Oh, The Agony

It was NOTHING like the two thorasentesis I had before. The pain after the procedure would normally wear off within 2-4 hours, but this has so far lasted past 12 hours and at a higher pain grade. To top it all off, I ran out of my primary pain medication and was a huge hassle to get another bottle.

As for taking video of the procedure, we did, until one of the medical directors came in and confiscated my SD card. Apparently, the management wants to know before you start filming anything in the hospital. I deleted the video files just for that day - since that's what I excepted him to do anyways, but to also relieve some fault of responsibility to the nurses and the doctor that allowed us to film it. It was some really awesome footage of the best very high-tech procedure rooms I've ever seen. This was at UCLA's new Ronald Regan hospital.

A little over a litter was removed again, but this time through the new catheter. This now makes 3 implants in my body.

And did I mention it HURT?!?! The majority of my left side hurts and also whenever I take in a deep breathe - I can feel the pain coming from my insides.

I was told that I have to drain the plural space everyday for a couple weeks or so...and hopefully it'll be much better at that point.

I guess one good thing that happened today is my purchase of Crysis Warhead - a computer game that I've been waiting for for quite a while. My next "absolute-must-have" game would be "StarCraft II" which should hopefully be released by years' end.

Getting Another Catheter Installed

Tomorrow I'll have a Pleurx Catheter installed for me to easily drain the fluid around my lungs. It's similar to the way they do the a thorancentesis, but it requires a different kind of doctor.

While I'm getting the procedure, they're going to drain another 1000cc of fluid that has accumulated since my last thorancentesis - that's about 2750cc of fluid so far!

I actually had about 4 or 5 choices to deal with the fluid build-up - one would have involved not-so-minor surgery, which I did not want. Going the catheter route seemed the easiest and less painful method.

After The Procedure

The procedure went better than last time - not as painful. The worst part before was the sudden evacuation of the fluid which caused a painful pressure differential. This time I told them to do it very slowly, for my lungs to get used to it.

The total amount of fluid removed was 1000cc. Two weeks ago it was 750cc. If fluid keeps collecting, I just might need to get a catheter that I can drain myself.

If you want to see the actual procedure done on me, check this link out. It was taken by my Hi-Def camera, but obviously YouTube has certain bandwidth constrains so quality is just "OK".

ACk! Not Again!!!

Had another chest x-ray today at my weekly doctor's appointment for the clinical study that I'm in. It revealed even more fluid around my lungs than last time. I have an appointment for tomorrow for another thoracentesis. My oncologist thinks that this may happen again so he suggested that I get a semi-permanent catheter installed for me to drain the fluid myself. This will be done probably next week. All this is most-likely due to the cancer that has spread around my lungs.

The endoscopy that I had a few days ago went OK - everything looked basically normal from what the gastroenterologist could see.

I'll try and take my own video of the procedure (in High Def!) if they'll let me.

Here's a good resource that I found.

What's On My Desktop

Or rather, what's my desktop background?



This is currently my desktop background - character images from the game FFXI Online. I stole some images from another wallpaper but the two Red Mage images are direct game renderings of my own character. The complete Red Mage "Artifact Armor" Relic Set (sometimes called AF2 gear) took over a year to get and its one of the best armor sets in the game for the "Red Mage" job/class.

The desktop that I have at work shows a picture of the starship Enterprise NCC-1701-D; the one used in ST: TNG.

I've also had background images of Gixxer bikes before I bought the real thing. And let me tell you, it looks much better sitting in my garage than on display on my desktop.

Joe's New Tech Toy

I finally came to my senses and bought myself a Canon HF10 Camcorder. This thing captures both picture and video in AVC H.264 at 1080i! Wonderful high definition clarity! It arrived last week and have been playing around with it for some time.

I took some sample shots of me on my bike by the use of a newly purchased camcorder mount for sport-bikes. The one thing that I over-looked was that my windshield was smoked - and so that would mean the video would be darkened and distorted. You'll just have to see it [here] to see how bad it looks.

I also have a video of before and after of my recent endoscopy (they wouldn't let me actually take video of the procedure).

note: I'll be uploading the videos soon...

Dinner With The BBTV Team

One of our talented Software Engineer - Miguel (the guy in the right rear of the picture). Decided to leave TandbergTV ("Part of the Ericsson Group"). This was just a celebration in his honor for all the hard work he's done. He's been there from the very start of Zetools (the company I used to work for) and on through with the 3 company acquisitions.

Two people who are not in the picture, but still part of the "Broadband Television Team" are: Joe Franzetta and Brian Ring.

Honerable mentions go to Qing Li and Kelly Taylor who used to be part of the BBTV software engineering team.


Come visit us often for lunch, Miguel...... =)

Thoracentesis

This is the procedure for removing fluid from the pleural space due to a pleural effusion. (I'm beginning to feel like a real doctor, lol)

I just had mine just a few hours ago. After prepping the surface of my back, they injected some numbing medication - lidocaine - in between some ribs where they would insert the catheter. In goes the catheter and ending up in the pleural space. They used an ultrasound machine to know exactly where the catheter is at in any moment. Then they start draining the fluid; first into 4 or 5 test tubes then to a large glass bottle to hold the rest. Total volume of liquid removed? 800ml! Yes, that's almost the same amount in a coke bottle! I could not believe it.

How did it feel? The insertion of the catheter and initial needle poke was NOTHING compared to the pain I felt a few minutes into the fluid being removed. As the fluid is being extracted, it creates a vacuum in the pleural space since there is nothing to replace the space that was being taken up by the fluid. I felt like I couldn't breathe, and felt that my lungs were being sucked in from the inside. That hurt so much, but it really would depend on how much fluid that was removed. It would take a few hours or so till my insides stretch out so that I wouldn't feel any pain.

Next, they're going to analyze the fluid to see what exactly it is and hopefully come up with a diagnosis on what caused this.

800mL! Geeez!


If you want to see what it looks like, click here. This is another guy getting the same procedure.

First Day Of New Treatment

I showed up for my first day of treatment - a phase 2 clinical trial meant for gastric cancer. Its in a pill form - of which I have to take 4 a day everyday for the next month or so.

Since this is a trial, I have to undergo several tests - unrine, blood, blood pressure, EKG, weight, etc... pretty frequently. I also have to keep a small diary of the medications I take, the time and date, and the side effects that happen.

I told my oncologist that I've lately been feeling tired and short of breath so he had be do a chest x-ray just to make sure everything was ok. To my surprise, there was a substantial amount of fluid around my lungs. I'm scheduled to have the fluid removed tomorrow. How you may ask they would do this? With a big long needle, of course! =0(

Stand Up To Cancer

Mark your calendars because this Friday (Sept 5) at 8PM PT/ET there is the "Stand Up To Cancer" 2-hour telethon on all major networks.

Stand Up To Cancer


More than 60 celebrities will participate in Stand Up to Cancer, a live fund- and awareness-raising television special that will air simultaneously on ABC, NBC and CBS.

Jessica Alba, Halle Berry, Jack Black, Sheryl Crow, Ellen DeGeneres, Jennifer Garner, Diane Keaton, Rob Lowe, Sharon Osbourne, Keanu Reeves and Carrie Underwood are among the stars set to appear, it was announced Wednesday.

They'll join previously announced participants including Salma Hayek, Scarlett Johansson, Lance Armstrong, America Ferrera, Meryl Streep, Charlize Theron and Forest Whitaker.

The celebrities, along with network news anchors Katie Couric, Charles Gibson and Brian Williams, will deliver an evening of "edutainment," said executive producer Laura Ziskin, a cancer survivor who helped establish the event and the nonprofit group behind it.