Minor update

So far this cycle, things are progressing much better. There are still some residual effects similar to last time, but nothing to scale it was.

My sister, Debbie, and brother-in-law, Joe, were nice enough to drive over from Maryland to support Ali and I for the weekend. It was great to see them both! Deb spent most of the time cooking an enormous amount of delicious lasagna and baked ziti for us to consume at best possible pace. It's amazing how easy it is to miss simple things like nice meals when the option is no longer there. However, I am slowly getting back to where I can eat enjoyable food again, and having all of this soul food makes me happy :)

I'm glad to say there is not much to report.

New Fertility Doc

Well I met my new reproductive endocrinologist today. His name is Dr. Groll and he is a doc at the base hospital. He reviewed my chart from the clinic I was going to and their recommendation of surgery to remove the cyst on my right ovary. The plan is to have the surgery in mid-april when Dan's treatments are done and he is recovered enough to take care of me!

We also talked about Dan's cancer and what to do with the sperm that he banked prior to starting up the chemo. The doctor wants to skip all the lower level fertility paths and go right for IVF. He said that due to the fact we only have 3 samples to work with we need to pick the method that gives us the best chance for success using the smallest amount of sperm as possible. He thinks based on my health and age that our success rate per IVF treatment is about 40-50%. If we went with injections and artificial insemination it would be around 25-30% and if we went with Clomid pills and artificial insemination it would be around 10-15%. So since we are working with a limited supply of sperm, IVF seems the way to go. However there is a cost involved with IVF, air force insurance will cover some aspects of the treatment (like ultrasounds, medicines) however it doesn't cover the egg retrieval or the lab work involved with fertilizing the egg or the placement of the fertilized egg back into me. Thats going to run about $5,000-6,000 per treatment. If I had no insurance at all it would run me $12,000-14,000 so at least we are saving some money... I guess there was a grand plan out there in life, just glad I have been saving for the last 10 years. Between the $20,000 adoption price tag and the cost for each try of IVF these future babies of ours are already cutting into their inheritance!

So unless we get some adoption news soon the next baby attempt updates will be in 2 months when I have my surgery.

Cycle 2 going strong

Dan and I both headed into cycle 2 kinda depressed and not looking forward to what we knew was coming right back at us. I am glad to report that so far cycle 2 is going a bit better. We know what drugs work (no compazine!!) and between the cycles we added in Nexium(for heartburn) and Ambien(sleeping). These 2 drugs seemed to have helped alot. They have allowed Dan to tolerate a few more foods and get at least 4 hours sleep a night. While there is still alot of discomfort and fatigue going on, its not as bad as I feared. This being said the begining of cycle 1 wasnt bad either, it kinda built up and was at its worst the entire 2nd week. Most of that was from the chemo constipation and insomnia that went on. Dan is trying everything to prevent that this go around. He is on a stool softener from day 1 of this cycle and is eating bananas and yogurt every day to help keep his bowels at a steady crawl and hopefuly they wont completely stop like they did last time.

Another big positive this go around, in my opinion, is Dan is doing something during his treatments. Last cycle he just laid there staring at the walls or trying to sleep or being a parkinsons patient with his compazine reaction. This time around he is writing thank you notes, helping the nurses with a computer problem that was stumping them and watching "Firefly" on a portable DVD player. Just taking your mind off the IV's and beeps and other patients around you is helping keep the mental side going stronger this go around.

This Friday Debbie & Joe (and Maggie and Jake!) will be in town to visit all the way from Maryland. Cant wait to see them again and eat some of Debbie's home cooking! Hopefully Dan's counts will be good and we will be able to do a few things outside of the house.

And as a side note - Congrats to my good friend Holly. Last night (2/19) at around 4 a.m., Holly delivered a baby boy (7#7oz and 18 3/4 long). Rowan Lucas Miller is his name.

Pet Therapy

Dan and Bosley getting some quality male bonding time.

Monday starts Cycle 2. Bosley is ready..are we?

There goes the hair

A couple days ago Dan's hair started the inevitable process of falling out. This isnt normal hair loss, its clumps of hair root and all coming out anytime you rub his head. His hair is super short to begin with but after waking up to a pillowcase covered in hair Dan decided to just shave it all off. Its like he is back at Officer training school all over again with the head shave.

What's my Temp?

