Shingles?!?!?

I could not believe it a couple weeks ago when I came to DC. The rash and inflammation around my waste was not from the back support that I used, it was from Shingles!!!

After all this, I have to get over Shingles first before Chemo. Supposedly, it is a very painful disease. But, the bone cancer pain totally hid any symptoms from the shingles.

I got over it quickly and will start chemo tomorrow....

albert

Hangin' with the twins....

I am sitting here in DC with my twin nieces. They are awesome and very well behaved. They even sleep through the night, sometimes for 12 hours straight with only a break for feedings.

We have a nanny that takes care of the three babies. That includes me!

I am in constant pain now. I am weak and lost even more weight. I am off 50 lbs off my 2007 high of about 200lbs. Now, I have even registered ~150lbs on the scale. I cannot sit up straight because of pain. I spend most of my time horizontal like the girls.

It's odd how I eat my meals. I eat lying down, often on the rug or in bed. I am making do until my chemo Tuesday. Hopefully it will start fixing me.

We have a new massage chair, zero gravity chair and a memory foam bed that adjusts. These are all attempts to make me comfortable and able to function a little better. It is nice to be able to sit reclined, with my laptop and watch TV again. It seems like such a luxury! Looks like I will be spending less time on the floor...

albert

Just a Regular Joe

My cancers have started to progress again, except brain. I am in DC now.

I start Chemo next week. Back to the time lines of a regular Stage 4 Caner Patien. I am in pain now. The ride is over......

albert

No calls please, emails OK, I will call if needed.

Level 2

Well, I made it to level 2...

Unfortunately, that is not a good thing. All my cancers turned and are coming back. Tarceva's legs have pooped out.

Add to that, my docs are going on vacation, SF doc for 4 weeks and DC for 2. I am trying to get to DC before she leaves. Gotta get there for Chemo.

I am making flight plans tomorrow for DC.

I will miss a couple, of weddings... sorry.....

More when I get time one calls unless time sensitive. Emails are great.


albert

Big Brown & Down

I spent last weekend watching the Big Brown story unfold. It has been 30 years since there was a triple crown winner and Big Brown was the overwhelming favorite at the Belmont. He was all over the media with guarantees of a win, interviews of the jockey and jockey family.


After it was all said and done, I still did not have much info on the other horses. A bizaar loss created a lot of controversy.


I went down too. My radiation therapy on my spine and hips finished yesterday. My machine broke and my 10 day treatment was delayed in the middle of treatment. Hopefully, I will get better as predicted. Two of my ex-racing equine friends are rooting for me!

albert

Bone Cancer Progression

Yikes!!!

Just when I wasn't looking, my bone cancer opponent put me to the floor. It was playing Rope-a-Dope for a while and struck when I wasn't looking.

Thankfully, it is one of my weaker opponents. I am in a lot of pain and taking the narcotic, Dilaudid. My docs don't seem too alarmed and I am not either. It should be easy to zap my bones, ending the pain and progression.

I actually am counting hours til my meeting.

I am also extending the Rent-A-Lbert program to include chauffering me to Hayward. I think I may have it booked, but email if you have time one day in the middle of the day.

Ouch! That hurts.....

albert

Word!

Sorry, I have not written folks, I was being lazy. I have been really trying to get some rest, though I am in a phase right now with a bad back from sitting too much. I watch TV and work on the computer.

I see a lot of election coverage and and trash TV.

Has anybody also noticed that Flavor Flav and George W. Bush must have gone to the same primary shools? They seem to make up a lot of words, and not in a good way. Flip between news and VH1 to get full effect.

Some words really scare cancer patients: tumor , death, progression, malignant, etc. I was told in the beginning many oncologists that I only had months left. My word that I grew to hate was:
Palliative

Palliative treatment: To palliate a disease is to treat it partially and insofar as possible, but not cure it completely. Palliation cloaks a disease. Also sometimes called symptomatic treatment.

I see it in my reports. I understand much of medicine is palliative. But I think it has bad connotations.

"The end is near. let's make him comfortable."

It's like succumbing in a way.

Anyway, still motoring.

albert

It's All Relative!

Nieces in da house !!!

(and brain results)

Sydney and Evette hatched this week after going full term. They are healthy and only minor complications during birth. They were worried about a prolonged pregnancy, that they finally induced, even tho it wasn't planned.

Unfortunately, I missed it. I was there a month and somehow missed it, surprising everybody. I look forward to telling my nieces when they get older that I was there, but they were late.

I cannot get over how much hair they have. Their hair has grown much more in the the last 5 months than mine has!

Final Round Two Results

The only thing left in Round Two is my MRI brain scan. It was declared a tie. The scan results matched my previous Round 1 scan Xmas eve. The scan showed significant improvement then. Three months later, we are stable.

