2 Years Cancer Free!

They called me just a minute ago and told me that my PET scan was all clear. This is great news. It is a little unsettling every time you go in there to get examined, even if you feel good, just because you don't know if they are going to find some tiny little lesion somewhere in some little dark corner of your body. Now I'm off to play in the playoffs with my open league team. We are ranked 2nd going into the playoffs. It is nice to play competitively again, although, this is my last time for a while until I can rehab my hip a little more.

Sports Medicine Results

I saw Dr. King last week and he did an x-ray of my hips. The purpose was to find out if I should actually be playing volleyball like I have been doing. I have had a little pain for a day or so after I play, so I wanted to see if there was any way to eliminate that. I asked about these "osteophytes" that were on my femoral heads that one doctor said I should have had athroscopically removed. Dr. King said that my bones look fine and that I should just strengthen the muscles in my hips to stabilize the joints better and to diffuse the force placed on the bones themselves. He said the osteophytes do cause a little impingement in my hip joints, but that it isn't severe enough to warrant surgery. He set me up with some physical therapy.

Yesterday was my PET scan, and I was a pro at it this time. I found a decent position for my arms this time so they didn't even fall asleep so bad. I still look like an idiot in their 3-arm-hole miniskirt gown. I was radioactive for a while, and my kids at Mountain View (I am the new varsity coach there) were a little freaked out that they needed to stand about 10' away at all times. I wrote "stay away from Jason" on the whiteboard, and I drew what could potentially happen to them: the drawing showed a stick figure (before standing near Jason), then a stick figure's legs with a huge mushroom cloud above it (after going near Jason). Rumors surfaced that I could catch on fire at any moment. That was hillarious.

I should get my results today.

2 Year PET Scan coming up

It has been a long time since I've posted to this blog, but that is good, because nothing has really been happening except that I feel better every day. I coached a whole season of club and felt pretty strong the whole time. I have recently started playing again and I have some hip pain, but I can still hang. I am going to look into some surgeries that might help with the hip, I have that appointment in a couple weeks.

I also have my 2 Year PET scan coming up this month. This is the one where they make me radioactive and look for tumors in my whole body. Pretty unsettling being looked at so closely, but I feel optimistic about it.

Burrito Test

My results of my endoscopy showed a normal and fantastic looking image of my guts. I have the pictures, it looks like a red, slimy cavern...something like the insides of that thing the Millennium Falcon landed in. They did a routine biopsy of my duodenum, which is the next little blob of guts after the stomach, and that biopsy was negative - like, in a positive way - no lymphoma or anything else. Then I had the ultrasound, and they did not find an embryo, nor did they find any gallstones or tumors or alien parasites. I heard the sound of the blood going into my liver. They also checked me for stomach diseases. And well, I had a burrito the day of the test, and let's just say I had to give them some of that burrito to look through. Unfortunately, I cannot tell you about the fun time I had getting the sample of the burrito, but I wanted to. The Burrito Test was also negative.

And now my stomach feels much better. I probably just had a virus or something that went away. I played volleyball last Tuesday and my hip has been hurting for like a week, so it looks like I still won't be playing for a while. I also was pretty bad at hitting...it is amazing how cancer, a broken hip, chemotherapy and radiation take your vertical jump away.

Endoscopy

I am feeling great right now. Zach had to drive me to the Surgecenter at the clinic and I had to get an IV and they pumped me full of some drugs and then they apparently shoved the tube down my throat. I don't remember much of it, but when I got out I sure felt good. The other good thing is that the doctor thought it all looked pretty much normal. So, I guess we are going to have to figure something else out. I am relieved to be done with the procedure, they really are a piece of cake though.

Dry Heaves

About every other day now I wake up and I have dry heaves in the morning. My roomate, Zach, suggested that it might be morning sickness. My doctors want to explore it, so they are going to give me an endoscopy this coming Wednesday. I am going to be sedated, and then they will shove a tube down my throat and look inside. I am going to be really drugged up, then I am going to go to practice. It feels kind of eary right now that I am not dreading the endoscopy. I am a professional lab-rat.

1 Year Cancer-Free

Yesterday I had my 1 year PET/CT scan. I already know that the radiologist did not see any signs of lymphoma lurking in my guts and bones. I basically punched cancer right in the head really hard.

This test is the one that makes me a menace to pregnant women and children because I am radioactive after they inject the radioactive glucose in my veins. The funny part about that is that I had tryouts for my high school team immediately after and I had to define my nuclear fallout zone of 20 feet while I coached the whole morning session. They told me that the reason for this is that kids' cells are dividing quicker than adults and that they are more vulnerable to the effects of radiation. It made for some awkward group talks from a distance. It was ok, they kind of smelled anyway.

The technician had me put on one of those gowns with the full slit down the back. Previously they had me wear the one with three arm holes that, though it was complicated to figure out, covered my body way more effectively. This one gave me a breeze. I was holding it shut to spare the onlookers. One of the other technicians saw me come out of the bathroom after changing and said, "nice style." To which I responded, "thanks, you should see the backside." He said, "no thanks," and I went into the room with the big donut machines and they scanned me for like 45 minutes. I had an itch on my chin this time and I couldn't move and I wanted to poke my eyes out, but I couldn't do that either; you cannot move at all for the whole time. I have gotten better and better at it.

Next up is some more blood draws, a visit to a gastroenterologist, and potentially an endoscopy because I wake up every morning and feel like throwing up. An endoscopy is where they put a tube down your throat and look in your stomach. I think my stomach is a little messed up from the treatment. This morning I threw up for a little bit, but that was not entirely my stomach's fault; when I was brushing my teeth I went to scrub the tongue and I went a little deep.

My energy is way up though, and I feel the best I have in a long time - even with the slight constant nausea. I still can't run, but I coached 40 hours of private volleyball lessons last week, plus worked out 4 of the days, and I maintained energy throughout. The fatigue is fading fast and I feel great!

Cytogenetics and Scooter

[tried to post this in May, but it didn't work somehow]

I just heard, my "cytogenetics" from my bone marrow aspiration/biopsy are normal. Cytogenetics is where they look at my chromosomes to see if I mutated. I didn't, so that is good. It is the final analysis of my bone-marrow biopsy. For now, I am on monthly blood-draws and I will continue with my 'hypocellular marrow', which means messed up bone marrow. Some doctors think it will improve, others think I will just have low marrow forever, and either way it isn't that big of a deal. I'm glad to be fully done with this little scare.

My scooter was stolen early this week. How awesome is that? I am getting good at bad news - I didn't even really care that it was stolen! I mean, I guess I want to punch whoever took it in the head, but I'm really not all that worked up. It was a really girly-looking scooter anyway and I was much larger than it so I looked sort of like one of my bears on a tricycle when I was riding it wearing my huge helmet. Oh the memories though, like the time I was stopped at a stop light near Menlo School and some high school kid was driving by me and and leaned out the window, pointed at me, and mockingly laughed out loud. Or the time when I drove from San Carlos to Santa Clara - about 45 minutes - with two bags of 6 volleyballs each on my back, under medium to high winds pushing on my volleyball-bag-sails and swirving me around on the road. Or the countless times I drove home in the foggy cold, shivering and crouched in a race-style position going under 45 mph. I will miss my tiny, white, efeminate scooter, but will try to move on. Maybe I'll get an actual motorcycle and grow a pony-tail.