Dave Chalk's Cancer Chronicles

What would I be?

2012-01-24T19:03:00.000-07:00

As a cancer patient your life is drastically different than the "normal" non-cancerous majority. For those who do not know, I have been fighting the cancer on and off for over 9 years now. I was 16-years-old at the time of my first diagnosis. This is during the years when most kids are knee deep in self-discovery. However for me, I was thrust into the identity of cancer patient.

I actually had a thought today about what I would do if my cancer went away for good. Obviously, I would be excited to not have to do chemo, and have my life revolve around hospitals and doctors appointments. But, for being a cancer patient for nearly a DECADE it has become a deep part of the internal fabric that makes up David Chalk (Yes, I know I did just talk in third person, but this is my blog and I can do what I want).

The real reason this thought popped into my head was because today I walked, yes walked for an hour straight. I did this because I noticed how complacent I had become. Previous to my diagnosis I was very very active and loved playing sports. My schedule was something to this:

6:15 to 7:05 a.m. Seminary, early morning church study before high school. ( I write this for my non-mormon readers who may not know what this is.

7:30 a.m. to 2:15 p.m. High School (This was my time to socialize and although not sleeping allowed for my body to rest...this will make more sense later).

2:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. Water Polo practice...I played however was not that great. I enjoyed just being active. I started my sophomore year of high school, although this was more attributed to the fact that we had 5 great players on the team, and since the coach was a family from my church he chose me to be the 6th guy.

5:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. Soccer Practice...I was on a city team and was the starting goalie. Of all the sports I played growing up I would say I was best at soccer. The main reason being that I was not afraid to beat up my body and therefore played the goalie position with very little reservations.

7:30 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. Basketball practice...I was horrible at basketball, but have pretty good hand-eye coordination. So , I usually started and played hard. Once again, I had little regard for my body, so I was always diving on the floor for loose balls, and whatnot. Hustle does pay off.

I would then go home do my homework and go to bed around 10:00 p.m. in order to not be completely dead the next day when I needed to get up at 5:30 in order to be at seminary on time.

Anyways so back to the reason I am writing all of this. From this schedule you can see how active I was and how sports was such a BIG part of my everyday activities. So when I was diagnosed with cancer my life changed drastically. I was not longer the overly involved sports player I had become a kid who was home schooled and would get winded just slowly walking up the stairs. Cancer changed my identity.

In contrast, I try not to let cancer be the main definer of David Chalk, but it would be naive to say that it has not played a prominent role in who I have become. So, I think that I would have a identity searching process if my cancer went away for good. I hesitate to call it a identity crisis become the word crisis has a negative connotation. The identity searching that I would have to go through, I think would be a very positive and allow for growth.

It is just that I have had certain restrictions placed on me because of cancer. I basically have no endurance. This mean no sports playing, which was hard to accept at first, but I have been able to adjust, adapt, and find new things that interest me and fill my time.

So if cancer left me forever, many new doors would open, along with the reopening of old doors. This is why I had the thought of....Who would I be if cancer decided that my body was all of a sudden not where the party is at.

If cancer left me I would maybe be able to run a marathon, or hike Mount Everest, or travel the world for long periods of time (because I would not have to worry about weekly Dr. appointment).

It would be fun to see what would happen, and how I would change as an individual.

Anyways, sorry for this random thought process blog. I just started typing and this is what came from it. I have been doing a lot of reflective thinking lately, and this is just one of the many things that I have been thinking about.

Also from reading this I hope you get a glimpse into the very scatterbrained and random thinking that happens in my mind on a daily basis. I am just trying to make sense of my own thoughts. Sorry to bore you with randomness.

The moral of this thought process (I think) is the fact that as uncomfortable, scary, and life changing being diagnosed with cancer was. I think that after the past 9 years, returning to the non-cancerous David would be just as life-changing.

That is all. All is well this treatment I am on my second cycle of Rapamycin and return to San Diego in mid-February for my routine 3-month scans. So lets continue to keep the fingers crossed that the experimental drugs are working.

