The Details

Yesterday was the start of cycle number five of my current therapy regiment. A new cycle is always preceded by an appointment with the doctor to check on my condition and general health. It was also time to receive the results of my latest CT scan which was performed on Friday.

Three days between the scan and the results were enough to make us really apprehensive about going to the appointment Monday. Lately the CT results haven't been great news. I am happy to report that this time it was positive news; although, we're still trying to take it with a grain of salt because we know how quickly the rug can be pulled out from under you. News regarding my condition has to be extraordinarily remarkable for me to be able to classify it as good news.

An important thing to note about CT results of my condition is that a tie is a win. Meaning that if the latest scan doesn't show up with any new growth but also no reduction in growth of the "areas of interest" it is interpreted as a winning condition. The first thing that my doctor said before he even started discussing the report was "I am quite pleased with the results." (I think I may have noticed a fleeting almost imperceptible grin too.)

Long story short, most of growths are about the same size with a pronounced (1.5 x 0.1 cm) reduction in one of them; however, many of the growths are less consolidated than they were previously which I am give to understand means that they aren't as dense. There are also several lymph nodes which are mildly decreasing in size, but the good news is that there aren't any new ones or enlarging ones.

Here is the most important quote (to me anyway) from the radiologist's report. "No evidence of disease progression." So I'm going to file this away as a good way to start the week. It will make it a little easier to cope with the treatment side effects knowing that it is actually helping me.

Thank you for all of the positive feedback. Knowing that Laela, Miranda, and I have such a supportive network of friends and family to rely on takes a lot off of my mind and helps me to focus on what is really important. Thank you for being there for us.

Sunny Days

Wow, what a difference some outside temperatures greater than 32 degrees and a little sun can make. It's been 28 days since I've had therapy and I'm feeling fantastic.

The extra week off of therapy plus the warmer weather really put a pep in my step, but the flip side of that is that makes me dread starting up again. Friday morning I had a CT scan and will get the results today. It's kind of nerve wracking to have to wait three days to get the results and it's made everyone in the house a little antsy over the duration of the long weekend. My apprehension was manifested itself by waking me up at 5:15 this morning. The last time I had a (non-hospitalized) scan analysis the results weren't quite what I was hoping for. I'm certainly hoping for good news so keep us in your thoughts today.

Good thing I had that extra week off because last week was extraordinarily busy. I started by assisting Laela at Clintonville Academy with hanging decorations for the Valentine's Day party and dance. I also helped to chaperon the party. Mainly i merely assisted in moving/decorating the tables, but also played hall monitor during the game. Basically, I just had to keep the kids from running while they were participating in their photo scavenger hunt. The kids seemed to have a really good time. It was kind of bittersweet though since it'll be the last school Valentine party that Miranda participates in. Speaking of participating...on Tuesday I had the opportunity to keep score for the final Lady Cougars basketball game at Village Academy in Powell. The girls won a nail-biter 13-12 and finished the season 6-5. That's an amazing improvement over last year's 0-fer season. Miranda scored in the second quarter too.

Wednesday February 16th was absolutely gorgeous. The sun was shining bright and the temperatures climbed close to 60 degrees. It felt so good out the Indy and I went over to the Olentangy Trail and walked five miles. Let me state for the record that I'd be lying if I said the five miles was intentional. It wasn't. The landmark I had picked for us to walk to made the walk five miles. I thought it was only four. My Sportband was set to elapsed time rather than distance and I just assumed I was walking slow. Indy and I returned to the trail on Thursday and Friday too. We walked for four and a three and a half mile trips respectively. Laela accompanied us on Friday. I have decided that I'm going to try to walk one hour a day five days a week and see how that goes. I typically set distance goals for myself, but I think that I'll be better served by adhering to a time rather than a distance.

The Seamstress (my other motorcycle: a 1995 Suzuki "Savage" LS650) also made her first appearance of the season. She started up on the second try. I grabbed my jacket, gloves, and goggles and took it for a spin for about an hour. I didn't take it too far. I just made up a north easterly route and looped my way home. The ride on the Seamstress is completely different from the ride on Wheezy (2000 Buell M2 Cyclone) but not in a bad way. The seat height is much lower than Wheezy's, so much so that I can actually sit on it with my knees bent and have my feet flat on the ground. On Wheezy I'm almost tip toeing to have both feet on the ground. It also weighs about half as much so it's great cruising around town, but once you are on the highway it is really easy to push around. I just stuck to back streets and enjoyed the ride.

