Neupogen

This week has been great. We had our last chemo injection on Monday with minimal side effects. The rest of the week we get Neupogen shots-a shot in his arm that boosts his white blood cell count to keep him healthy. The cells are created in your bone marrow-which can prove painful when they're producing cells at such a quick rate. Your main bones-sternum, thigh bones, hips-get very achy. One woman described that she felt like she was a hundred years old because her bones hurt so badly. So far we have been lucky and he hasn't felt that bad-his chest hurts a bit. We are really looking forward to next week because it is relief week-his body will have a chance to bounce back. The nurse said that he'd feel perfectly normal by the last two days of relief week-before they started pounding him again:) Two days sounds good to me though! He is doing really well, the fatigue is probably the worst past of chemo so far. I wouldn't think that being tired could be so annoying-but he rests and sleeps and has no relief-he just feels tired consistently. Anyway, next week will be fun-we'll go out and celebrate. It is my birthday so I'll try and get him all to myself one day:) And because I have no pictures for this week-here is Lucy's first somersault:

While We Wait

Sample Infusion

As you can tell, Danny got the new iPhone 3G and is enjoying the video capabilities. We got it so he could record some of his chemo infusions-and just for the fun of it. You'll see more videos coming your way soon.

Day 8

One Week Down

(Part of a letter from Danny to our families-I thought it worked for the blog too. One day I'll get him to blog directly!)

One week down! (just some thoughts)

I can't believe it has been only a week since the eve before first
chemo. What a week it has been. Honestly, it didn't hit me until
this week that I actually had cancer. Doctors can tell you, and you
can sweat at night and be fatigued, and you can even see a bump
extrude from your neck, but until I felt that medicine trying to kill
me that first day, did I realize, "oh, I guess this is for real
then." Those were a rough couple of days for sure. But, the last few
have been so much better! The Lord seems to teach in many different
ways and methods, and using the human body as one of his methods is
becoming a very interesting lesson so far. It certainly increases
that yearning for the day when our bodies will be whole and perfect
and the awe at the feat.

I feel really blessed that I didn't have to take Procarbazine this
week. I am glad that we were able to gauge how sensitive my body is
to the drugs, so that I will be much better prepared to handle the
extra chemo drug next cycle. I am very grateful for the progress
medicine has made on anti-nausea! I don't think I could of handled it
with inferior drugs. They and the chemo drugs certainly wipe me out.
It's better than feeling nauseous all the time, but it just wipes me
and my appetite goes away and I don't want to drink much. Mom and
Christy have done such an awesome job of keeping me eating though!!
They are such champs!

These last two days though, have been a completely different story.
My Chemo drugs are seeming to leave my body and I have more energy and
more appetite! It's great. Last night Christy made her famous
homemade macaroni and cheese and I made some roasted beets and
carrots. I didn't know about the divine combination of homemade
macaroni and cheese and beets until Karen showed me. Now, I don't
think I can eat macaroni with out them. And, fresh roasted beets!!
Oh, man. It's delicious. The carrots were good too.

I also took a bunch of our apples from the tree out back and pre made
an apple pie (added blackberries to it too to sweeten it up because of
our more sour apples) and it is in the fridge ready to be cooked
today. I'm excited to taste an apple/blackberry pie. I've heard of
the combo but never tried it.

I am reading Neal A. Maxwell's book, "We Will Prove Them Herewith".
It is one of the best church books I have ever read. It really is
absolutely golden. Every paragraph is filled with pure inspiration
and told like only Elder Maxwell can. I got the book from Dad's
shelves of church books. It's one of those thin old hard backs that he
bought at the BYU Bookstore forever ago. It is definitely worth
getting if you can find it.

Love. Danny.


(At the pier in Martinez for a Sunday walk)
PS. Pie was VERY good!

An Interesting Side Effect

Danny has already experienced some of the gross side effects of chemotherapy, but the one that has surprised me the most is the hiccups. These aren't just ordinary hiccups, they're earth-shaking, ab-working, freakishly loud hiccups. He started getting them Day 2 and they were impossible to get rid of! He had them on and off all day. The night was the worst. The whole bed would shake and they were SO LOUD! I eventually couldn't take it anymore and slept on the couch. Danny told our nurses how annoying they were the next day and I expected them to give some suggestions for how to get rid of them; drinking water while standing on your head, holding your breath and swallowing three times, etc. Instead they whipped out a prescription! Who knew there was a prescription drug to get rid of the hiccups?! Crazy. (It works too:)

Beginning of Chemo!

We have officially started chemotherapy! Okay-let me start on Friday. Friday Danny had a Pulmonary scan to check his lungs because one of the chemo drugs can seriously effect your lung capabilities. That evening we had our first meeting with our oncologist since we were diagnosed. We learned that the bone marrow biopsy came back negative-so no cancer in his bones. He has been diagnosed at a Stage 2 B which has very high cure rates-so good news. Then our oncologist explained why we are getting the chemo treatment we are getting, which is called BEACOPP. It is an escalated chemo treatment that isn't very common in the USA yet, but with Danny's symptoms (night sweats, weight loss-they determine the "B" in his diagnosis) it is perfect. It has a 10-15% higher cure rate. It isn't common around here because it is expensive and harder on the body, but for a young guy like Danny-the benefits (%cure rate) beat out the disadvantanges. The possible long term side effects are infertility, heart problems and leukemia-the latter being the worst possible outcome. I'm feeling pretty bumbed about the possibility of infertility but I'm glad we're using this treatment-we'd rather only do this once and not have to fight the cancer again later. One Monday we started Day 1.

Our treatment center is really nice-it isn't a hospital and doesn't feel like one. They stuck what looked like a large tack into Danny's port and gave him his IV drugs through there. He got three chemo drugs and a premed cocktail (a steriod and anti-nausea medicine). We were there about four hours and then got to head home. Danny felt pretty awful the rest of the day. Nausea and fatigue are the biggest symptoms so far-but he was popping anti-nausea medicine like it was candy last night and nothing seemed to helped. We talked to the nurses over the phone and fortunately today they pulled out the big guns in anti-nausea medicine and he is dong a lot better. Our appointment today was only about two hours and tomorrow will be about them same. Then we get to enjoy several days of only oral chemo meds. While it has been rather miserable so far, we're feeling really glad that we're killing the cancer-Danny keeps imagining his cancer cells screaming in agony as he gets his treatments. Every once in awhile Danny will start making sound effects to some great battle with grenades exploding, guns blazing-we know that while the chemo isn't fun-it is doing its job. The cancer should be gone in the next two cycles, and greatly reduced by the end of this month-then we're just keeping it away for the next cycles until hopefully it can never return. He is much better today and we hope that is how things will stay. Hooray for modern medicine!
Day 1

Day 2