Todd's Journey

I have pretty much recovered from my immunotherapy reaction over the weekend. The small dose steroids I was given seemed to help a lot. I have my appetite back, am holding down my food, no fever, and no chills or rigors.

We'll have to see what, if anything, the Oncologist will do with my next immuno session. They may just add the small dose steroids to help prevent recurrence of the reaction.

Will keep you posted.

Had a quick appointment today with my family doctor. She is going to start to get me off the insulin since my chemo is now done, and I can back to my regular diabetes medication again. We will slowly transition off the insulin over the next few months.

The new stents seem to be working well, but my bladder is still not used to having so much urine in it, so it's causing me to go to the bathroom whenever it gets a small amount of urine in it. The only fix for this is time right now. My bladder has to get used to having urine in it, and increasing the volume before it makes me want to go to the washroom.

The stinging and burning during urination is better now, but stilll a bit bothersome. This will also take a bit of time to heal, and is normal following a cystoscopy and stent insertions.

My next big test will be tomorrow when I start my immunotherapy. Hopefully I will not have any major side effects and will have good success with the medication.

I will keep you all posted on my immunotherapy sessions.

First the bad news - in my stupidity, and feeling a bit better, I tried going out to drive my lawn tractor with the snow blower on it on Tuesday to clear the snow from the lane. I didn't really think much about it being too labour intensive, but apparently just the lifting of my blower, and the pushing of the pedals, and maybe the position I sat in for an hour, was enough to pull one of abdominal muscles.

I have to try and remember that my muscles have not been actively used for almost 7 months now, so the easiest of tasks may be a bit of a strain for them. Anyhow, I will just have to rest more and let the abdominal muscle heal up again.

As for my next steps in my cancer treatment, I will begin immunotherapy the first week of January. Bladder cancer cells have a specific protein marker on them that hides the fact they are cancer cells. This marker fools my own immune system into thinking the cancer cells are normal cells. What the immunotherapy will do is remove that specific protein marker on the cancer cells allowing my immune system to hopefully start attacking those cells, therefore keeping the cancer at bay (stop it from growing or spreading). Immunotherapy, if successful, can continue to work for a very long time.

The immunotherapy will be administered by intraveneous drip every two weeks for as long as the immunotherapy keeps working. After several years, if the immunotherapy is still working, they may take me off of it, and simply follow up with scans every so often.

The immunotherapy is likely to cause me fatigue again, but not nearly as significant as the chemotherapy did. It is not expected to make me nauseaus or sick to my stomach.

I will have to have CT scans done every three months now to ensure the cancer isn't returning or growing again.

If, for some reason, the immunotherapy does not work out, or I don't tolerate the immunotherapy drug very well, there are other medication options they can try.

It definetly is no fun knowing I have to go every two weeks for treatment for a long time to come, but I need to do it to keep my cancer under control, and to allow me to live a nice, as close to normal, life again.

Hi Everyone.

I am scheduled for a cystoscopy on January 2nd under anesthesia in order for my urological oncologist, Dr. Morash to take a good look at the inside of my bladder.

He is going to assess whether or not I need to keep the nephrostomy tubes, or if ureteral stents could be put in from below to help the flow of fluid from my kidneys to my bladder.

It is possible that the chemo shrunk the tumors that were originally blocking the flow into my bladder that I will no longer need the nephrostomy tubes or a stent.

All will be figured out on January 2nd. Either I will come home with no neph tubes, or will have to keep wearing them for a while.

Keep your fingers crossed.

Hi Everyone,

It looks like the results of my CT scans won't be quite ready for the Monday video update, so I will delay that update until later next week when we have official results. I will post the video update on Friday so that I can also update you on the go forward cancer treatment plan.

As for my current health, I am anemic again, so the fast fatigue comes on pretty much anytime I do anything. I will have to wait for my hemoglobin numbers to increase on their own for the next few weeks before the fatigue lessens.

I have had a few bouts of vomiting mostly related to the new antibiotic medication I am taking. I have found if I take it with food it has less of an impact on me, so have started doing that.

That's the update for now.

Finally had my last Cisplatin treatment, along with one of the two Gemcitabine treatments. My last Gemcitibine treatment on Thursday will mark the end of my chemotherapy. It will have been three months of chemo for me.

This cycle, and the previous one, has been the toughest on me so far as the toxins in my blood have continued to build up in my system. Just more fatigue, more nausea and some weakness.

But as I said, we are close to the end now, so I just need to bite the bullet and get through it.

Thanks again for all the support, comments, and gifts. I feel so much love and caring from all of you. I really do feel that Jamie and I are not in this alone.

Talk to you tomorrow for the Monday video blog update.

Doctors have approved me to conclude my Chemotherapy starting tomorrow ending next Thursday, November 30th. They say this last three months of Chemo is the toughest part of my cancer treatment, so to have it done with will be an exceptional milestone.

For this last treatment, I will still require a blood transfusion and some booster shots to help my neutrophils again. They are also going to lower my cisplatin dose to try and help with some of the tougher symptoms I endured after Cycle 3.

All in all, I am super excited to get this part of my Cancer treatment overwith for now. Now we can hope the results of all this aggravation is positive.

Had a great chat last evening with my urological oncologist, Dr. Morash - one of the best I know - and he suggested to me that I might NOT have a bladder infection. Given my symptoms, it doesn't appear I do. But he ordered a urine culture be done, just to be sure.

My urine today has been clear and urine coloured again. So he may be right. We'll see in a few days when I get the results back from the culture.

Also met with my family doctor today, Dr. Seguin, to give her an update on my cancer journey. She seemed pleased with the progress being made, and told me there were a lot of positives to be proud of. Although I know that there is never a guarantee with chemo or cancer treatment, we are hoping the results of December 6th scans will be positive.

Feeling much less fatigued today, and on the upswing again. Ready to take on my last chemo cycle starting next Thursday.

Will keep you all posted.