Let me know what you think....If you have any insights into my train of thought and would like to add a different perspective. I would love to hear it. I am a strong advocate of the diversity of thought.

You can comment on my blog, email me at cansirboi1986@gmail.com, facebook me, or send me a tweet @cansirboi.

Spontaneity

2012-01-17T21:45:00.001-07:00

Here is what I did on my very impromptu trip to AZ.....I love last minute decisions!

To make this trip possible I had to wear the same clothes for three days and only change my underwear once in 5 days....but I would totally do it again in a heart beat.

Thanks to the Akers for their awesome hospitality.

2012 brings new things

2012-01-11T22:07:00.001-07:00

I have Hair!

Christmas Break!

2011-12-13T04:38:00.000-07:00

During my first semester of grad school I survived, experienced, and am a better person as a result of the following:

27 page papers about sex scandal
15 annotated bibliographies
10 blood transfusions
9 great grad school cohort friends
8 hours per day spent in the Stats lab during the last month(average)
7 papers
6 classes left in grad school
5 GOLDEN RINGS!!!!!
4 combined millimeters in tumor shrinkage during the semester. (turns out grad school is the greatest chemo treatment of all!)
3 hour stats final
2 weeks of missed school due to health complications
1 semester of Grad School DONE!!!!

and a partridge in a pear tree.

This past semester has been my favorite that I have ever had. I have made some great friends, learned a lot about myself, and had the greatest research partner you could ever have. Special thanks to Kelsey for sharing in my love of sex scandal Apologia. (she was my research partner)

But, I am now done with school until next Year!!!!!!!

Just want to keep you all update.

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night.

Thanksgiving Update

2011-11-22T20:03:00.002-07:00

Yesterday, I had my routine scans that I have every three months.

I was nervous to see how well the experimental rapamycin drug is working.

I had the CT scan and then went to go see my doctor and EVERYTHING had shrunk and was smaller than they had been previous.

It was great news to hear and so I will continue taking the drugs I am and thinks are going great!

Now on to finishing the school semester and then I can relax and enjoy things during Christmas break.

Sex scandals and Cancer Fighting

2011-11-10T18:20:00.003-07:00

I have now been taking Rapamycin for over a week now and so it was once again time to go to the doctors and get my arm poked. Since this is not a ordinary chemo or drug that is usually used to treat cancer the nurse drawing my blood did not know the protocol for figuring out my Rapamycin levels.

They check these levels to make sure that my body is not being totally put out of whack by this new drug I am taking.

So after about 2 hours sitting and waiting my blood was drawn and sent off to the lab. I have yet to hear back from them so I assume that all the levels are good. (I figure they would call me if they were otherwise.)

Besides fighting cancer I am still working on my research paper on comparing the apology celebrities and politician after they admit to a sex scandal. This paper along may be the reason why BYU was only ranked #9. If it was not for my research partner and I googling and searching for prominent sex scandals I feel we would have at least been in the top 5. Here is the article.

That is all I have for today. Oh wait I was going to unveil my new theme song. I could not pick just one. Here are two song the ALWAYS put me in a good mode when they come on my ipod.

First:

Song: It's Time by: Imagine Dragons

Click Here to Listen

Second:

Song: This is the New Year by: Ian Axel

Click Here to Listen

Enjoy listening. I listen to each song like 5 times just while writing this post.

Also if you have not seen the movie 50/50 you need to because it is great.

Still Fighting It

2011-11-03T09:06:00.002-06:00

I had my doctors appointment after taking my Temodar (Chemo) for a week. My blood counts were great. However, with this chemo the blood counts often have a delay before they dip...so we shall see what happens.

Also, I am now taking a drug called Rapamycin or Sirolimus to fight the cancerous party going on in my insides.

This drug is not "chemo" it is usually taken by patients who have received a organ transplant.

You can click here. If you would like to read the wikipedia page about the awesome drug.

So we shall see how it works in terms of fighting It.

As for the rest of life, school is going well and I only have three papers and one test before I can celebrate the day called christmas.

