2-20-09 There and Back again, or, one shitty month!

I spent most of the last month in the Hospital, and let me tell you, it's not the most fun place to be. It's kind of like a really shitty amusement park/resort. You get to order room service for every meal, but then again it's hospital food. You get to go on all sorts of neat rides, but these turn out to be things like CT and MRI scans. So instead of getting into something and spinning around and around, you get into something and it spins and spins around you, What fun! The other similarity is the constant noise. there are all sorts of beeps, sirens, yells, and running feet, only it's nurses running to get the old people back into their beds or to try and keep someone from taking the Big nap. That's about it, the rest of it pretty much sucks. The Nurses at Bronson Hospital though were all top notch. They made the stay there bearable, Thank You!
So I'm home again, after 9 more days. Hopefully for longer this time. In fact, my Doctor says that there's no reason that I should have to go back into the hospital. I am so glad to be home. I get to see Erin and the boys every day now. It was so much fun to just be able to play with them last night in the living room. I know that I can handle anything that gets thrown at me now. As long as I have my family and friends with me, and I know that I can come home! Thank you all!

2/3/09, Home at last, Home at last, thank god almighty I am home at last

I am writting this in my own bed! My own bed, in my own house, surrounded by my stuff and the people who love me. I am not exactly in my bedroom, well kind of. My bedroom was not in the sameplace it was before I was in the hospital. But then again, if you go back far enough, this was my bedroom a couple years ago. Either way, I am home. THank you Thank you Thank you.

1/31/09 Almost finished, or what's happened to the last five days?

Greetings to everyone!



I want to start off by thanking every single one of you out there. We have been surrounded by a circle of friends and family who have really come through for us. Thanks to everyone who made a meal, or helped with the kids, or called to let me know they were thinking about me. It's great that I have spoken to more people that I have lost touch with than I can remember right now. I hope we can all continue our relationships. anyways, almost done with the chemo induction. I may be able to go home on Tuesday.

1/24/09 to 1/29/09 sick from chemo, too tired to type

Chemo sucks, no other way to put it. I've been tired, nausous, ect,ect. Almost through, Saturday is the last infusion. The Doctor told me that I can brush my teeth and shave again.

1/23/09, pm Bryan loses his filter, or The advantages and disadvantages of good narcotics.

There's this stuff called Dilaudid. Let me tell you about dilaudid. It's a pain killer, it's five times stronger than morphine, it works, and I like it. I don't know about anyone else, but it also causes me to lose my filter. You know that thing that keeps you from saying what you really want to say, or keeps you from saying the first thing that pops into your head. Some people call it a concsious, others portray it as a little angle sitting on your shoulder.

I came out of surgery fine, but a little sore. I slept some, and then talked to Erin for the rest of the morning. Right around noon, Doug and his son Mac show up to visit. Doug and his family have been friends with us for a long time. Erin started nannying for them when the youngest member of the family, Ian, was only 6 months old. He's now 15. Mack is now 17, and a senior in High School. Over the course of the conversation, I would say anything, regardless of how tacky or inappropriate it. I had everyone in the room cracking up. It was like I was 12 shots into a good bottle of scotch, with out being blunted in the slightest. I was throwing out double, triple, even quadruple entandre. I said things that should not be said in front of impressionable teenagers. I made comments about the social habits of teenagers now a days that fathers don't want to hear. overall, everyone had a good time. I wish I could describe it a little more accuratly, but now it's all a little hazy

1/23/09 AM Surgery day, or, this wasn't the sort of Port I was hoping to have installed one day.

For those of you old enough, do you remember what the 21st century was supposed to be like? We were promised flying cars, robots to clean up the house, jet packs, full meals in a pill, and end to world hunger, all other sorts neat stuff. Well nothing turned out like we were promised. One of the things I was really looking forward to was the posibility of having a data port installed, which would allow me to jack a computer directly into my brain and nervous system. You know what I mean, like from the matrix or any other SciFi movie. Unfortunatly, I did get a port installed today, but not the kind I hoped for.
What a night. I couldn't have anything to eat or drink after 9:00pm yesterday. Normally no big deal, unless you are coughing your lungs up all night and have a dry throat. And I was coughing my lungs up, or at least a lot of blood, phlegm, and what not. It's the what not that I was worried about. Also, When I woke up, my pillow case had this great rorschack bloodstain on it that looked kind of like a water buffalo, sort of. I wanted to keep it and use it later on, but they took it of when I was gone.
So, the nurse comes and wakes me up at 5:30 and starts to get me ready for my surgery. I am having something called a "Hickman catheter" (See Picture). At 7 the take me down to presurgery, I think, cause some things are still blury. Once they get me down there to the waiting room, I see an old co-worker walking by as they bring his dad in on a gurney. So I shout out "Hey CW, Hows it going man!" Then I realize how stupid of a comment that is. Here he is walking into a presurgical area with his dad on a bed, obviousley going in for some kind of procedure and some guy in a gown with a mask covering his face ( I have to wear one when ever I go out of my room) starts shouting at him. After a few seconds he finaly recognises me. we talk for a few minutes " Hey hows it going," " Oh, not to bad, my dads here for a heart procedure, How about you" " Oh, I'm alright, I found out I have Leukemia two days ago and they have to put some kind of port thingy in" yeah, kind of awkard, but more about that later.
Long story short, they put me under and install a catheter into my juggular vein. I wake up later, groggy and sore, and the only two good things about this are: 1. no more vein spikes for every little test of med dose, and 2. Pain killers

1/22/09 Kind of a slow day, or I'm gonna have a lot of time on my hands

1/22/09,
well, not a lot happened today. I did talk to a lot of Doctors and got a rough idea of where we go from here. Tomorrow they are going to instal something called a Hickman Catheter. It goes into my chest so that I don't have to get stuck every time I have to get an injection of blood draw. I also wanted to comment on all the support Erin and I have gotten over the last few days. I have heard from so many people and everyone has been supportive. Scott B, Chris K, Don K, Julie F, Kyle, Chris P, Anthony and even my sisters Josh have called, and offered support and I want to say thank you very much. Email and Facebook has also allowed lots of people to give me some support. I do get the feeling that I am going to have enough time on my hands in the near future so that I can really get into the whole Facebook experience. I do feel kind of bad telling people that I haven't heard from in several years that I just got diagnosed with cancer. Oh well. I used the computer a lot today. Played a lot of Mahjong and solitare. Not much more news.