On to Plan B

Hi all! Well it has been a pretty uneventful few weeks! Dad has been feeling really great and been getting out on the golf course alot. It has been so hot in Arizona though I don't know how he doesn't melt to death.

Him and I also went shooting (or as Dad likes to say.."pop some caps") last week which was so much fun! He hadn't shot a gun since he was in the Navy but let me tell ya, Dad still has it!

Yesterday was CT Scan day. We were all wondering if the dye he has to drink before would taste as bad since he isn't getting as nauseous...well it still tastes terrible haha dangit.

Today we met with Dr. K to review the results of the Scan...here are the deets:

• The main lung tumor shrunk 2mm...not as significant as last time, but progress is progress.
• There are what the call "satellite nodules" or lesions appearing in the upper left lung near the main tumor. They are about the size of a piece of rice and they aren't sure if they are related to the cancer or if they are signs of an infection. Dr. K said Valley Fever was a possibility so he got tested for that today. We cant biopsy them because they are so small so it is more of a waiting game to see if they change.
• The tumor (actually we aren't completely sure its a tumor, the report says metastasis so we will go with that) on the adrenal gland grew from 1.3x1.1 cm to 3.0x2.3 cm. This was a big concern for Dr. K obviously so he said no chemo for Dad today. Dad will get a biopsy done over labor day weekend and since Avastin (chemo drug) promotes bleeding Dr. K wants it out of Dads system for a month. 
• His labs look really good with the exception of an elevated white blood cell count which means his body is fighting something!

So what now? Well when they do the biopsy they will test for the lung cancer gene to see if it is related to the lung cancer. If it isn't, they will start a new chemo plan that will hopefully work better.  He also let us know of a few other options including two oral drugs and an experimental study that has proved great success at TGen (Translational Genomics Research Institute). Radiation isn't an option because Dad needs whats called systemic treatment which means treatment that targets the whole body, not just one location which radiation does. We are also going to start scanning every 2 months instead of 3 so we can see change without it being too early or too long.

As of right now Dad is scheduled for the biopsy on the 3rd (yes that is labor day, yes they are closed, yes that date might just have to change) and meeting with Dr. K on the 14th to figure out what plan B is! 

Everyone, especially Dad, is doing well. We have a TON of hope and faith in Dad's team and know they are providing the absolute best care they can! All we can do is take it one day at a time and keep doing all that we have been doing! Please keep Dad and his medical team in your prayers, and if you have time leave him some sugar below :) We will keep you updated, have a great week!

Live For The Moment

Hello! I am writing to you from my new cable-less, ethernet cable savy apartment...It's very "starving college student" if I do say so myself. I am sure many of you can't even imagine what this world feels like anymore, but my roommate and I think it is pretty awesome. It has been a busy, but wonderful, three weeks! Dad's melanoma surgery went great! We were and continue to be impressed with Dr. Griego's work. He got all of the melanoma the first time and Dad's scar is healing really well. He was pretty sore for about a week but is back to a painless world now. I wanted to post the pictures, so if you have a queezy stomach...scroll down quickly :)

This is Dad's face after the melanoma was cut out. They left it open for a day (covered by a bandage of course) before they stitched it.

This is the stiching! Right off the bat you could barely see it! There are three layers of stitches that will dissolve in the next 3 months. 

Here is Dad just two weeks later! Can you tell?!

Dad and Cindy went up to Portland last week to visit Cindy's daughter and family. They had such a great time going to the beach, the fair, and everything in between!

Regan, Dad, and little Maddie...she is so cute!

My sister Kristen has also returned home from her two month adventure in Scotland, Ireland, and London. We were so ready to have her home & it is so great to have the whole family back together!

Chemo yesterday went well...for the most part. They changed their procedures so now when we get to MD Anderson for blood work, the nurse will place the IV in the port and draw the blood from there. Previously they drew blood from his arm and Cristine, our chemo nurse, administered the IV in his port. Well poor Dad came out with watery eyes and said that it really hurt. He asked the nurse if she had done a port before and she said "Well, I did one this morning". Hopefully she can get her act together in the next three weeks!

Dr. K said all was well and he was really happy with Dad's scar on his face! He also let us know that he planned his next vacation around Dad's schedule. I think he learned his lesson from his last vacation...We aren't difficult I swear! We will get to do another CT scan on 8/20 to see the current progress. Chemo went great as usual. Dad got a little stomach queezy but only for a little bit. Then, of course, we feasted after!