This week also found me reading my first book on my nook eReader. Laela got the Barnes & Noble nook for me as a Singles Awareness Day gift. The first book that I'm reading on it is "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry into Values" by Robert M. Pirsig. I'm really enjoying it so far and felt like I could have written the first chapter myself as it reflects a lot of my attitudes about long distance riding. I also read dead tree editions of Malcom Gladwell's "Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking" and "The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference" over the last week. I really loved both of them.

I'm a little bummed to have the warm weather moving out already, but that little dose should be enough to keep me motivated to keep getting outside. Putting on a jacket isn't too hard.

January 2011

Sorry for the non-creative title, there just doesn't seem to be a theme to this update. There has been lots of activity around the Behler household in January and early February. Miranda was home last week for three days of weather related school cancellations. I'm not going to lie, I was happy about it because it gave me a chance to hang out with her one on one while Laela was working. We took some time and went out to breakfast together and just hung out for a few days it was awesome. Miranda's basketball team is also playing well, she brought home a decent report card, and has been accepted for admission to Bishop Watterson High School. **sniff sniff** My baby is getting all growed up.

We survived the 'icepocalypse' but our trees lost lots of branches around the house. One of them was about as big around as my arm and about eight to ten feet long. It snapped off of the tree in the front yard, bounced off of our power line and landed two feet behind the van. Luck was with us though as we didn't lose power nor did any damage occur to the house or our vehicles.

On January 16th we travelled to Cincinnati to celebrate my father's 63rd birthday and then the following weekend the family had their annual Christmas get together. Yes, it was a month late but better late than never. It's always a good

time getting together with everybody. One of the fun things about this year's event was that many of my aunts and uncles brought old family photos to share, so we ended up with some gems like this one.

Now onto my health and my treatment. Sleep, sleep, and more sleep. I think that is the safe and accurate way to describe my infusion weeks now. It used to be that I'd be tired for a couple of days and then bounce back and be fine. Now it seems that on weeks that I get my medicine I'm in bed for 18 hours a day for five days. Combine that with some wicked heartburn and it makes for a really nasty week. The following week my immune system is worn down and I'm terribly paranoid about getting sick. I don't want to end up in the hospital again for something stupid that I could have prevented. To that end, I am pretty much sequestering myself in the house to give my body a chance to rebound from the therapy. The week after that I'm usually good to go. In fact, right now I feel awesome. This cycle I get an extra week off too because my oncologist has been selected for some kind of panel on national cancer policy and he'll be out of town. I'm pretty excited about the extra week off. I'll also be having a CT scan on February 18 so we can see what kind of progress we've made now that I'll be four cycles into the treatment.

To pass the time at home I've been trying to read some more and have gotten into watching movie marathons. So far I've done an X-Men marathon, an Indiana Jones marathon, and as a family we've been doing a Pixar marathon. We're watching all of the Pixar movies in order of release date. Next up on the marathon list are Batman, Spider-Man, and Lord of the Rings trilogy. Off topic, Miranda and I also watched Flash Gordon on one of her snow days this week. One of the first things that she asked me was: "Did Lady Gaga direct this movie?"

This evening we're having some friends over for our annual taco night (that just happens to coincide with the National Football League's championship game).

I'm also starting to get spring fever and am formulating some ideas about a trip. To that end, I'm also in the process of finding a mechanic to get Wheezy back into running order. Right now I'm toying with the ideas of either finishing October's trip properly or riding to the Florida Keys. The problem with riding to the Florida Keys is that I have to ride through the rest of Florida to get there.

I guess I had more to write about than I thought. I've been feeling like I don't have anything relevant to write about, thus the long pauses in between blog updates. Looks like I was wrong.

Ups and Downs...A December to Remember

December 2010...it was the best of times, it was the worst of times. December started off tough for the Behler clan. Laela caught a cold and I was just generally run down from my treatments. Miranda finally got over her pneumonia and that was the good news.

Santa Steve sent me a new (to me) transmission for Wheezy, so now all I have to do is find someone to help me install it to I can continue with some motorcycling adventures this spring.