I asked the doc to give me a count, which I never got. To give you an idea of where I am at:

- The largest tumor is 1.6 cm in size.

- There are about 14 "significant" sized tumors.

- Total tumors in my brain - ~40!!!!

Round 2 was a win with a tie for the brain.

Unbelievably, this is my improved state. It was worse at Dx. That's my excuse for whatever I do wrong!

It's all relative!

uncle albert

K.O. !!!!

I returned back to SF last weekend and started on updating my oncologist here. My nieces are still unborn. Effectively, this is the end of Round 2 with some "remarkable" results from my CT scans.

My spleen that has shown metastases is now completely clear of tumors and lesions!

My hip, the biggest problem in my bone cancer is stable. My hip feels fine. The docs cannot discern what is going on, only that it is stable. I feel very little pain in my hips and bones. In any case it feels much better than before diagnosis!

My brain status, the gumball machine, was doing well after Round 1. The largest tumor shrank from 2.6cm to 1.6 cm. The other couple dozen either shrank or melted away! I just got a MRI scan this week so I will find out my results soon.

Last but not least, my stage 4, primary lung cancer dramatically improved. The pictures are my actual CT images. The 3.6 cm tumor is gone! Better than that, there is no sign of the dozens of tumors in my lungs!!


My lungs are clear except for residual fibrotic tissue. That has been shrinking also.

That is a knock out for the spleen and lungs and wins for bone and brain.

My California doc, the Chief of Oncology, kept making contorted faces as he read my scan report. It's like he has never seen a miracle recovery before!

albert

Where's da twins?!

Names have been changed to protect the innocent

My sister in-law went into pre-labor about 2 months ago. I was just about to head back to SF for a month. She received labor suppression drugs and everything was fine.

I came back to DC to help out. I don't really have a medical reason to be here. Tho, I do look forward to be one of the first to see the twins. Against all odds, mom carried the twins close to full term. I am the driver to the hospital when the time comes.

We are happy we went to term. Now, many of us want them to make their grand entrance. I am contemplating a jumping-jacks/squats excercise program! I have plane tix to SF in a few days.

I have to also visit my hospitals the next two days. Round 2 results will be coming.

albert

ITWP!

ITWP!!!

No, not IHTFP that many of my college classmates may mistakenly read......

While at MIT, we had the largest sports program in the country. Many won't believe it, but, we had the most inter-collegiate sports offered in the country as well as the largest intramural program. They stressed participation. Heck, there were 180 ice hockey teams alone, divided into 4 divisions. I was on the intercollegiate tennis and squash teams. I was on over a dozen IM teams. It was very easy to try new sports.

Curiousity continued over the years. One highlight was in 2006, where on my first Curling session, I ended up on prime time Olympic coverage! (See 2006 review)

Alas, today marks the last day of my ITWP season.

Inner Tube Water Polo

http://www.innertubewaterpolo.com/

It is bazaar "sport" that allows players to sit back in a pool ,but not organized nationally. Tho, to play well does requires special skills. I am the worst on my team lacking some of the skills. But, it is a nice way to help get me back into shape.

albert

Happy Fool's Day!

Sometimes, I feel like maybe I am the fool!

When I got here in DC mid-March, I had a few appointments scheduled. The day after arrival, I went to the closest Kaiser and had blood drawn for lab work. The next day I saw my oncologist at a further location and got my Zometa treatment, all going as planned. Then on Monday, I went again to pick my 30 Tarceva pills. They did not have them, but they said they could get them for the next afternoon.

The next day, after calling to confirm that my pills arrived, I drove back to the hospital. I went back to the same pharmacist and he had the pills. I was checking out, and he said $3628.00!!!!

I knew they cost a lot. They went up from last year, ONLY $228.00. Not much increase percentage-wise. In any case, I wasn't paying knowing I only owed the $35 co-pay. He appologized and blamed their new pharmacy computer system.

So close! He appologized again and said he would make some calls since my information was erased. I called the next day and drove back to the pharmacy. Everything went OK, just $35 again with insurance.

Then I made a couple of trips to a different hospital with my sister in-law. Luckily, Ellie doesn't need the vet for those old hips. I am at a hospital every other day on average.

On April Fool's day I am getting my round two CT scans. But ... we already know the likely results (See earlier post).

I decided that I really don't like going to the hospital...
...too many sick people!

albert

Happy Easter!

Wow, back-to-back holidays for you western christians. Not one of my fave holidays, since I stopped egg-hunting decades ago.

I did stopped eating eggs for a few weeks and started again for their calories and protein. I also realized that a Haagen-Dazs bar is a quick and easy way to get a lot of calories.