I feel very blessed on multiple levels, including that Cristine our chemo nurse has inspired me to go back to school and become and oncology nurse! God has been putting this on my heart the last few months so I finally buckled down and I start school August 20th! I'm sharing this with you all as a reminder to LIVE FOR THE MOMENT! Do what you love, life is so short to let worry get in the way of what you truly love and want to do. Even in the face of a negative experience, there is something greater that will come out of it. Thanks for your continued prayers, we appreciate you all from the bottom of our heart!

As if Lung Cancer Wasn't Enough

Happy Thursday! Well Dad and I had the most incredible time in Colorado! I feel so blessed to have such a close family, it makes family visits that much more fun, but leaving that much harder :) We were so glad to get together with the whole family for dinner one night, but of course there was no group picture! Sorry Nan!

Dad and I!

Dad & Blake!

My cousin Aaron's son Andre...he is so big now!

 I wanted to post real quick a heartfelt thank you to Denise and her New Life church group, Small Acts of Kindness. They handmade the most BEAUTIFUL quilt for Dad! The stitching has hearts around the whole quilt and well it is just the most gorgeous quilt I have ever seen. They make quilts for people and children that are sick, in the hospital, or going through a tough time. When they hear of a person in need they make a quilt, pray over it, and send it to that person. They truly are using their God given gifts to add brightness to peoples' day who may need a little lift. Thank you SO much Denise, Dad loves it!

I made it big so you could see the heart stitching! SO amazing!

Well, last week Dad went to the dermatologist to get a spot on his arm checked out. The dermatologist looked at it, and said "Oh you're just getting old." (haha) but she did want to check out the birthmark on his face. They did a biopsy and it came back positive for melanoma (skin cancer). Thankfully its only stage one so all he needs is surgery and it will be taken care of. Clearly Dad is just getting all of this cancer stuff out of the way at once! We looked at the plastic surgeons website and it is absolutely incredible the work he does! If you are curious like we all were check it out here. Next Monday he will go in for a 6 hour surgery to remove the melanoma. We think the doctor should just do a face lift while he's in there...just kidding!

Regardless of the news yesterday, chemo was filled with SO many laughs yesterday! Jess was able to join us for chemo even though she just got back from Spain the night before! We got to talk to the nurse a lot about the melanoma and then his nausea (which he had about every 10 days..more of a allergic reaction to certain foods vs. constant chemo nausea) and what other medicines he can take for it. The nurse also mentioned about having to wear a lot of sunscreen and a hat while playing golf...and that maybe he should look into a safari looking brimmed hat... Dad immediately got a sad look and said "that's gay" and the laughter would not stop! The final decision was for him to get a personal assistant to hold an umbrella over his head while walking through the course... I guess safari hats aren't cool!

When we met with Dr. K the first thing he said was "As if lung cancer wasn't enough". He wanted to skip the chemo drug avastin today as it isnt the best for healing (it promotes blood flow so the cut [...totally blanking on the scientific term, its early...] on his face wouldnt be able to clot and heal normally). Other than that he said Dad is doing great and has gained a whole 5 pounds since we started the maintenance chemo. 

Chemo was really short, i mean I think we were in there for maybe 40 minutes...we almost beat the lunch cart out! Dad also got a B12 shot yesterday alongside his chemo.

The Post-Chemo Picture

Even through lung cancer and now melanoma, Dad is still so positive and living life like nothing has changed! He is such an inspiration and I am so very proud of him. Thank you all for your continued support and prayers they mean so much to us!

“Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul
And sings the tune without the words
And never stops at all.”
― Emily Dickinson

King of the Hospital

Hi all! Hope all is well with you and summer has been full of fun and adventure! I did want to start by wishing all the fathers out there a happy belated fathers day! Dad and I had a great day celebrating (we missed my sister though-she is in Europe!)...we saw Rock of Ages and ate a wonderful dinner at Outback! I am so blessed to have such an incredible Dad to share not only fathers day with, but every day life! I thought I'd share a little blast from the past in honor of the best Dad in the world!

Well Dad handled the first maintenance chemo pretty well, his energy was definitely better than when he had the cisplatin! The only bad part was the night he got food poisoning...poor guy!

