Greetings from Room 360 West, Thornton Hospital, UCSD Medical Center, La Jolla, California, USA.  I’m happy to report that, all in all, today has been a good day.

I got a nice visit from my friends Hank and Shay tonight. As my cell count begins to drop in the coming days, it will be increasingly important to minimize contact and exposure to germs--which is really going to be tough! Don't worry though, they washed their hands before they came in, and for now my cell count is normal.

Chemotherapy continues with little in the way of major side-effects, for which I am truly grateful.  It is still very early in the process, and while further adverse effects are to be expected, the only hiccup so far has been just that–a wicked case of hiccups.  Apparently this is a common reaction to Decadron, which is a steroid I’m being given in combination with Cytoxan, which they’re cycling through me via IV every 12 hours.  My next scheduled dosage will start at 10pm Pacific, and typically takes about 3-3.5 hours to complete.  Tomorrow will be my last day of the Cytoxan, and then they will transition me to one day of Doxorubicin and Vincristine along with one more dose of the the hiccup-inducing Decadron.  I’m drinking lots of water, and I’ve got saline and potassium on a constant drip which helps to ensure all these toxins don’t hang around in my body any longer than we need them to.

They implanted this alien-looking device in my chest on Monday.

Monday morning they implanted a device called a Smart Port in my chest.  It’s a little circular metal disk which feeds my medication and fluids directly into my blood stream and removes the need for a pick line or traditional IV.  They just stick the needle through a thin piece of skin, into the port, and start the drip.  When I leave, they’ll just pull the needle, and the port will remain in my chest until I’m ready to come back for my next treatment.  It’s much easier to keep clean and minimize risk of infection. I’m learning so much about hospitals, drugs, oncology, technology…it’s all pretty amazing.

I had a nice visit from my friends Shay Davis and Hank Connell this evening, so that was good for my spirits.  Shay is an amazing artist, and he’s got a lot of great glycee prints ready to ship for the holiday season.  Check them out at www.shayvision.com.  Oh, and Hank’s not a bad guy either!

Well, Nurse Kim is here with more hiccup pills and some Zofran (anti-nausea), so I’ll sign off for now.  Lots of love and gratitude coming from me and my family to all of you.  I can’t tell you how humbling your support and encouragement has been.  One day at a time until I’m healthy!

Love,
–T