This does not sound like a lot, but one of the papers is 20-25 pages and the test is on Statistics....so it should be a fun few weeks.

Until the next update.....Keep fighting it.....Whatever it may be!

In my next post I will unveil my new theme song!

Another round of chemo....Done

2011-10-29T11:07:00.001-06:00

I survived the 5 days of chemo. I took the oral chemo called temodar.

It was no where as bad as the chemo that wiped me out for 2+ weeks.

This chemo was much more pleasant. (if chemo can even be pleasant.)

I go in for a doctor appointment on Monday to have my counts done and plan for what the next move is.

At this stage in my treatment there is no roadmap or precedent for what to do for treatment. We are just playing it by ear and taking it one treatment at a time.

Until next time enjoy Halloween. I am not sure what I am going to dress up as yet. Suggestions are welcome. (if you can incorporate my bald head all the better!)

Last Weekend of feeling good

2011-10-21T11:56:00.002-06:00

So this weekend is my last hurray, before I start chemo again on Monday. I hope to go out with a bang. Maybe some dancing, good food, friends, pillow talk, and some good movies.

Well if you read this during this weekend...hit me up, because I want to party with you.

Also, Liz Redd I will have a new theme song for starting chemo again. I will reveal it once I start on Monday!

I am also taking suggestions if anyone has a song they feel appropriate.

Chemo starts Oct 24

2011-10-14T12:00:00.002-06:00

I had my first doctor appointment since returning to Utah and my blood counts were all terrific. My platelets were in the 100s. (This is awesome because about a month ago they were at zero.)

So I will give me body a week longer to repair and mend itself before I start beating it up with chemo again.

I am surviving school and hope to be caught up by the end of the month so that I am allowed to go trick-or-treating.

Thanks everyone for your kind words, prayers, and super thoughts during the last month or so. t was a rough road but I think I am back on cruise control of kicking cancer in the BUTT.

Getting back in the habit

2011-10-03T13:05:00.002-06:00

I am back in Utah trying to figure out how to get back into the groove of being a graduate student after missing two weeks of classroom instruction. Moreover, during those two weeks my health was so unpleasant that I was not able to do ANY school work.

I will now spend many many hours in the Library reading, writing, reading, writing, reading, wasting time on Internet, and then more reading and writing.

After 10 blood, platelet transfusions I am slowly starting to feel somewhat normal. I would say I am about 75% back to "normal." Now for me normal was never feeling awesome. The reality is that I am a cancer patient, but at this point I would take how I felt about 3 weeks ago and call it good. I have accepted that I will never feel 100% normal. I will never be able to run more than a few yards before I am completely out of energy, but I would love to feel 100% "normal" for me.

With time it will all come back and my white blood cell, platelet, and hemoglobin counts are climbing and improving a little every time I go in. Hopefully in the next week or so I will be back to my normal energy level.

Luckily studying in the library does not require much physical energy. However, I would not mind if they got cushions for their hardwood chair, but I will make due.

Well, there is a little update on the life of Dave Chalk. Feel free to email me, comment, text, facebook, or any other form with questions you may have. I enjoy playing words with friends and my name on their is cansirboi, so challenge me and ask me questions that way.

In the last two and a half weeks,

Needle pokes: 30

Pills: 60

Movies: Too many

Weight loss due to inability to eat: 15 pounds

Travels: Provo, Orem, Vista, San Diego, American Fork

Words with friends winning percentage: only about 55% (I need to improve in this department)

Well Happy Monday to you all. Updates to follow as I have more Doctors Appointments

Dave Chalk Update

2011-09-20T21:12:00.001-06:00

Life for me has been super crazy since last Thursday. I went in for a routine blood check and little did I know, but in the last 6 days I would have had 10 blood/platelet transfusions.

When I went in on Thursday my platelet count was at 0, yes zero. Now when you have no platelets your body has no way to prevent bleeding and make me more prone to random bleeding.

To have a healthy platelet count you should be above 50. I had a long way to go before my (blood) counts would get back to the healthy count. Yesterday was the only day that my platelet count was above 20 (Which is high enough to not need a transfusion). Today they were at 17 so once again I received another transfusion.