Dad, Cindy, and I went in for bloodwork, a visit with Dr. K, and chemo last Wednesday. After bloodwork we had about an hour to kill so we decided to grab coffee and breakfast at the cute little bistro in the hospital. When we sat down the Administrator of the hospital asked if he could join us and ask Dad about his experience! He was so nice and it was great being able to talk to him and share with him our complete honest feelings on our experience. Of course we LOVE MD Anderson but we were very vocal in our feelings on their Nurse Navigator program. If any of you Arizonians have seen the commercials for MD, they say something along the lines of "and a nurse navigator will be with you every step of the way". Well that is not the case, as we have seen ours once...in February...And when we did try to call her for a question on his meds she was NOT happy we were calling. Anyway, it was a great conversation and he appreciated our feedback as he is revamping a few things including the nurse navigator program.

Meeting with Dr. K went really well! He was in a really good mood haha I think we were a little caught of guard with the amount of his talkativeness. None the less, great appointment and he was very pleased with Dads energy AND the fact he gained four pounds! You can call him fatty now.

Chemo went great as well! Christine was our nurse again thank the lord since 1. we love her and 2. I heard a nurse come ask her for IV help...as if we will ever let Dad go through that again! Chemo flies by now, we were in and out in two hours! When we were leaving I actually felt like we were at home considering Dad gave Christine a big hug, I blew her a kiss, and Dad said I love you to the blood work receptionist, Juanita. Pretty soon, Dad will be King of MD Anderson! Who am I kidding...he already is!

Talking to Michael, notice the rainbow :)

We all decided to wear our salmon colors Wednesday..Great minds think alike! I also love this picture of Dad!

MMM Lunch :)

Well we are jet setting to Colorado this week to see our wonderful family and I could not be more excited! Have a great week, we love you all!

The Port Life

TGIF! What an eventful two days it has been for Team OJ! Yesterday Dad went in for a quick surgery to get his port placed (and don't worry, today's updated comes with many show and tell pictures). After we checked in they took Dad back right away to get blood and let him get changed into his sweet outfit:

The procedure itself was less than an hour, and he was awake the whole time! He did have a drug that made him a little less coherent, but we will just say that he was awake...it adds to his toughness :)

This is what Dad's chest looks like with the port! We were all wondering where the stitches were but the incision is held together with glue not stitches (medicine is so amazing!). He had to wait in the recovery room for an hour and kept trying to charm the nurses to lessen the amount of time he had to sit there...didn't work this time! But it gave us time to look at the reading material they gave us:

This is what the port looks like under the skin

This is the device they use to access the port, the needle goes through the skin and into the port

Here is a combined view. The catheter actually goes from the port, up by his neck and then ends right above the right atrium of the heart.

 

Yesterday was also a first! Go in for surgery, come out and get a parking ticket. When we had arrived in the morning Dad accidentally used the "ambulance only" entrance, and got a ticket for it! At least it was only a warning :)

It was just Dad and I today for chemo...I think some of the nurses didn't realize it was Dad because there wasn't a whole posse accompanying him. Just kidding, they could never forget him! Our favorite nurse Kristine was our nurse again, and let me tell you...she is bomb.com! It is so comforting to have a nurse that has been in oncology for so long, she knows so much and knows exactly how to utilize the port (you would think every nurse would be able to, but after Dad's experience with nurses not being good at finding his veins, we knew that probably isn't the case). Also, the needle that is inserted into the port...that thing doesn't mess around, it's huge!!

Kristine and Dad...She has to freeze the skin over the port so it doesn't hurt when the needle goes in

Sorry this one is so hard to see, but right above the teal circle is where the needle is hooked into the port just like the diagram above.

We were there for about two hours, which was a cake walk compared to the last four chemo's! Dad was such a trooper and was in great spirits and energy the rest of the day so we had a mini father daughter date where we stuffed our face with Chipotle, went shopping, and I graced him with my angelic singing voice in the car. Dad gets a three week break, but I think he is going to need to find a new hobby because he can't golf for a at least a week! Thank you all for your continued love, support, and prayers! Have a wonderful weekend!

OJ Loves His Sugar

Hi all! I hope your week is off to as great of a start as ours is! Yesterday the wholeeee gang all trekked to MD Anderson for the "big" appointment! Oscar is the nurse that always takes us back when we meet with Dr. K and I still don't think he is used to the large OJ posse. One day Oscar, one day :). Well once we got back there Dr. K came right in to see us. Even after getting the good news from the X-ray Thursday I think we were all a little anxious on what Dr. K was going to tell us. Well low and behold the first words out of his mouth were "I'm very pleased with the results!" He let us know that with Dad's specific type of cancer you usually don't see a change but Dad's tumor has significantly shrunk!!! I cannot tell you how hard it was not to get up, scream, and do a happy dance! The tumor on his lung shrunk from 3 inches to 2 inches which is just such a blessing from God! The tumor on the adrenal gland remained unchanged, but Dr. K doesn't know if that is metastatic from the lung cancer, a benign (non-cancerous) tumor, or something that was there previously that has no correlation with the cancer. We asked if he wanted to find out but he said no because it wasn't the main point of concern.

