Holly is much better now. Thank you very much for the kind thoughts and messages that everyone sent. Unfortunately, our daughter has a cold and I do to. This seems to be the cold that everyone in North America has. It isn't fun. In the meantime, Happy whatever it is that you celebrate (Christmas, Kwanzaa, End of a Calendar Year (sales people), etc.) I'll be in and out over the next few days. Enjoy the holidays.

...Not that much fun anymore. I came home last night to Holly having a lot of nausea, cramping & constipation. This is the exact opposite of the side effects that she has had to date. The thing that is really frustrating about chemotherapy is that, at least in our case, just as Holly is getting used to one of the side effects, it throws another one at us. The scary part about constipation after colon surgery is that you always think blockage. An intestinal block is possible and can jack you all up. It was a rough night. Without going into a whole lot of detail, I was a pretty early customer at the 24 hour pharmacy buying a Fleet Enema. Me and the stock boys. It didn't work. We don't know if it is part chemo, part flu, part blockage or what, but this sucks. Not much had changed as of the time of this writing. We spent a lot of time on the phone with doctors and nurses, but not much in the way of results. I'm scared that tomorrow, if things aren't better, we will be back in the hospital. Mentally, being sick all the time is starting to take a toll on Holly. All she wants to do is go for a run, do Pilate's, or just go through the day without being asked how she is doing. This is the worst it has been since her surgeries. December 28 is the last day of Xeloda. I have a feeling that it is going to be a really long and rough 7 days. It is going to be rough. We'll get through it.

Sweet.  From Consumerist.

This meant that he would not be able to make the trip down to Orlando and when I explained this situation to Spirit Airlines they couldn't care less. I even offered to give them medical documentation on my friends condition and they said, "sorry but Spirit policy is no refunds".

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Tags: colon_cancer, spirit_airlines, consumerist

Today was Holly's last chemo infusion.  The genetic testing came back negative for the kids. Holly's sister made her famous birthday cake. I didn't have to use my AK. Today was a good day. Only 2 weeks now of the Xeloda pill and then we are done.  It is exciting, but it isn't like we won't ever be back at the doctor again.  In February, Holly has a colonoscopy and a PT Scan already scheduled.  Then every 3 months, we need to go in for blood tests.  That goes on for about 5 years.  Every year she gets a colonoscopy.  I guess we will need to schedule that around something fun. It's nice to see this whole ordeal coming to an end.  We've had some rough times recently that I haven't really written about.  In short, it has been a pretty terrible couple of weeks.  Nothing that we weren't expecting, but the cumulative effects of chemotherapy have caught up with her and knocked Holly down a couple of notches.  It sucks, but we are fighting through.  It is amazing what the human body can withstand.

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Tags: cancer, ice_cube, birthday, xeloda, colonoscopy

Only a month left. It sounds so positive doesn't it. But imagine feeling about as sick as you've ever felt. Now think about feeling that way for 3 - 4 months. The prospect of having to feel that way for at least another month is pretty unbearable. We see a light at the end of the tunnel, but it is fairly dim. It's getting bigger, but it is coming at us slowly. It seems like it is coming at us at the same speed, but our perception is off. Like one of those physics shows about light speed. What the hell, it's only a month. I imagine that this is what prisoners feel like when they know that they only have a month left to go in their sentence. It's only a month. A month to avoid getting shanked. Or maybe, what a parent feels like knowing that their child will be home from Iraq in a month. They are still getting shot at regularly, but it is only a month. A month seems like a really long time to feel really horrible.

One of my favorite shows to watch is Wallstrip. Lindsay Campbell provides a very fun, quick, smart walk through individual stocks and meets regularly with leaders of companies and Wall Street. I was catching up on some feeds last night and came across her recent post on Onyx Pharmaceuticals.  ONXX is a company that makes Nexavar, a drug for liver cancer and hopefully lung cancer.  Holly hasn't been feeling well the past few days.  It is a drag.  This made me smile last night.