As a small business owner I get a lot of calls from people offering me things. Today I got a call from a call center wanting to talk to me about my current health care provider. They were offering to beat any price Out there. Its fun to tell them “sure lets talk” and then follow up with “I’m in active treatment at MD Anderson.” They quickly back track and want to know if anyone I know might need their services. Ha Ha better luck next time sucker.
Now if I could only get the local blood bank to stop calling. I’ve told them 3 times I don’t think they want my blood but they keep calling.
So if you want to stop folks in their tracks just toss out the cancer word and that will change things quick.
Saturday we celebrate Benjamin’s birthday. Last week on his actual birthday we were in Houston getting chemotherapy. He wanted to have a Buc-ee’s Beaver birthday so Kendra made that happen. On our way back from Houston we stopped off in Wharton, Texas and picked up as much party Buc-ee gear as we could find.
We will post photos of his custom made Buc-ee’s cake after he digs into it.
I have had had this little lens for a while. I think I grabbed it at a pawn shop as a feeble tossed in with another lens purchase. So after a little reading I discovered it is for developing photos. With the right rig you can use it to take photos.
Each time you eat something you might want to ask yourself is this going to help or hurt me. That is pretty much what it boils down to. The things you eat will only do those two things. So in a quest to be as health as possible I had a allergy test ran on my blood. This gave me a baseline to start my cancer diet on.
So this video is just a little update on how and what I’m doing this week. I feel really good and back to my high health diet. The chemotherapy effects have warn off and I’m headding back into the edit bay to make some clients happy.
I’m disappointed in my medical care. I’m prescribed a protocol of chemotherapy that is engineered to kick my cancer to the curb. It is called EPOCH-R and is comprised of a drug for each letter of the acronym.
Friday – On my first 24 hour setup it dawned on me I was not given the P med. That is Prednisone for the pharmacy folks. I had to call in and get it. I take it each day. It is a steroid and assist helping the chemo kick ass. Without the P this would be useless.
Monday – I’m back at the center to hand in my back pack and have my last round of anti nausea meds ran with my one hour of Cyclophosphamide. That is the mustard gas derivative that makes me sterile.
So today the nurse didn’t know that I was set to receive a bag of fun cycloprmo-jo-jo-pharmacide.
This marks the 2nd time during this chemotherapy run that I had to give a reminder in order for me to stick to the protocol. I expect better from the number 1. And for the price I should get the world.
So enough with me covering my own ass over here. Kendra and I had one heck of a day.
We went to the Herman Park and ended up in the zoo. Sure Kendra was there last week but this time I was her only responsibility. I know I had a great time and Kendra is happy she made friends with a giraffe and he came over to be pet. I will post up zoo photos later.
Today we played around taking photos with the “new to me” lens we bought this week. It was well worth the 40 bucks. It is a super zoom lens when attached to my NEX7 Sony camera.
Well enough nerd talk right now. Zoo photos will be up on Facebook later tonight. We will have some clinic time on Tuesday and then off to Corpus Christi.
So this passed week the hair on the top of my head started to fall out. You might have seen the post and the video where I shaved it off before it fell out in patches. This week will be when I go from some hair to no hair. My eyebrows are now starting to fall like the autumn leaves.
Derrick Perrin with open eyes
My hair loss was really strange. I knew from the time I talked with my oncologist that I would be hit with some really strong chemotherapy. Due to my age they put me on high octane chemo. EPOCH+R or R-EPOCH is my chemotherapy of choice. Last week I felt some tingling associated with my hair follicles. Three days after the tingle I was out in my garage shaving them off. Three days ago I felt the same thing with my eyebrows and today with a mild pull and no pain I can get the hair to come right out. MD Anderson has classes on how to paint on eyebrows and choosing the right wig. I think I might go to the “Groucho Marx” school of makeup.
I’m guessing spreading some super glue to my last few hairs wont make them say and look good? I really feel for the women I see around who are bald. They work so hard a beauty and advertising would make you think flowing hair is your key to Saint Peter’s gates, but its not. It is temporary and if this shit doesn’t kill you it will make you stronger.
I can’t wait till all my other hair falls out and I will go to Halloween as an Olympic swimmer.
Well that is it for now. If you want to find me just follow the track of hairs left behind.
Last Wednesday night we packed up the kids and headed to Port Lavaca to drop off our pack. On the way there Kendra and I were talking about Benjamin’s Birthday coming up. I was shocked to find out it was going to take place on this 5 day stretch of chemotherapy. So the sad moment sets in when I figure out cancer has taken away the opportunity to celebrate Ben’s birthday on his actual birthday.
We did call and get to talk with him on his birthday. He was happy with his balloons, cupcake, police truck, and grilled cheese sandwiches. I have a birthday cumming up and I might ask for the same menu…. Oh wait I don’t do sugar anymore. Well back to the drawing board.
We love and miss you little Benjamin. I wish we went so far away this week, but I have to do this so I can make all the other ones. Don’t worry little buddy there will be more cake, more balloons, and more family fun.
So this is day 3 of my 2nd round of chemotherapy. This is different from my first round of chemo. Since I was such a good patient on the first round I’m able to take my chemo out of the hospital. I have a backpack that gets refilled once a day. Take a look.
Each night we drop my MD Anderson and pickup my next 24 hours of chemotherapy. They check me out and send me on my way. So I’m locked into wearing this backpack that sounds like a automatic soap dispenser. I’m still not use to having it connected to my piccl line so I often stand up and start to walk away from it and it follows me.
I get rid of the pack late Monday night. I looks like It will run till 11:30 and then I have another bag of chemo that last an hour. By the time I get use to totting this bag around it will be gone. This is how my following rounds will be administered.
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