Todd's Journey

For those of you who asked, the photo at the top of the main homepage for Todd's Journey is, in fact, me doing a tandem skydive last year in Arnprior. I had wanted to do that as part of my 'bucket list' so I put on a brave face and dove from 13,000 feet. Free fell for about 8000 feet then my tandem partner released the chute. Was definitely a thrill of a lifetime, but to this day I have NO idea how I ever did it!!!!

Small change to my chemo plan. Today my neutrafils (white blood cells) were too low to withstand a chemo treatment, so my session was pushed back by one week. By next Thurs they expect my neutrafils will be good to go. Overall it only pushes my overall plan by one week.

After weeks of having to clean myself with adult personal cleaning sheets, I finally made it upstairs and into the bathtub tonight. (Albeit I was sitting on a chair in the bathtub). But it's a small win to have finally been able to clean myself with actual soap and water.

The only negative thing about that experience is, it wipes me out pretty much. But that's to be expected.

Hi Everyone,

As mentioned in my previous post, my neutrophils (white blood cells) are a bit too low for me to proceed with my next chemo session. The doctors will check my blood again tomorrow morning, before my scheduled session, to see if the neutrophil count has risen to acceptable levels. They did say that sometimes it can build up in a little as a day, so they want to see tomorrow if it's good enough for another round of chemo. They have also ordered a blood transfusion as my hemoglobin is a bit low. (but that won't delay my chemo).

Fingers crossed that the bloodwork tomorrow says I'm good to go. Otherwise, I am on hold for a week... lol

Had my pre-chemo blood work today. Most of it looks good, but definitely have lost a pretty large amount of hemoglobin. Red and white blood cells are also down. All this to say that I'll know tomorrow if they will proceed with my chemo on Thursday, or will have to postpone for a bit.

With the decrease in hemoglobin, fatigue has returned, and some weakness in my legs as well. This morning, while trying to get some juice in the kitchen (yes, this was before Jamie woke up) my legs gave way and I ended up on the kitchen floor. Jamie heard me fall, and came quickly to help me get up.

All in all I suspect we will still proceed with chemo, but as my family doctor told me today, with the hemoglobin, red blood cells and white blood cells decreased, this cycle of chemo will most likely be tougher on me for sure. My body is already kind of anemic right now, so the next session of chemo won't make that any better.

As Jamie and I always say though, we have to go through the rough period of chemo to get to the other side of the road. We do what we have to do.

Here is the Monday video update - It's a shorter one this week.

Was finally able to go out for a bit today. Had to visit my Nanny. Was thrilled to see her again.

I know I've said this before, but it's worth saying again. The one thing I did learn from my cancer diagnosis is to never ignore your body's messages.

Had I not paid attention to the blood in my urine, and passed it off as "nothing really" they would have never found my cancer. My cancer happens to be a very aggressive, fast growing cancer, that appeared earlier this year. We were lucky to catch it relatively early on, but even so, the cancer did spread making it a bit more difficult to resolve.

So listen to your body's messages. Even small things that just don't seem right to you should be checked out by a medical professional. It's your life. Take care of it.