chemo, round 3

This session seemed to go a lot smoother. We got in early for the first two appointments, giving us time to eat a non-packed lunch at the R Bistro, and chemo only started 15 minutes after the scheduled time. It was nice getting home before 7:00! My white blood cell count was fine, in fact, so high that they're telling me to only do 7 Neupogen shots instead of 10.

To look at the X-ray from November 18 side by side with yesterday's X-ray is remarkable. The bulk of the chest mass is gone, as those (along with the neck lump) were the most active cancer cells. And that's after just one cycle (two treatments/one month = one cycle). But we still need to keep going, as the less-active cells are the tough ones to beat.

As usual, today is going pretty good, but I predict tomorrow I'll be spaced out as before.

ah, the mysteries of map software

As explained on this snopes page, using MSN MapPoint to get from Haugesund to Trondheim (Norway) -- cities a mere 500 miles apart -- is a 2-day international journey through northern Europe. Mind you, Trondheim to Haugesund is much quicker.

Go to MapPoint's directions page, select Norway as the country, type in Haugesund as the from and Trondheim as the to, and marvel at the wonders of computerized mapping.

Similarly amusing: go back to the directions page and change "Quickest" to "Shortest" -- it now instructs you to take the ferry (I assume that's how you cross the North Sea) to England, do a U-turn on the first street and come back to Norway on another ferry, this time landing in Bergen and heading up to Trondheim. And if you take the "shortest" route from Haugesund to Oslo, you even get to swing by Denmark!

animaniacs on dvd

Attention Animaniacs fans! If you want to see Animaniacs brought to DVD, one thing you can do is sign up to be notified when it will become available at Amazon.com (if that link doesn't work, just go to Amazon.com and select DVD as the search and type in Animaniacs).

Amazon's message says "The studio is currently not producing this title on DVD, but to be notified when it is available, enter your e-mail address at right. You'll also be voting for this release; we'll let the studio know how many customers are waiting for this title."

Vote, people, vote!

insurance drama

As mentioned previously, I now have to take a white blood cell booster so that I can keep getting chemo treatment every two weeks. It's called Neupogen (Filgrastim), and it's a self-administered shot I have to take every 24 hours for 10 days after each chemo session.

However, it's ridiculously expensive so the Clinic called my pharmacy to have them check that my insurance would cover it. The pharmacy said my insurance was inactive as of December 31st. The insurance company said the same thing when called. So, complete with IV tube in my arm, I walk out into the hallway to use the phone and call my employer and let them know something's wrong. They called the insurance company, and they basically didn't have any answers for the 'glitch', but said it would be fixed in 48 hours.

But I needed my first Neupogen shot in 24 hours. So I had to leave work early Thursday to drive to the Clinic and have a nurse administer the shot (since the pharmacy couldn't dispense it without proof of insurance or me paying full cost). We thought we could maybe have today's shot done closer to home at one of the Cleveland Clinic satellite branches, but the Elyria office doesn't have Neupogen and Westlake wanted me to have a physican at their office specifically. Fortunately, by today, the insurance glitch was fixed and I was able to get the prescription filled, so I didn't need to worry about any of that.

Wednesday's treatment didn't go quite as smoothly as the first one, so it still took forever (and started two hours late). As predicted, yesterday I was fine and actually quite alert and productive, whereas today I was tired and slow. Not quite as tired as last time, but I still stayed home from work to rest.

and the hair comes out

When I showered Saturday, I noticed my hair in the towel. Today, there was more. I doubt it's noticeable yet, as not that much has come out, but I'm sure there will be more. If I'm going to lose hair, I'd rather lose all of it so it's obviously different, than to have people just think I'm going bald. :)

no chemo today

They conducted a blood test first to make sure I could do chemo today, and my white blood cell count was too low. This means we have to wait until next Wednesday, when it should be higher. Then, they will give me a hematopoietic stimulant to take for several days (as a self-administered shot) that will force the bone marrow to dispense the white blood cells it's holding back. That will prevent us from having to wait again next time.

(In case there's confusion: I couldn't have it today because my WBC was low; by next week, it should be high enough that I can receive the chemo; after that, I get the stimulant so we can do chemo again after 2 weeks as intended, rather than having to wait 3 weeks like we did this time.)

disaster relief

Amazon.com is helping out the American Red Cross with relief in response to the recent earthquake/tsunami disaster. Amazon has had their "Honor System" of payment for quite some time now, which was originally set up to allow people to make donations to web sites (such as a charity, or a big message board that needs to pay for server space, or a local garage band selling mp3's of their music).

Typically there is a small fee attached to each transaction, as a retail store would have with any credit card. But for this disaster relief fund, Amazon is waiving the fee and forwarding 100% of people's donations to the American Red Cross. When I donated yesterday, they had collected $8.2 million, and already today it's up to $11.3 million, from just 140,800 people, with more money coming in by the minute.

If you're up to it, click here, and it's linked right from the home page. It's quick and easy if you already have an Amazon.com account set up, and you can give any amount.