This image is a frequent one around the Karrels household. Dan is a big fan of checking his temprature every couple hours. If it goes above 100 he is supposed to call the nurses or go to the ER. This monday Dan had his weekly Bleomycin treatment. This is a pretty quick trip to the hospital. Because of last week's ER trip they sent off a CBC to see if he is still neutrapenic (see lab link on the left). Luckly he isn't anymore so he is cleared to go back to work for a couple hours each day this week. On Monday's he is supposed to take Tylenol every 4 hours for 24hours. We did this last Monday but forgot this monday. So when Dan's temp spiked to 101.3 he got worried. The nurses just said it was a side effect of the weekly Bleomycin and to take his Tylenol. His temp went quickly back to normal. Crisis averted! The rest of the week should be uneventful (hopefully!). This Saturday Heather, Cole and Sharon will be coming to Dayton to visit us and I know we both look forward to seeing them all. Heather and I will be running 5 miles in the freezing cold and then we will all grab lunch before they head back to Columbus.

Operation Smooth Move Complete

Thanks to Major Corej for the clever name :) I am recovering nicely, and can even eat regular food as of Saturday. Ali even said that I was snoring on Friday night, which is something that never happens. Still, it is a testament to the quality of sleep I am now receiving. I even went all last night without becoming fully awake.

Two weeks ago, on the first day of the chemotherapy cycle, I was at 143 lbs 12 oz. The following day I was down to 140lb. By Friday, I was up to 154lb (GI stallage). Today I am happy to say that I am back down to a clean 140lb, even though my normal non-cancer weight is 150-155lb.

I got my weekly shot of bleomycin today. I went into work for about 1.5 hours before feeling ill and leaving. Turns out I was running a fever of 101.3. The doctor said it is a side effect of the bleomycin, and to tough it out. Other than the fever, I feel pretty good.

I am going to try to go into work for half days this week as possible. Of course, if I am still running a fever tomorrow then it may have to wait...again.

A New Hope

(Yes, the title is reference to Star Wars.) First, the bad news. Yesterday was perhaps the worst day of my life so far. Aside from expelling the 16+ pounds of bowel matter (not exaggerating), hardly sleeping for the past 11 days rendered me physically exhausted to a point I have never before known, disoriented, and even made it difficult to balance myself. I couldn't eat, sleep, watch tv (pounding headaches), or go outside (neutropenic), and had been awake for at least 30 hours straight. I spent the day in a daze, attempting to keep walking to get the GI system moving, and waiting for something good to happen.

Eventually the magnesium citrate started to work, and my system began to clear. Ali got home last night at about 9:45 with some ambien (sleep medicine) and nexium (heartburn). I took some and went to sleep. I checked my temperature just about every hour last night, and it never went over 99.7F. I finally got a good night's rest.

This morning I woke up feeling like I had endured a day of torture, and that today would bring the nutrient rich fluid that refreshes and replenishes my body. It turns out that this fluid is cold lemon-lime Gatorade. My stomach is still a bit upset, but I am now able to eat food again, and look forward to even taking a nap a bit later on.

I also received a care package from my Mom this morning. Included in it were a Lance Armstrong Survivorship binder with lots of good information about surviving TC. She also sent along a package of powdered Gatorade, Purell, and Suzy Q's! These Hostess snack cakes were my favorite growing up, and still hold a special place in my heart. It brought tears to my eyes to see so many of them waiting for me once the box was opened. I look forward to diving into these things just as soon as I consume some base foods (breads, protein, etc).


This is more than enough of my complaining for one day. Today is already a much better day, and I am thankful to all of you who have been supporting Allison and I during this journey. Hopefully we can avoid some of these same mistakes next time.

I also know that there are people coming through the blog occasionally who are researching TC. Please do not be discouraged by these posts. These are just the hard learned lessons we have gained, and I hope that those of you facing similar situations can find both education on dealing with TC, and knowledge and hope that things will pass.

