April 15, 2010 - An Update... and a Nice Break from the Dreariness of Tax Day

Marc sent me another update today and I wanted to get it up right away. There is also a new addition to the rally-hat gallery and I have to say I love the creativity, the depth, that the gallery is gaining.  Keep rocking your hats for Marc!

The short story: too much nausea and bone pain, too little energy and white blood cells.  But as usual, a good outlook and is generally enjoying, or rather, appreciating, not having to shave very much.

Here's some news from the hands of our favorite couch-surfer:

"I finished round 4 of chemo last wednesday and since then have not been feeling very well. The chemo itself went pretty well, they had trouble accessing the port the first night, which in rough translation means no sleep for marc on night one. once they got everything working i made sure that we were back on schedule to finish by the 7th so i could get by butt home. Everything from that point on went pretty smoothly, had a great easter with your family who cam and entertained me for a few hours. and then on  wednesday I of course was released as planned.

The bone pain started thursday afternoon and lasted until about monday. The feeling is basically like a bruise all over the body. three-four days of that gets tough but everythng comes to an end at some point. I still have some bone pain in my knees and legs, nothing a few pain killers can't fix. I just results from my blood test today and all of my counts are pretty low. that accumulates to a weekend of couch surfing until monday when we findout if I need any transfusions. So right now i have a little bit of remaining pain and after writing this email, I can guarantee that all of my miniscule amount of energy will have drained and I will head back to the couch for recuperation.

Mood: surprising high and optimistic tho very little energy to show."

Marc will head back on the 23rd of April and until Monday at least will be honing his movie knowledge and texting skills and sleeping talents.  Keep the love coming and the hats.

(posted by amber with Marc's permission)

March 29, 2010 - The Overdue Update

Hey all, this is the long overdue post from a few weeks ago, post elijah party and melissa birthday fun.  I'm actually taking it straight from an email Marc sent about how he is doing... with some photos and commentary towards the end. Marc wrote on March 29, 2010:

"Sorry that I haven't gotten this update to you sooner, I have been pretty busy. The last 12 or so days have been great. The birthday was great but sorry I don't know if we got any mask pics and definitely no golf pics either. I had a lot of bone [pain] for the first couple of days because of the neulasta shot. that all went away around tuesday. I had a PET scan on saturday and am going to the doctor today to find out the results and get blood drawn. The pathology came back on the bone marrow biopsy I had on the 17th and it showed no signs of disease according to Aunt Lisa. I haven't heard from the doctor yet on that either.

On a less medical note, two of my friends from college drove up from the LA area on friday for a couples of hours tosee me and it was really great seing them. It has been years since the last time I saw them so that was fun. I spent yesterday hanging out with the Kyle, Denny and Lois Anderson and they had for dinner. It was nice hanging out with them as well. My roommate from college is coming up today from Bakersfield, its been a while since I saw him so I am excited about that. And that is pretty much it from here. I had a great time these past several days and a lot of visitors/ support.

 I will let you know the results of the PET scan as soon as i know. I hope all is going well for you and that you are not over working yourself. Take care and I will talk to you soon." 

After much debate, i am leaving  in the personal note to me at the end... only because i think it shows something about Marc's character that is worth celebrating, it does not change in the midst of his own very involved life situation--he is not consumed by himself. Somehow in the midst of everything he is fighting he still has energy to care, and he cares so much for each of us reading this now.

Here are some photos from the long-awaited much enjoyed elijah-birthday-party.  It is a bummer that there is not one with a mask as i thought that had some comic-book appeal to it, nor is there a photo of the golf trip... but there are plenty of elijah pictures and one of elijah and Marc together and in the end, that's probably just about right.

(posted by Amber with Marc's permission)

March 18, 2010 - May the Mask be with You

didn't speak to Marc too much this week per phone challenges but he had good company with both the 'rents at his side. i think they were having such a nice time together, in fact, that once when i called they had to "go" to play skipbo.  and this, this is how it should be... there should be much too much fun to speak of tests and chemo and the 11th floor of the hospital.

they were unable to do the PET scan in order to keep him on a schedule that allowed him to be at elijah's festivities. he'll have that soon though. they did do the bone marrow biopsy and, as to be expected, plenty of chemo.

