Category: Cancer

Blood

My blood is good. Normal human blood. Nothing weird. Tomorrow I start the new chemo regimen, which is twice the drugs of the last one and I get to wear a pump for 48 hours. Exciting! Guaranteed diarrhea! A multiple day schedule of a cocktail of anti-nausea meds and steroids! BTW, if you want a […]

Hella Monday

It was hella Monday today. Garfield style. I had a bad night. Lots of angst and discomfort and couldn’t sleep and then the nausea kicked in about 4am. I tried to fix it with ginger candy and a late night oatmeal bar but finally had to admit that it was not just a little stress, […]

Tired

Day 31. The most tired. All the way tired. I got to see my parents today which was super fun and hilarious as always. The steri strips finally came off the port sites and the one that got a little squirrelly is only gonna leave a little scar. That upper spot for guiding the catheter […]

From Ellie

Current emotional status, Day 26 since the words “Matt” and “cancer” were joined in a sentence over the phone to me, at work. Me leaning over a metal book-truck and writing “cancer” on a piece of scratch paper with a golf pencil. Imagine one of your most intense fever dreams. Stretch it out for 26 days […]

From Ellie

Good morning! Although Matt slept only four hours last night (he had a three-hour nap yesterday evening), he assures me he wasn’t up all night feeling sick and/or worrying. Instead he says his brain was just like [cue singsong voice], “doop-de-doo!” This is mildly concerning to me, only because his brain is usually like [cue […]

CHEMO

Chemo is weird and scary and it really helps to have a partner that you are open with to keep your head on straight. Ellie keeps me facing forward always. Yesterday was easier than I feared, and it made me a little cocky at some points. Confidence is important but I also have to approach […]

GENES

This morning I start genetic counseling to see how scary this is to my littermates and other relations. I hope to get a call this afternoon after the Tumor Board meets with an idea which of the many complicated treatment routes my team thinks will give me the best path through these dark times. Chemo […]

The Start

A recap of the past two weeks and the current state of my guts as far as we can tell: I went for a colonoscopy two weeks ago thinking that the doctor would see some polyps and maybe tell me I have IBS or something that would explain the digestive issues I was experiencing this […]