Revlimid Rash Out

Baldwin Hills Scenic Overlook, Culver City

This week will be a one-blog-entry week due to a variety of reasons, not the least of which are jet lag and a raging red rash.

Steve’s memorial was beautiful, respectful, and inspiring. The positive, loving energy among the nearly 300 people that filled the LA studio where it took place was palpable. So many good people that he had attracted in his life and it’s no surprise that they were all there to pay tribute to such an incredible person that had impacted their lives as he has mine. The day was full of laughter, shared stories, touching moments and positivity among Steve’s favorite breakfast foods and drinks.

It was an honor to get to meet his family and to be able to tell them how much their son meant to me. In and of itself, it was worth the cross-country flight to be able to hug his wife, Jen, in person and to hear her speak so eloquently about the loss of her soul mate.

Sunset in Santa Monica

Though I wish he was still here, I left having learned more about his life and the way that he lived it giving me such a dose of positive inspiration and an acceptance of the natural rhythms of life and death that I needed at this time. The lessons that he taught through his witty and thoughtful ways did not die with him; they will always live on inside all of us who were fortunate enough to have had him in our lives.

Vinblastine Treatment 4

I'm feeling decent, though the Vinblastine single-agent chemotherapy that I'm on is pretty tough. The primary side effects have been fatigue, deep tissue aches, jaw pain and tightness, and neutropenia (very low white blood cell count/immunity). The drug is given through a short syringe my nurse injects into my port by push after my anti-nausea and steroid premeds are run. It’s incredible what affect such an innocent looking amount of medicine can do. I can’t let the dosage fool me; it packs a punch!

Scaling the wall 

The Vinblastine has done a number on my white blood cell count. The plan was to get weekly infusions, but my bone marrow has said otherwise. To give it some credit, I have been very heavily treated and my marrow is quite compromised. I’m proud to see that it has still been able to produce blood cells at all – for this I am grateful. I’ve never been unable to rise back to normal blood count levels with time or drug assistace.

To remain safe, my WBC count has to be at least 1,000 in order to receive treatment. It hasn't been able to stabilize quickly enough to endure the original, aggressive weekly plan, so I've been more on an biweekly treatment basis. My counts were too low to get treated last Wednesday (ANC 0.6), which is why I felt pretty good last week and this past weekend without the chemo effects. In fact, I felt good enough for a day of indoor rock climbing with Craig. It was our first time and something we both loved. I especially loved the sweet reward of getting to the top and the mental challenge it took to figure out how to get there. I had no problems beyond any normal climbing fatigue and a few battle bruises endured from banging my knees into the wall. It was an exhilarating, rewarding and gratifying experience. There will be more of these types of adventures to come for me in 2012.