To add to the low platelet count, I also have had a VERY VERY low white blood cell count which is why my doctors put me under house arrest, because even a “Bubble Boy” has a better immune system than I do at the moment.

I go in tomorrow and I hope that I will be above 20 so that my body does not need to get poked, because at this point a needle has poked me at least 36 times since Thursday. This combined with low platelets and white blood cells I think a hardcore heroin addict’s elbows look better than my do at this point. (This is true I do not say this just for comedic relief, but that it is funny and true).

Well that is all for now. Just want every to be caught up with my life so we can all be on the same page.

Story about my experiences with The Make-A-Wish Foundation

2011-09-14T15:14:00.002-06:00

http://www.makeawishfoundationofutah.blogspot.com/

here is a little featurette about me on The Make-A-Wish Foundation of Utah's blog.

So Read It!

Happy Pioneer Day!

2011-07-24T15:30:00.002-06:00

No better way to celebrate Pioneer Day in Utah than posting my Heart Juices video.

Disclaimer: I am super D duper high on pain pills and had woken up from the surgery the previous hour when this video was taken. So, I can not be held accountable or judges for my words or actions.

Also, it is slightly graphic. So, finish your bowl of marshmallow mateys before you watch it.

here is the link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MdMSRPtb0Qw

You can also search it on Youtube under Dave Chalk's Heart Juices!

Once again Happy Pioneer Day!

Pokes: 18

Pills: 172

Tv show watching: I have started watching Wilfred, Season 2 of Rookie Blue, and two British shows. The first being Whites and watched the first episode of Misfits today. Besides Rookie Blue, I am undecided on my thoughts on the previously mentioned shows. If you have seen them let me know how you feel about them.

Lunch at Olive Garden with MAW peeps

2011-07-22T22:46:00.003-06:00

Today I was able to go to lunch at Olive Garden with some of the wonderful people of Make-A-Wish Utah. It was Sierra's, a fellow interns, last day so we went out to lunch to see her off.

It was good to se them all again after being gone for so long and although the food was delicious the company was far superior.

I got the Olive Garden Classic of soup, salad, breadsticks. It had been a since I had been to Olive Garden and was unaware that they had a new Gnoochi soup. It was very delicious! I am a big fan of gnoochi so this was a very good discovery.

Here is my smiling with my second bowl of soup. (While Joy is trying to hide from being in the picture.)

Thanks again! It was fun having lunch with some of the MAW girls. Once again I was the only boy, but growing u with just sister I felt right in my element.

I made it back to Utah

2011-07-22T17:28:00.000-06:00

After all the medical adventures were said and done I made it back to Utah this past Tuesday. I had a fun road trip with my wonderful mother and little sister Emily. I was quick and uneventful.

I then met with my Utah doctor yesterday and got everything on the same page with my treatment in San Diego and Utah. I continue to take all medications from the heart juice incident and they well start to ween me of those in the next couple of weeks. (I am happy for this because the steroids really messes with my sleep schedule and I wake up everyday at 7:00 a.m. regardless of when I go to sleep.)

I had my blood work done while I was at my Utah doctors and my white blood cells were a little low so he is having me stop my oral chemo until I go back in next Wednesday to get my counts checked again.

Other than that I am just back in Provo trying to get back in to the "normal" groove of life.

Since I have been cancer blogging I have come across other cancer fighters/survivors. One of my favorites to read is by a wonderful women named Caroline. I enjoyed a quote from her blog a while back and wanted to share it with all of you.

Wisdom from Caroline:

First of all, skip the survivor business. To me it is a label and has some negative overtones that imply illness and eventual death. You want to be a person who coincidentally has a cancer diagnosis behind them and is now living with cancer (because, no it doesn't go away).

Pokes: 18

Pills: 152

Netflix: Watched the first season of "The League" (not my favorite show ever...for those who have not watched I would give it a pass.)