Marc had a was released from UCSF on Wednesday afternoon, with a brief stop over for dinner at aunt wendy and uncle pat's and then on to truckee. he'll be home until april 2nd.

take a peak a the rally hat gallery... some fun new corny-displays-of-support. go team Marc! keep 'em coming and my apologies for any delays in getting them up, this site admin has been a busy bee. 

today he was out and about running errands, going to doctor's appointment, filling prescriptions, and washing the truck.  he had started feeling significant bone pain and believes it is probably from the shot he got at his doctor appointment this afternoon. it's a mega cocktail of important stuff but his bones don't like it.

he'll travel to sacramento tomorrow for elijah's birthday.  he'll need to wear a mask all day as his system is now pretty weak. he promised to get a masked super-hero photo for us (masks are the stuff of super heroes, right?).  one thing is for sure, that though it will be hidden, under that layer of protection will be a big, proud uncle-marc smile.

prayers for happy bones, joyful moments, and protection from immune invaders.

may the mask be with you.

March 8, 2010 - "My Best Days are Ahead of Me"

me: "so Marc, anything particularly noteworthy or really so, well, un-noteworthy as to be worth mentioning to your adoring fans?" [note: although his first thought was surely, "what? ... you are so weird" he kept it in and answered as follows]

Marc: "well, actually, can you add music? there is a song called 'my best days' by danny gokey. is it possible to include that? it really summarizes my attitude right now towards everything, so it would be great to include it."

well folks, per request, this post has a musical score. i couldn't figure out how to embed the audio file, so i have embedded the music video (below). go ahead and hit play and then continue with the rest of the post so that your reading experience has a soundtrack. alternately you can watch and listen to the video and then continue on, it is kind of a cool video. your choice.

today Marc said he is feeling okay, pretty good in fact. as we chatted he was in the car on the way over the hill and through the woods, to grandmothers house. so, fun. 

last week was pretty rough with significant nausea and bone pain. while the nausea is quite certainly a chemo side-effect, the bone pain could be a side-effect of the chemo, the shots he's been given to boost his immune system, or it could just be the cancer itself. there have also been not quite enough sleep and when sleeping too many dreams of the hospital which aren't nightmares perse but they certainly aren't delightful and are surely side-effects of his lengthy hospital stays.

while i focus on how awful that must have been, Marc re-focuses me (us) on his willingness to go through it all if it is going to make him well. he can handle the process, he's just looking forward to everything that the process will afford him..."my best days are ahead of me."  there is no way out but through; no sense in trying to subvert reality.

but today and the past couple days Marc has been feeling okay. i wonder if it could be that some friends stopped by on saturday and made him a chicken salad. nothing like good friends and good food to make the body and soul well, am i right?

friday Marc will return to UCSF. he'll start with a couple of tests, another bone marrow biopsy and a PET scan. hyperlinks are included for each of those tests, if you click on the word it will direct you to the mayo-clinic dictionary to learn more about them. these tests will both be significant in determining the course of treatment. the PET scan results should come back quickly and will help the doctors know if the treatment is working and how to continue treatment. chemo should resume on saturday and conclude, if all goes according to plan, just in time for elijah's 1st birthday.

"...Life hasn't always been a party
but mostly it's been good
There's only one or two things that I'd change if I could
I dont get lost in the past or get stuck in some sad memory yah
My best days are ahead of me...

...I've got sunsets to witness
dreams to dance with [that are not of hospitals!]
beaches to walk on
and lovers to kiss
there's a whole lot of world out there
that I can't wait to see
My best days are ahead of me
My best days are ahead of me..."

thanks for reading, for your support, friendship and love on this unique journey. there is an updated photo to this post: "February 20, 2010 - Solarium, Scrabble & Special Visitors" and a couple more rally hat photos, so click around and see the new stuff. oh yeah and one last thing... yeehaw!

(posted by amber with Marc's permission)