Month: October 2006

Just a quick update to let you all know that I am doing fine.

Last week and into the weekend I slept a lot. No, I pretty much only slept, sleeping off what was a really rough “B” cycle in the chemo. Last cycle, the “A”, I may have vomited up my gall bladder, but I recovered quickly and was back in the gym 10 days following discharge. This time, no gym so far. The most exercise I’ve gotten is walking the dog.

The doctor predicted this, but is quite happy with how quickly my body has bounced back. Last week he didn’t expect my blood counts to be high enough for me to be on schedule for the next round of treatment this week. Unfortunately (because I really wanted this week off to do some writing and relaxing), my counts were creeping towards normal on Friday, and tomorrow, after more tests, we’ll know for sure if they are good enough for me to start chemo again on Wednesday.

Also, for those of you still seeking to donate blood to me, I am covered for the moment. I am deeply touched by the response I got for the call for blood. Thank you. But I still may need more for the next round. So don’t go shooting up heroin any of you A’s or O’s.

So there you have it. I will put up a post tomorrow to let you know if I am going in later this week. If so, visitors are welcomed and encouraged. Scrabble anyone?

I am, unfortunately, not the only one suffering from strange side effects in the Yudell-Rick household.

When I am in recovery mode, poor little Otis seems to misbehave more than normal, and he doesn’t seem to like to be too close to me. I wonder if he can smell the chemo, and if it just stinks to his doggie-senses.

Jacqui too, growing by the minute, has had some strange pregnancy-related side effects. Not to mention the exhaustion from caring for me, Otis, and the growing baby–all at the same time–Jacq has suffered from intense leg cramps which leave her sore, sometimes for days. They almost always happen about an hour before we are supposed to wake up in the morning, and it almost always goes like this: I am in a deep sleep, usually dreaming of getting a haircut, and I am torn from the barber’s chair by Jacqui yelling, “OW, OW, OW, OW, LEG, LEG, LEG,” which apparently is the universal call by pregnant women for rousing their husbands from slumber to massage their cramped up legs. After rubbing Jacqui’s calf for a few minutes, I am permitted to go back to sleep for a while.

While the doctor has told us that these cramps are a normal side effect of carrying around extra pounds and of changing body chemistry, given my limited ability to take care of Jacq in these final few months of her pregnancy, I actually kind of like this routine. It is one of my few opportunities to return, at the bare minimum, what Jacqui has done for me these last few months–the staying with me in the hospital on an air mattress, the nursing me back to health, the walking up and down the stairs to make me food when I can barely sit up in bed, and, of course, her driving to NYC in the middle of the night to get some fresh bagels.

None of this surprises me. But I am so in love.

Today was Yom Kippur, the Jewish day of atonement, the culminating day of the Jewish High Holy Days. For me, although a dedicated member of a synagogue, I normally prefer to split my day between going to Temple for a few hours, and going on a long hike, where I can spend time reflecting on the year that was and the year that lie ahead. Unfortunately, still with little blood coarsing through my veins, most of today’s holiday was spent sitting on my tush, waiting for this neutropenia to pass, and hoping that I could be inscribed in the book of life from the comfort of my new couch.

I know there are those of you out there who are saying to yourselves: “it is Yom Kippur, Mike’s stuck at home watching horrible television for the 8th straight day, he’s too tired to read and work on his book, so he MUST have been picking his nose.” And since it is past sundown for the year 5767 and I have a full year to apologize for all of my sins, I can tell you in all honesty, that no, I was not picking, I was just scratching my nose because of the dryness from chemotherapy.

And then it started to bleed. A slow drip, but a steady one, nonetheless. And two hours later I decided that it was prudent to go to the doctor.

I was told that this round of chemo was more immunosuppressive than the last. And when I saw the report which listed my platelet level with an exclamation point next to it, I knew the chemo was officially kicking my butt. Normal platelet levels are between 150-400. Mine was at 3, meaning that it was pretty much as low as it could go without blood beginning to shoot from my eyes in some strange, Monty Python-esque kind of way. So to remedy the situation I was given an infusion of platelets. The bag-o-platelets looked like it was filled with horse urine, but the nurse assured me that this was not the case. The infusion was painless, and we are at home now relaxing.

Odds are that I will need a blood transfusion after the next round as the cumulative effect of the treatment further denigrates my once normal blood count (don’t worry, this is a normal side effect, and my blood counts will return to normal after de-lymphomatization). So I am reaching out to friends and family who may be donor-types for me. Despite the overall safety of the public blood supply, I would rather get the gift of life from someone I know.

So, if you are willing, and if you are a potential match for me, I would be ever-grateful should you be able to do this. I am first reaching out to friends in the Philadelphia area. After that, we’ll move on out.

My blood type is A+, which means I am a potential recipient from those of you with types O or A.

So if you know your blood type and are willing to be a donor, please let me know.

For eligibility guidelines, please take a look at this link from the Red Cross:

http://www.redcross.org/services/biomed/0,1082,0_557_,00.html