I am also always taking recommendations for TV shows and movies to watch as I am lazy this summer letting my brain rest and recharge before I start graduate school in the Fall

Declassified Files: Operation Superhero

2011-07-17T07:31:00.008-06:00

I have once again finished a session of radiation. This treatment plan was only 2 and half weeks. Although receiving radiation is much easier and does not leave you with horrible side effects like the IV chemotherapies do.

Each time I went in for treatment as you saw from the previous pictures I would lay on the flat, hard metal bench thing and be surrounded by machines shooting lasers into my body. I was hoping for something to go wrong and get some sort of super power. ( I was hoping to be either Quail Man, Daredevil, or would have even settled for Undercover Boss.)

Anywho, when you finish treatment all the nurses and technicians come out and congratulate you and you ring the bell of completion.

Here is my Miss Universe pose pre-bell ringing

Ringing the Bell really loud for all to hear....

The great Radiation Staff and me. I am holding a paper the certifies my completing my treatment. Don't worry it will be matted and framed and be hung right next to my Bachelor Degree of all to see. (Actually I think it has accidentally already made its way into the rubbish bin.)

Another chapter of treatment is done and closed.

The next step is heading back to Utah to get back into the groove of "normal" life... Whatever that means.

So all my Utah Peeps get ready to PARTAY!!!!!!! (By party I mean please come visit me while I am at work.)

Radiation

2011-07-14T09:04:00.005-06:00

This Friday I will have my last radiation treatment...and since it will be a accumulative of two and a half weeks of radiation I figured all you readers deserved an update and pictures about the process.

Why use Radiation?

Radiation therapy is commonly applied to the cancerous tumor because of its ability to control cell growth. Ionizing radiation works by damaging the DNA of exposed tissue, furthermore, it is believed that cancerous cells may be more susceptible to death by this process as many have turned off their DNA repair machinery during the process of becoming cancerous.

How is the healthy tissue not effective?

To spare normal tissues (such as skin or organs which radiation must pass through in order to treat the tumor), shaped radiation beams are aimed from several angles of exposure to intersect at the tumor, providing a much larger absorbed dose there than in the surrounding, healthy tissue.

It is also common to combine radiation therapy with surgery, chemotherapy, hormone therapy, Immunotherapy or some mixture of the four.

Since radiation uses many random beams to target the cancerous site it is important to make sure everything is all lined up so that you do not fry the wrong part of your body.

They do an initial 4..yes four hour scan to monitor your breathing so that the radiation laser will move along with your breathing motion to enable be accuracy at the treatment site.

This is what my chest has looked like for the past four weeks...and I am glad to be able to wash it all clean come this Friday after my last treatment.

There are a couple of picture of me laying on the radiation machine. It is all very very precise and takes about 10 minutes to line your body up with the machine before they can start treatment to double check everything is lined up.

You can see the green lights they use to line up the machine with the markings on my body

Me smiling at myself in the reflection of the machine

The table they have you lay on is soooooo comfortable I think they used tempurpedic material!

All together I received multiple treatments to my right and left lung as well as the are surrounding my left diaphragm.

That is the update as for the radiation. I went pretty quick and brief so if any of you have any more questions feel free to write, e-mail, text, tweet, facebook me and I would love to answer them! (For realz I love answer to questions.)

Complete Update:

Needle Pokes for round 3: 17

Pills: 85 (This number will be skyrocketing due to the heart juices. the numbers of pills I take a day increased from 6 to 17)

Netflix: Finished all six seasons of The Office

Heart Juices Update

2011-07-12T17:09:00.003-06:00

Went back to the hospital today to have a follow-up Echocardiogram, chest X-Ray, blood work, and doctor visits.

After getting all the test done and getting the results a few hours later. Everything is ALL clear in the respects to the heart juice problem. The cancer unfortunately still likes me.

So with that now in the past I am finishing up Radiation and wil be done this Friday. (without any unforeseen excitement.)

That is the update for today.

I hope to post pictures of the process of radiation, since I have been receiving question about what and how radiation works.