December 16-19, Dan, Kevin, Tim, and I met up with Isaac at Anthony's house in New York for a four day "Mancation" in the big apple. It's always good to get out of town with the fellas for some bonding time. We did lots of stuff while we we were there, but honestly most of it involved drinking. We went to a bunch of skateshops and record stores. There were trips to different restaurants most notably the New York Ninja. The patrons at the Ninja were totally bummed on us. A bunch of loud obnoxious guys, hellbent on maximizing our Ninja experience did not make for friendly confines. I think that we were REALLY close to being escorted out by the end of our meal. Sight seeing wise, there were only two things that I hadn't gotten to do in July that I had wanted to: see the Ground Zero site and see Time's Square at night. Since Ground Zero is now a giant construction site, there was not a lot to be able to see there other than fences and ads for the Ground Zero memorial. Time's Square at night was absolute mayhem since it was the weekend before Christmas. It was shoulder to shoulder people as far as the eye could see and I couldn't get out of there fast enough. There was also souvenir and Christmas shopping to be had while we were there as well which required two separate trips to Tiffany's on Wall St. Saturday the 18th was our last night there and it was decided that we'd amp up the evening by starting it off with Four Loko. We went to a bodega that is close to Anthony's and bought two 24oz cans a piece. Let me tell you, it was absolutely vile. I finished about 1/4 of one of my cans and I was done. They were terrible. After everyone had their fill of the Four Lokos we ventured out to a bar. It got to be about midnight and I was just too tuckered out. Three days of traipsing through New York had taken it's toll on me and I decided to head back to Anthony's to turn in early about midnight. I'm glad that I did, I needed the rest. The rest of the trip was pretty uneventful and we were back at LaGuardia by 4:00PM on Sunday for our 6:00PM flight.

So we got home and everything seemed alright until Tuesday December 21st. I came down with a raging fever, body chills and was coughing up copious amounts of blood. Laela called the oncologist and he suggested that I go to the emergency room at Riverside. That's exactly what we did. So they admitted me to the hospital with a diagnosis of pneumonia and I ended up staying until the 26th on a steady diet of IV antibiotics. What a lousy way to spend Christmas. I was; however, adamant with the staff that they not rush me out of the hospital just because the calendar said December 25th. I'd have rather been in the hospital on Christmas than have to go be re-admitted because we messed around with the it just to get me home by a certain date.

Laela, Miranda, and I decided to postpone our Christmas gift exchange until I got home so that we could continue our Christmas morning traditions. Laela got me an "Adventure of my choosing to be redeemed prior to June 12, 2011." and Miranda got me an AWESOME Simpson's World Episode Guide Seasons 1-20 book.

Here it is two weeks later and I'm back on my therapy regiment and feeling pretty good. I'm trying to avoid public places and being exposed to children as much as possible just to give myself the benefit of the doubt. Hopefully we'll have some more ups in 2011 than we did in 2010 but as for now, we'll just take it one day at a time.

I hope that you and yours have a happy and prosperous 2011.

Post Thanksgiving Update

The first cycle of the new chemotherapy drug has completed and I have a doctor's appointment later this morning. I've got to say I'm tolerating the Alimta really well. A couple of days of fatigue but no body aches is a huge differece from cycle 4 of carboplaitin/taxol/avastin. My appetite decreased quite a bit during the first two weeks but it wasn't from nausea, it was just that I wasn't ever hungry. I made sure to eat three meals a day but didn't really want any of them.

We hosted a fantastic Thanksgiving celebration this year. We had about thirteen people over and it was really nice. We roasted a turkey, fried a turkey, made mashed potatoes and everyone else brought over side dishes. We also pulled off a big Thanksgiving surprise. Laela's twin brother Nick flew up from Jacksonville, FL for our Thanksgiving celebration. Only Laela, Miranda, Samantha, and me knew that he was coming up so it was a huge surprise for everyone and made an already good get together great.

With all of the friends, family, and coworkers who have come out of the woodwork to support us this year we have a TON of things to be thankful for and it was nice to take some time to reflect on that and acknowledge it. We couldn't be more thankful for everything that everyone has done for us. We're also really thankful for being able to do all of the travelling that we've done this year. It's been awesome being able to visit all of the places we've never been before.

On the bummer front, Miranda had started running a 100 degree fever the day after Thanksgiving. We took her to the doctor on the following Monday and it was decided that it was probably viral. By Wednesday her symptoms had still not broken so we took her to have an x-ray. Lo and behold she was diagnosed with pneumonia. She started feeling better on Friday but being the jerk that I am, I limited her activity all weekend and to day is her first day back to school since Thanksgiving break. Although the circumstances sucked, it was awesome for me to have a whole extra week to hang out with Miranda but I'm really glad things are getting back to normal.

My friends Tim, Kevin, Dan, and Isaac are going to New York December 16-19 to visit our friend Anthony. It's been quite a while since our last "Mancation" which was to Oregon in 2006. It's our first "Mancation" with Dan so we're sure to end up in prison at some point. Good times await.