4th Bone Marrow Biopsy Done! Hickman removed!

Lots of updates for you today!
Last week, my Hickman catheter site was bleeding a bit.  After a trip to the cancer clinic at Rush in Chicago, my doctor determined it needed to come out.  Don't worry, the culture sample they took from the wound came out negative, so it was most likely just inflamed and irritated.  That makes sense, I clean it and have to change the dressing at least once a week, sometimes more if the dressing starts to come off.
So, this Tuesday, my catheter was removed and now I have a big bandage over the hole (yes, there is a hole in my chest where the tube came out) and some stiches where they opened me up to cut out the catheter.  Its a bit sore, but its a great thing to not need this tube anymore!!  I was awake for the entire procedure.  The surgeon gave me a few shots of local anesthesia, and that burned a bit.  They cleaned the area, and he made an incision about an inch above the exit site.  Then, he removed the catheter from the vein and cut away the tissue that was growing/healing/attached to the tube, cut the tube out, and removed the remaining part from the hole in my chest.  Then, he sewed me up, applied some glue, and bandaged me up.  I have to keep the bandage on for one week, then I can take it off and just put a regular Band-Aid on until the hole heals properly.  Amazing!  I'm a bit sore, but its awesome!
Yesterday, however, was my monthly check up at the clinic.  Since I have completed the recommended course of chemotherapy, I had my 4th bone marrow biopsy yesterday.  I see doc again in 1 1/2 weeks to discuss the results, and hopefully start maintenance therapy.  I felt a bit woozy after the biopsy, but I think I will write about that in another post, I am sure there are people that want to know a bit more what happens (from the patients view) with a bone marrow biopsy.  Regardless, I was a bit sore when the local wore off, and my brain was a bit fuzzy, they did numb me up pretty good.  So, my parents took me home yesterday, got me some fried chicken and I slept most of the night.
I am so excited, praying I can soon resume my normal life, if I remember what normal was 9 months ago, when this all started.  I am anxious, but also worried.  I was prescribed physical therapy for my hip pain yesterday, so today I have to call around and get an appointment for an evaluation from a physical therapist in my area.  The hip pain has been around since my second to last chemo cycle, around August.  Its only one hip, and I can't tell if its a nerve, muscle, or joint pain.  Its very odd.  It doesn't hurt to walk, though, and that's about the extent of exercise I am currently allowed.  Under no circumstances am I to go jogging or do anything like aerobics or Zumba (oh I love zumba) until I see the physical therapist.  My doctors nurse told me yesterday that even though my numbers look good, I have been neutropenic on and off since February.  I have been restricted in exercise and mostly sleeping and tired this entire time, so my body will take time to recover and it will be a process.  I am not looking forward to this, but I am looking forward to healing even more.

Have a great day,
L

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

This book was my university's book of the year.  They have held seminars/discussions all year about this book, and I didn't attend a single one.  Since I have been sick, however, I have had more time on my hands.  This book has been on my nightstand here at the hospital this week, and most of the doctors and nursing staff have asked me about it or have read it themselves.  Its very good, and I highly recommend this for anyone that needs a push about their cancer treatment.  Knowing where and why and putting a person to why medicine has advanced (to give us the best chance of survival and cure) really makes me feel emotional, to say the least.  Thank you Henrietta, even though you didn't know and had no choice--- You have changed my life, for sure!

Here is the book description on Amazon.com:

Her name was Henrietta Lacks, but scientists know her as HeLa. She was a poor Southern tobacco farmer who worked the same land as her slave ancestors, yet her cells—taken without her knowledge—became one of the most important tools in medicine. The first “immortal” human cells grown in culture, they are still alive today, though she has been dead for more than sixty years. If you could pile all HeLa cells ever grown onto a scale, they’d weigh more than 50 million metric tons—as much as a hundred Empire State Buildings. HeLa cells were vital for developing the polio vaccine; uncovered secrets of cancer, viruses, and the atom bomb’s effects; helped lead to important advances like in vitro fertilization, cloning, and gene mapping; and have been bought and sold by the billions.

Yet Henrietta Lacks remains virtually unknown, buried in an unmarked grave.

Now Rebecca Skloot takes us on an extraordinary journey, from the “colored” ward of Johns Hopkins Hospital in the 1950s to stark white laboratories with freezers full of HeLa cells; from Henrietta’s small, dying hometown of Clover, Virginia—a land of wooden slave quarters, faith healings, and voodoo—to East Baltimore today, where her children and grandchildren live and struggle with the legacy of her cells.

Henrietta’s family did not learn of her “immortality” until more than twenty years after her death, when scientists investigating HeLa began using her husband and children in research without informed consent. And though the cells had launched a multimillion-dollar industry that sells human biological materials, her family never saw any of the profits. As Rebecca Skloot so brilliantly shows, the story of the Lacks family—past and present—is inextricably connected to the dark history of experimentation on African Americans, the birth of bioethics, and the legal battles over whether we control the stuff we are made of.

Over the decade it took to uncover this story, Rebecca became enmeshed in the lives of the Lacks family—especially Henrietta’s daughter Deborah, who was devastated to learn about her mother’s cells. She was consumed with questions: Had scientists cloned her mother? Did it hurt her when researchers infected her cells with viruses and shot them into space? What happened to her sister, Elsie, who died in a mental institution at the age of fifteen? And if her mother was so important to medicine, why couldn’t her children afford health insurance?

Intimate in feeling, astonishing in scope, and impossible to put down, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks captures the beauty and drama of scientific discovery, as well as its human consequences.

Keeping Positive with Cancer

After 5 weeks in the hospital, I finally was able to go home.  One month later, I have returned for one week (5 days) of chemotherapy inpatient.  After this intial week, I will be continuing with chemo 5 days /week for 10 weeks.  It will be tough.  It feels like it will last forever, and I just want this over with...but I know I need to stay positive.

Keeping a positive attitude is of the utmost importance in my mind.  I know that when I try to stay positive, my family and friends say I sound better and look better when they visit or we talk on the phone.  When you put it out there that you are in this to get better...you feel better...and I think your body starts to improve.  Sure, chemo is not exactly my idea of fun.  You don't really feel it, it doesn't hurt, but your body reacts to it...with time.  During my first round of chemo, (induction), I would get an upset stomach in the middle of the night that would last until 10 am.  Even with anti nausea medicine, it was hard to control.  Of course, everyone is different.  I hated the side effects, and I am not looking forward to 10 weeks of side effects.  I am, however, looking forward to getting better.
Cancer will not get the best of me...I will get better and get better as quick as possible.