So what now? Well next Tuesday Dad will go in for a minor surgical procedure to get what is called a port. A port is a small device placed beneath the skin that will connect a catheter to a vein. This will be the main entry for his chemo from now on (versus using his arm veins every time). Dad's veins are very sore from all the chemo's and getting blood drawn over the next few months, so it was time! Thursday Dad will start a maintenance chemo that he will go in every three weeks for. The chemo will be Avastin and Altimta, two of three drugs he has been on the last few months. Removing the Cisplatin will also remove the negative side effects chemo gives, so no more nausea! WOOT WOOT!

Dad will be on the maintenance chemo for as long as the tumor responds, which Dr. K thinks Dad will respond great especially since he responded so great to this last round. We asked about the biopsy and Dr. K said it isn't urgent to get more tissue right now since the chemo is working for Dad and we don't need to look at other options. All great news!

On a humorous note, my second favorite part of the day yesterday was this: Those of you who know my Dad know he loves his burgers and fries... and is not the biggest fan of lettuce, ESPECIALLY the kind that pokes you and gets stuck in your throat (aka spinach). Well Cindy had asked about diet as she had done some research that said cancer likes sugar... as soon as that comment came out of her mouth Dad goes "And so does OJ!" nodding his head with this huge smile. I wanted to die of laughter, I wish I had it on video!

Thank you all for the kind words, prayers, and support! We are so blessed to have the best support system in the world! God is clearly working for Team OJ and I cannot wait to see the blessings he brings the next few months! Have a great week!

The most handsome man I know!

A Months Worth of Recaps

Wow it has been forever since I have written! I kept saying "I'll update the blog after this event, or this birthday, or this trip" and well before you know it a month flies by! It has been a jam packed month and I can't believe all that has happened in that short amount of time! First we were able to celebrate Dad's Birthday on the 21st and mine on the 2nd...we celebrated with food of course!

Dads 23rd (haha) Birthday

My 23rd Birthday

Dad has also gotten to take a few vacations, one to Austin, one to San Diego, and one to New Mexico. Always good to get out of the heat we are already having!

My sorority sisters from college also put together a Relay for Life team in honor of Dad which was incredible! I was so glad I was able to go up to Flagstaff and participate with them!

 

 

Dad also has gotten a ton of golf in! It is such a blessing that he is still able to go out and do what he loves most with his best friends!

My favorite smile in the world!

Dad and his girls on Cinco de Mayo!

Well Dad's "last" chemo was a bit of a rough one. He was exhausted and nauseous for a full week. The anti nausea drugs that MD Anderson had prescribed did a whole lotta nothin but thankfully Dad found his miracle drug, zantac! It helped get rid of the nausea completely which I can only imagine how thankful Dad was for that! Remember that pain Dad has gotten for a day or two after every chemo? Well he got it again this round and went immediately to MD Anderson to get an EKG (which came back normal). This time it also lasted much longer (a few days) and still gets the pain every now and then.

We met with Dr Siever on Friday for a check up. The appointment went well, we love Dr. Siever so it is always great seeing him! We all have been extremely curious on how the tumor has responded to the chemo so we asked if Dr. Siever could take an Xray (We couldn't wait 5 more days for the CT scan!). We were able to look at the 3 different Xrays and see the progress of the tumor. Although the Xray isn't the clearest form of looking at the progress, we were clearly able to see how much the tumor has shrunk! It was so cool (I was all ready to post the Xrays on the blog so you could share the excitement, but they wont load on my computer, darn!) to see that and we all did a little bit of a happy dance!

This upcoming week is a busy one for us. On Monday Dad gets blood work and the CT scan (this is what clearly shows the 3D image of the tumor). Tuesday we meet with Dr. K to go over the scan and see where treatment goes from here. If Dr. K wants to do another round of chemo that will also start this week. We are all very anxious to get the results of the CT scan back, but I know that God is working for and through my Dad and there is no need to worry! Thank you all for your continued prayers and support, I promise it wont be a month before I update next!