery took about an hour. The surgeon removed a wedge measuring 6.2x2.2x1.1 cm which was smaller than last year, but the nodule itself was larger measuring 0.9x0.5x0.3 cm. The surgeon was surprised by the minimal amount of scar tissue from last year's surgery. The margins were clean as well. Unsurprisingly, the nodule was Ewing's. This is officially my second recurrence. I had some nausea coming out of the surgery, and I did throw up once, but other than that I did pretty well in the hospital afterwards. I was discharged the following day. The six hour drive home from the hospital wasn't fun, but we got home after a few breaks. As for the trial, I did not make enough vaccine to get to the random selection phase, so I'm out. I made 3 vials, so the nodul...