Today:

Echo: 1

Chest X-Ray: 1

Needle Poke:1

Visit with the most awesome Dr. Schiff: 1

Radiation treatment: 1 hours worth

visit with Dr. Murphy (The radiation doctor:) 1

That is all for today more updates to come.

Photo-journal post of the pericardiocentesis

2011-07-11T11:25:00.007-06:00

Arriving to Clinic and the wonder Nurse Sandra putting in an IV for me!

Wearing my three google shrirt! Thanks Ash!

Wearing the oxygen mask that was made for a 10-year-old. Also you can tell the many pain meds are setting in and I am going loopy.

The mask made my nose itch like crazy!!!!

Getting my EKG on the heart to verify that liquid is all up in my heart's business

Me looking very drugged out and although it may not look like I am still happy and enjoying my time..my mother just liked taking pictures when I was not noticing. Love her!

Headed to surgery to insert a catheter to remove the 10 liquid ounces of fluid giving me immense chest pains

Close up of catheter that shot to my heart. It was a nice one. We hung out for a few days.

The Catheter was hooked up to a bad that would collect my heart chest juices. Me finally being able to rest after the crazy day and fighting of pain med coma to get everything ready pre-surgery.

At this point I was Good Night Moon!

I had a video taken of the catheter moving in and out as my heart beat, but I am having troubles.

Enjoy the pictures and hopefully the video will guest appear of the next post.

Home Again Home Again Jiggy Jig

2011-07-10T16:22:00.002-06:00

They let me out of the hospital today and so I enjoyed a nice hot shower and not being hooked up to monitors, IV poles, and such,

I am also looking forward to sleeping in my bed tonight and not being woke every few hours by a nurse needing to give me drugs, take my vitals, or blood.

I am glad to be home, but also very thank for the staff at Children's Hospital in San Diego. They really take care of me.

I will be starting radiation again tomorrow and return back to the hospital for follow up tests on Tuesday.

So enjoy the downtime while I can.

Thanks again to everyone for the well wishes, texts, emails, phone calls, thoughts, and prayers!

I thought it was a feeling of Patriotism

2011-07-09T14:09:00.002-06:00

Last Monday was the celebration of the day we stuck it to King George! My family and I had a good morning Parade in Coronado and bonfire and fireworks on the beach once the sunset.

In between the two events we went home and took naps during which I started to develop a slight pain in the chest. I assumed it was a small side-effect from radiation so took some pain meds and took a nap.

The pain continued to get worse and and hurt more and more until I finally informed my Doc on Wednesday night and she scheduled me to come in ASAP in the morning.

So Thursday I went in to the cancer clinic I always go to expecting to get some pain meds and to go home and rest.

However....surprises laid ahead.

As the day progress I had an echocardiogram....then a EKG and more and more doctor showed up (most of them I had never met so I started to put two and two together to realize that I was probably not heading home.)

Then all of a sudden I was headed in for surgery procedure called...Pericardiocentesis.

What wikipedia has to say about it...

pericardiocentesis is a procedure where fluid is aspirated from the pericardium (the sac enveloping the heart)

It is generally done under ultrasound guidance, to minimize complications. There are two locations that pericardiocentesis can be performed without puncturing the lungs.

One location is through the 5th or 6th intercostal space at the left sternal border at the cardiac notch of the left lung.
The other location is through the infrasternal angle.

Indications include cardiac tamponade, as well as the need to analyze the fluid surrounding the heart. Cardiac tamponade is a condition in which an accumulation of fluid within the pericardium creates excessive pressure, which then prevents the heart from filling normally with blood. This can critically decrease the amount of blood that is pumped from the heart, which can be lethal. The removal of the excess fluid reverses this dangerous process. Examples of the need for fluid analysis would be to differentiate whether a fluid collection within the pericardium is due to an infection, spread of cancer, or possibly an autoimmune condition.

So since then I have been in the hospital with the catheter hanging out of my chest...it moves as my heart pumps that is kinda of crazy but awesome all at the same time.

That is the update...

Echo...3

X-Rays...3

CT scans...1

Pills...50

Pokes...15

PARTY ON DUDES!!!!

