Happy Star Wars Day!


May the 4th be with you.

So, had the IvIg blood infusion on Thursday. It wasn't as bad as I thought. I had a little bit of a headache but that might have been more from worrying about it. I got my special chair in the blue section # 53. would have been cool to get #52, Ben's hockey jersey #. Totally not what I expected. Didn't look like blood in any way. They started around 10am and I was done by about 2pm. Everything went well as they gradually increased the volume. The nurse's were really happy to use the picc line. I was able to get my dose of meds at the same time as the infusion. Cool.
Have another one scheduled for the 17th of May. I should loose the fanny pack (even though it's bad ass) in less than 3 weeks. I'm sure I will see my internal meds doctor before my next IvIg, to see if all is good on that front.
blog soon,
vic

looks like soda water not blood

fake smile, cause i'm freaked!!!!

   Tomorrow will mark 2 weeks at home with no re-admittance to any major hospital. Hurray!!!!! I went for my usual meeting with my oncologist on Wednesday. This will be the first one since the last 2 hospital visits. It seems that my condition has been the talk around the second floor at PMH. My doctor has entrusted the help of some 6 different doctors to help figure of what to do. That's right, "what are we going to do"?????? Some one my age should not be getting these kind of viruses. This led my doc to check out a certain antibody in my blood. I appears that I have no IgG antibody's (immunoglobulin-G).
     IgG is a natural product made by plasma cells in our body, IgG antibody is a large Y-shaped protein used by the immune system to neutralize foreign objects like viruses and bacteria - hence my problem - I have none. All the doctors have decided to put my chemo on hold indefinitely. My levels in that area seem to be holding well, and focus on a new treatment for the IgG. They can't give me the chemo because it's designed to kill bad cells. It sometimes takes some good ones with it. With me, they can't take that chance without me getting sick. This is what they think is happening when I get admitted to the hospital. On the 19th I will be getting the first IgG blood infusion. Not sure how many I will be getting but I have 2 book already.
    This blood can be made up from 100 different donor's. Mine is made from only 10 donor's with this special antibody taken out and infused into me. This is crazy stuff. Went on a American website and they pay $10k for one adult dose. Thank god for Canadian health care. Like any infusion/transfusion their are side effects. This is where the fun begins; I could have a heart attack or stroke if it's infused to quickly. I could have kidney failure. Those are the worst cases. The better ones are like, headache's, rashes and stiff neck. So not much else to say other than I feel ok. I still have the IV fanny pack tied to my hip. The antibiotics are running havoc on my digestive system.
blog soon
vic

So I was released late Tuesday. I developed 2 different kinds of bacteria over the last little while. They know the kind, but don't know the source or where it could be resting. They assume "resting" cause I will have the bacteria grow, go on antibiotics, and it will be gone. A week after I'm off the antibiotics, it's back.
They are going to treat me with 6 weeks of IV (portable) antibiotics this time..... I'm telling ya, the fanny pack is back baby......Let's hope they finally kill it. They can't narrow down the type of antibiotics because again, they don't know where it is. They are again assuming a worst case scenario, that the bacteria bug is resting on a valve on my heart. That would be bad.
Well see how it goes over the next few weeks. They also found out that I have mild or early development of crohn's disease. It could have started with the chemo and all the drugs, but we're not sure. Something else they get to screw around with. Love being the lab rat. Good time's.....

the luxurious TGH suite

Blog soon,

vic

As singer David Coverdale (of 80’s hair band Whitesnake) once said, “ Here I Go Again”…… just Colleen ain’t rolling around half naked on our Honda Civic, a la Tawny Kitaen on a corvette. Least I don't think so.

Well I’m back in the hospital. On Friday I went for a follow up from my time spent in Markham Hospital. They took blood again and that nasty bacteria that I’ve had before was back again. So they sent me to emerg in Markham to do a couple more tests. Once completed, I was allowed to go home.

I got the call on Saturday afternoon and was asked to go to emerg at Toronto General because it was growing again. Apparently, it grew really fast, and that’s bad. So I’ve been in since trying to get this figured out. Doctors here are awesome. Doing a whole bunch of tests again. I wish I could blog as things happen. I have time in between, but can’t log on to my blog site. The network here blocks it out. Apparently you can surf for all the porn you want but I can’t access my blog. LOL.

Once the news starts coming in I will post it.

Blog soon,

vic

It's been one week now since I had my last dose of meds. I was out of the hospital the Thursday before. I was in for one week for the same thing again. This time they found no blood infection. My white blood cells spiked at 76. The last time it was that high was just before I started chemo. Chemo has been put off till the beginning of April. My doc wants to wait till this craziness ends. Thursday past and nothing happened. I feel ok so far. I really hope nothing happens in the next couple of days. I had appointments everyday last week. Spent more on gas and parking than EI pays...LOL. They took blood on Friday. Got a call on Saturday from a doc saying that the culture has grown but they don't know what kind it is. Asked if I'm feeling ok and if anything changes to go to emerg. So as I mentioned, so far so good.
Hope it stays that way.
blog soon
vic

FUCK!!.........It happened again. All the same. Fever, shakes and sweats. Just got home from the hospital. Spent another week in my favorite hotel. I will fill you in later.