Monday, March 23, 2009
Back to Chemo
We had a nice quick trip visiting Kevin in January. Mark skied a few days with Kevin and had a mountain top picnic in the gorgeous weather. However, his situation went downhill after our return. Although Mark didn't feel very well, we did sneak in a trip to Puerto Rico in February. The highlight of that was being joined for a few days by Gary, Kristina and the little leprechaun, Sean, who is now 3 months old!
Mark had started to develop lymphadema around the Holidays. It's swelling and fluid buildup in his arm where the cancer originally appeared and is the result of radiation. Most commonly, you hear of women with breast cancer having this problem which is a lifelong condition that can not be cured but generally the pain can be managed. Thus far Mark's pain has been excruciating. He has tried several therapies like lymphadema massage, acupuncture, a lymphadema sleeve and pain killers. A few other therapies are in the works. In addition, he visited a dermatologist who discovered several skin cancers. Many were just frozen off, however, a few were squamous cell cancer which were removed last week. The stitches on his shoulder and the top of his head are about 2 inches long! As a result of these problems, Mark has had a quiet winter, done much reading and watched sports. He's been completely laid up a few days a week for the past few months.
His recent scans and blood tests have been pretty good but today the oncologist decided to put him back on a chemo called Nevelbine somewhat as a preventative measure. It's primarily for all the skin cancers which have been popping up in the absence of any chemo for about a year. The chemo will be administered once a week for about four months and shouldn't have too many side effects other than hair loss which Mark thinks would be negligible seeing he has so little left!
Now that spring is here, he intends to plant a garden and resume his landscaping. He hired a young guy to help him out with the heavy work. Unfortunately, he is giving up his golf membership because the lymphadema restricts his range of motion, however, he's confident that he can at least cast fishing lines with his right arm and sit on his ass waiting for nibbles! Best of all, baseball season begins soon and he can lay in bed and curse the players.
We'll keep you posted as the spring progresses.
Nancy: sheehan@cape.com
Mark had started to develop lymphadema around the Holidays. It's swelling and fluid buildup in his arm where the cancer originally appeared and is the result of radiation. Most commonly, you hear of women with breast cancer having this problem which is a lifelong condition that can not be cured but generally the pain can be managed. Thus far Mark's pain has been excruciating. He has tried several therapies like lymphadema massage, acupuncture, a lymphadema sleeve and pain killers. A few other therapies are in the works. In addition, he visited a dermatologist who discovered several skin cancers. Many were just frozen off, however, a few were squamous cell cancer which were removed last week. The stitches on his shoulder and the top of his head are about 2 inches long! As a result of these problems, Mark has had a quiet winter, done much reading and watched sports. He's been completely laid up a few days a week for the past few months.
His recent scans and blood tests have been pretty good but today the oncologist decided to put him back on a chemo called Nevelbine somewhat as a preventative measure. It's primarily for all the skin cancers which have been popping up in the absence of any chemo for about a year. The chemo will be administered once a week for about four months and shouldn't have too many side effects other than hair loss which Mark thinks would be negligible seeing he has so little left!
Now that spring is here, he intends to plant a garden and resume his landscaping. He hired a young guy to help him out with the heavy work. Unfortunately, he is giving up his golf membership because the lymphadema restricts his range of motion, however, he's confident that he can at least cast fishing lines with his right arm and sit on his ass waiting for nibbles! Best of all, baseball season begins soon and he can lay in bed and curse the players.
We'll keep you posted as the spring progresses.
Nancy: sheehan@cape.com
