May 12, 2010 - The Final Stretch

Marc is heading into what appears to be the final stretch of his chemo treatment.  

The first week of May, Marc was in for another of his rounds in the ring fighting cancer, followed by a few days with mom and dad at aunt wendy and uncle pat's place with cameo appearances by melissa and elijah. Following that was lots of rest and little energy.

He was scheduled to return to UCSF this Friday May 14th but as the past few weeks vitals were not good, it looked like he might have to wait.  And by vitals, i speak of his "counts:" white blood cells, platelets, and etc.  He's had a few transfusions in the last week to supplement his own body's stores of blood.  Becoming well... overcoming cancer, is very involved.

Unfortunately, Marc (and dad) was unable to attend his cousin Jeremy's wedding last weekend as his counts were low enough that mask-or-no the risk of infection was much too high.  Instead they put him on a antibiotics-and-blood-transfusion regimen which is not nearly as exciting as watching two special people make a big commitment, dancing to Vanilla Ice, playing with elijah, and... margaritas.  Yet, he took it like a champ and rested up despite the very real fear of cabin-fever.

Marc has been reading, not exactly for pleasure (he was quite clear that the only thing that sounds pleasurable is to go outside, risk cuts and bruises, and infections which he absolutely can't do now), but it was how he fought off boredom.  According to Marc, "Keep Climbing" was particularly good...

Fortunately, although his counts have remained less-than-stellar, he will be able to start treatment again this Friday. He'll soon be back to floor 11, doing laps, flirting, and offsetting the boredom with trivial pursuit and reading, texting and sleeping.  

May it be so that this is the last trip to UCSF for awhile. May it be that that the next few updates will be full of YAY! May it be that on memorial day that Marc's lymphoma is but a memory (not to slight the true purpose of Memorial Day... just saying).  [Marc's Lymphonma - RIP - January 1010 to June 2010]

Remember to keep Marc near to you, in whatever way that you do, as he puts his head down and barrels for the finish line.

(posted by amber with Marc's permission)

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 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)