Radiation Update

2011-07-01T07:43:00.002-06:00

I was supposed to start a 5 day treatment of radiation this past Monday, but due to stupid insurance and a goofy radiation doctors office it was pushed back two days and will now be 10 days instead of 5.

This means that I will have to get 2 more weeks of work. And will be in San Diego until July 14th. This is good news for some and bad news for others. It just depends on where you live.

If you live in the Southern California Area call, text, or email me and I would love to hang out with you.

I will get a better post later about radiation.

Just wanted everyone one to know I am alive and fine.

Chemo: Day After

2011-05-30T19:41:00.006-06:00

I have survived another round of Chemo! This 2nd round of Irinotecan was not near as bad as the first one. I had Chemo on Thursday morning and for this round my sister Melissa accompanied me. I am not sure she had as much fun as I did dancing in my chair listen to my Chemo Party Mix of songs.

After going home and sleeping for 3 hours I woke up and took a long hot shower. (This process makes me feel extremely better and makes me feel somewhat normal after the chemo side effects.)

After the shower I was sitting at home finishing up season 2 of the office. (I know I am a little behind this is my first go around for watching the office.) I received a text from a buddy on my softball team saying that they needed one more for the game tonight so that we could field a full team. My head said that I should not go play and stay at home relaxing, however my fingertips texted back, Count me in!

I arrived at the ball field approx. 4 hours after finishing chemo. Throughout the game I was extremely tired and I played first base for the most part. (This position requires the least amount of effort.) I ended up going 2-3 with two singles. I then swapped for a pinch runner to run the rest of the bases for me.

Overall, it was a fun game but we ended up losing unable to complete a comeback in the bottom of the last inning.

I was really tired and went home took a shower and collapsed in my bed.

For you amusement I have included a few of my favorite definitions for cancer from the wonderful website Urban Dictionary.

Cancer is a disease lacking a sense of humor.

Cancer is what things like smoking, exposure to radiation, genetically enhanced food, and furbies cause.

Cancer is one disease to rule them all. Anything and everything causes cancer nowadays, which is somewhat depressing. There is no true cure for any form of cancer, but there just might be if the human race would stop warring with itself and concentrate on destroying diseases instead.

Cancer is the only superpower that humans can possess.

My favorite:

The cure for cancer is simple. Just crack open the pit of an apricot, plumb, or any kind of fruit like that, and eat the seeds. Do this everyday to prevent cancer. If you already have cancer, you should eat around 8 apricot seeds everyday to cure it. People have been doing this for years to cure cancer. The reason a lot of people don't hear about this, is because if you did, you wouldn't have to buy medicine, and therefore, the drug companies would go bankrupt.

Needle Pokes: 9

Pills: 35

People to visit me and cheer me up since last round: Leah and Saweet Jess, and Chris and Dre Carrier. They brought wonderful gifts and goodies and allowed me to have social interaction! Thanks you four. Your visits mean a lot!

Chemo Eve: Round 4

2011-05-30T19:36:00.003-06:00

Welp it is time for the fun time that comes around every two weeks! CHEMO!!! YEAH!!!!

I especially cannot wait for another round because of fun the past two weeks have been. Lack of appetite, constipation, diarrea, nausea, vomiting. I hope I has figured out a few things so this next round will go much smoother.

Since I started chemo for the third time I have started to realize how many things in my life resemble that of a old person. In this definition an older person is someone at least 70 years old. (sorry if this includes you and you do not define yourself as old.)

First off I take a lot of mid-day naps. about 2 or 3 p.m. I hear Mr. Sandman knocking on my door and since I was taught to not be a rude person I always let him in.

The second thing that resembles a old person is that I have on of these.

Although I throughly enjoy having this. It makes parking on campus and Wal-Mart much more enjoyable.

Third, As you may have read in my last post I drink prune juice to keep my bowels in order.

The last part that resembles a old person is that I live alone. I saw this commercial while watching Price is Right and was almost convinced to buy one.

Thanks again to everyone who reads this blog and for all the well wishes.