Feeling strong but sleep is lacking recently.

Happy St, Patrick's Day!!!

I am back in DC again. I'm here basically waiting for my nieces to hatch any time in the next couple of weeks!

The SF trip went well, and I got out on the water many times. The Rent-A-L-bert program was sucessful to a limited degree. I was rented out every night, and was somebody's roommmate. But, I dreaded the long commute back home that it created.

Have a beer for me! I have not had a drink since October. Tho, my docs say it is OK within reason.

albert

Preview of Round 2

I can't keep it to myself any longer...

Last week I had an appointment with my California oncologist. After the usual oohs and ahhhs and shaking of his head in disbelief, we got down to business and I updated him on the last 6 weeks. He seemed to get excited and wanted a CT scan. I have one planned in DC for the 3 month interval. He said OK and still wanted me to get a quick chest X-ray for the hell of it.

He called me with the results:

My lungs did not show any tumors on the X-ray!!!

This was stage 4 lung cancer that spread. The largest tumor was 3.6cm. All gone (almost?)! He suspected that from my round 1 results. I am not too sure of the preliminary round 2 results though. X-rays are not as good as CT or MRI scans. But it is great news in any case. I have lung cancer on the ropes and I am landing punches. Let's hope my opponent is not doing the "Rope-A-Dope".*

Next we'll want to see how my gumball machine is doing. In the beginning, I had a couple dozen tumors in my brain. The largest was 2.6cm and 1.6cm after round one. I'll know for sure how round 2 ends in a few weeks when I get my scans in DC.

I was celebrating a little until I read that less than 2% of the stage 4 lung cancer patients survive past 5 years. Unfortunately, mine is a pretty bad stage 4. Though, I am hitting the benchmarks for the survivors.

BTW, the lowest survival estimate I originally had was 4 months from initial diagnosis. I just past that and speeding towards the average, which was still less than a year.

albert

*Rope-a-dope is a boxing fighting style used most famously by Muhammad Ali (who coined the term) in the Rumble in the Jungle against George Foreman. The idea is for the boxer to lie on the ropes of a boxing ring, conserve energy and allow the opponent to strike him repeatedly in hopes of making him tire and open up weaknesses to exploit for an eventual counter-attack.

Biggest Card Ever

The Canadians, Welsh and Americans all signed a card for me in Edmonton at a recent competition. Biggest card I have ever received!

Thanks-eh!

albert-eh

Good Eats...

My side effects have turned out to be most annoying. I can eat little of what I used to eat.

Back in college, I shared a suite with a kitchen and two refrigerators, one for me and the other for the 4 other guys. I usually bought the largest economy or institutional pack of food. My philosophy used to be:

If people are willing to pay money for it, I am willing to try it.

It has been a struggle keeping up with eating. I often am out eaten by women nearly half my weight. I force down food and am still maintaining my post hospital weight. Things that are tolerable to eat:
Fruit, sweets, bagels and general bland, raw foods.

Justing waiting for my tastebuds to come back.

albert

Bones

I am on the West Coast for a few weeks. After, it is back to DC to deliver my nieces.

Before I left, I was put on Zometa, a drug that that is also used to treat osteoporosis. It helps in rebuilding bones. The major concern was for my hip. Side effects are relatively mild. I only need to get an IV once a month for treatment.

My bones feel stronger already! You can catch me in the osteroporosis section in the pharmacy shopping for calcium and vitamin D supplements.

albert

Happy Valentines Day!

Happy Valentines day to all! I have finally written my Year Review 2007. It's cleverly disguised as a Valentine's card.

Thanks for the prodding guys.

Click on 2007 Review on the blog or go here:

http://home.comcast.net/~albertwang1/YearEnd%20Reviews/AlbertXmas2007.pdf

albert

Rent-A-Lbert

escorting one of my friends on her first swim from

Alcatraz last summer when life was "normal"

I am heading home to SF next weekend for 5 weeks! My life will not be back to normal, nor will it ever be. But I have convinced my family that I am good enough to travel alone. However, this does not include living alone at my place. Many saw me at my worst and are careful about letting out the leash.

So, for this trip I've instituted the "Rent-A-Lbert" program. I presented this as a solution to having daily contact with friends. Effectively, I will be staying with various friends. I will move around so I can see a variety of people and continue on with my activities. During the weekdays, I will "reverse commute" to my place and use it as an office. Weekends are likely going to be mini road trips.

Then I head back to DC and wait for delivery of my twin nieces in early April. My turn to give back to the family.

Contact me if you want to apply to Rent-A-Lbert. Slots are quickly filling up and I should be mostly booked by the time I arrive. Let me know you have any ideas.

albert