Driving Around Town

Weight: 138.4
Pain areas: just the reflux
Numbness: increase is significant in left hand when waking up
Nightsweat: none, really
General Attitude: Positive
Swallowing: little more difficulty than yesterday
Medications: Prevacid, Vitamin E, Multivitamin, Lemon grass tea

Didn’t go to work today – instead I went around town picking up my medical records from different places for Dr. Cameron. I’m most likely also going to be out next week from work. I’m not exactly sure of my plans but I’ll think of something.

One of my records were actually on CD - it was my CT scan - chest, abdomen, neck - almost a full body scan.

Bombarded With Emails of Support

Weight: 138.6
Pain areas: Throat poareas feel substantially less painful than yesterday. Its almost completely cleared up
Numbness: less than yesterday
Nightsweat: none, really
General Attitude: Positive, but reading more material is causing slight distress
Medications: Prevacid, Vitamin E, Multivitamin, Lemon grass tea

I’ve been replying back to a lot of emails that were send to me after my posting to the EC grouip listserv. Lots of people want to help and offers of support.

I ended up going to work but I don’t feel like working – I’d rather be doing something someplace else. Maybe I can take next week off.

Time To Hit The Gym....again

Weight: 138.4
Pain areas: Throat areas feel substantially less painful than yesterday
Numbness: woke up with little numbness on left hand
Nightsweat: none, really
General Attitude: Positive, but worried about lymph nodes
Medications: Prevacid, Vitamin E, Multivitamin, Lemon grass tea, Tylenol tablet.

I’m going to my regular gym today – I’ll see how that goes. My focus for going will be to build some muscle and to work out a little cardio – but not to lose weight. That’ll be the last thing I want to do.

Date With My Oncologist

Weight: 137.8
Pain areas: Throat areas feel substantially less painful – even without medications. =)
Numbness: n/a
Nightsweat: none, really
General Attitude: Positive, but worried about the appointment for today
Medications: Prevacid, Chloraseptic spray+lozanges, Vitamin E, Multivitamin, Lemon grass tea, Tylenol tablet.

I went in for my appointment with my Oncologist at UCLA. I met Brian and Eric over there – I’m glad they came to lend some support. The first doctor (a resident) who came to see me was awesome! Same with Dr. Wainberg; really nice people working there...

As for the report from my oncologist (Dr. Wainberg): I was stage 3 with some lymph node infected tissue but no metastasis. At least I was not at stage 4, which I thought I was at. Whew! The problem is that it went to my lymph nodes – and that is not good, I was not expecting that at all.

Another Normal Day

Weight: 137.2
Pain areas: Throat areas, esp. when swallowing – about the same from yesterday. Tylenol helps. Heartburn is slightly less frequent than yesterday.
Numbness: n/a
Nightsweat: a little less then yesterday
General Attitude: Positive
Medications: Prevacid, Chloraseptic spray+lozanges, Vitamin E, Multivitamin, Lemon grass

Lance, You Are My Idol

I went to church today – and my mom had the priest bless me personally (without telling me first! I don’t like it when she does that.) Afterwards, we ate at an Indian restaurant then went back to Sarah’s apartment. I spent about 1 hour at the gym and then went swimming afterwards. I bought 2 new cancer related books online to read on my Sony Reader.
One of those books, “Live Strong”, from the Lance Armstrong Foundation, is extremely enlightening and puts a positive spin on my overall view of having cancer. I’m already on page 58 and I’m sure it’ll be a good reading – I’ve learned quite a bit already! The more I know about my enemy, the more chances I have for my success.

The 9-Hour ER Wait

What a night! I went to the UCLA ER to have my throat checked out - I was there from 6pm and didn’t get out until about 3am the next morning! That’s a very bad first impression of the ER for me, although it would really be interesting to work in one – a lot of drama and the days are never the same.
I spent some of my day fixing my exhchange server – it turned out that the problem was GFI and all I had to do was to reinstall it.
I’ve been taking lots of throat lozenges because of the pain in my throat – Chloraseptic lozanges and the spray helps a lot. I’ve also been taking vitamin E supplements and a multi-vitamin and lemongrass tea everyday – so says my sister. I guess its not that bad. What I don’t like is the effervescent tablets. That doesn’t taste so good.