1 Step Forward, 2 Steps Back

I made this post at work 2minutes after Dan's post - So sorry for duplication

5am trips to the ER are fun. Warning - *if you dont like talking about body functions you may want to skip this entry* This week has been an odd one, we didnt really know what to expect. By Monday the nausea was gone and things were looking good. Dan's counts were all pretty good. Tuesday & Wednesday Dan started to really feel the effects of taking 5 different anti-nausea medicines several times a day for 9 days. For all the good they did slowing down the GI track so he doesnt throw up they also basically stopped his GI track completely. Tuesday he started taking Colace and eating foods that help you have bowel movements. Even went out and got some dreaded Magnesium Citrate (for anyone who has had a colonoscopy you know this evil drink) Nothing. Added in some more laxatives wednesday to get his GItrack moving and still nothing. Wednesday night/thursday morning Dan was so uncomfortable, he thought he had food poisoning. His heart was racing at times and just overwhelming bloating and discomfort. Went to the ER - they did a Xray of his abdomen - no blockage just completly full of poop! Did an EKG that was normal. Did some lab work - Hgb 11.8, Hct 34.8, Platelet 69k, WBC 4.04. He is offically neutropenic (ANC 760). That means no going out without a mask on, no going into work, no handling fresh fruits/vegs, no nothing until his WBC & ANC counts come back up. He is supposed to drink another bottle of Magnesium Citrate today and hope it works finally. The shear amount of drugs he has taken over the last 2 weeks is crazy and his poor body doesnt know what to do. Hopefully his system will even out and his counts will come back up so he can go about normal life for a couple days at least.

Another sleepless night

First, I would like apologize to the nurses in my family whom I apparently scared to death with my last blog entry. Apparently what I consider to be a serious side effect is not what the medical community considers as such :)

Last night I made the mistake of eating a salad. I thought it was quite good, but it turned out to give me something close to food poisoning. Luckily, Ali didn't eat any of it...and who can blame her, it's poison after all! I spent another night without any sleep in pain trying to fight off the symptoms. At about 0500 this morning I went to the ER, where they gave me a full workup. I am working on clearing up the stomach problems as I write this. It turns out to be a good (and bad) thing that I went to the ER. While there I found out that my white blood cell count is extremely low, and I am currently neutrapenic. This means that I am risk of serious infection because my body is unable to defend itself. While it is good to know this information, laying in a hospital bed being exposed to those same organisms I was trying to avoid was not a good thing. I got out of the hospital as soon as they would let me, and am now closely monitoring my temperature for a fever. If I get a fever above 100.5F then I need to go back to the hospital and be given IV antibiotics, perhaps being admitted as well. This is something I am vehemently avoiding with every ounce of strength I have left (not much left though).

Looks like no work this week. In fact, I will stop trying to predict when I can get back to work, since I keep hitting all of these obstacles. I look forward to feeling and being normal again.

Recovering from cycle one

Well, things are finally returning to normal now toward the end of cycle one. The past couple of days have been much more difficult than I thought they would be, and I am glad to say that my body's systems are finally returning to normal. I was finally able to stop taking the chemotherapy side-effect medicines on Monday night, and after a brief shock my body is responding well. Last night I even slept for five hours (with a trip to the store in the middle). I am still working through one major side effect that is keeping me from work, and a handful of smaller ones. I hope to rejoin the work force tomorrow.

Ali and I have definitely learned a lot during this first cycle. Even amidst the misery of the treatment itself, there is opportunity. I plan to take full advantage of these opportunities (such as time due to not sleeping). Hopefully Bosley (the dog) will forgive me for not playing with him as much as he would like.

Dan is cleared to go back to work!

Monday, Day 8 of 63, is a pretty good day. Today's goal was lab work, hydration and bleomycin. We got to sleep in a little since we didn't have to be at the hospital at any certain time. , well I slept in - Dan was up at 4am as normal. I dropped Dan off and went to the commissary to buy gallons of gatoraide. The nurses warned us that certain foods or liquids would taste funny or hurt during chemo and they are right. Dan normally loves water and drinks a ton of it daily but since midweek all it does is burn his throat. Luckily lemon lime & orange Gatoraide taste wonderful to him, Go Gators!

For those who like lab work, his spreadsheet is updated with the latest and greatest. His red blood cells didn't dip to badly (day 10 should be the lowest point for them), hemoglobin only down to 11.3 His white blood cell count actually is very high, 19.9, so his body is sure working hard to fight this cancer. Based on his lab work he is cleared to work half-days (~4 hours) for this week and next week. He still needs to be very careful and avoid crowds or anyone who is sick during this time. But slowly over the next 2 weeks his energy level and counts should return to a normal level, just in time for round 2.

Cole is our youngest Livestrong member

Cole is fighting the fight against Testicular Cancer. He cant wait to cheer Heather and I when we run our Half Marathon in April. My sis and I met up today in Columbus for our training run. We ran 4 miles in beautiful 25 degree Ohio weather. The run wasn't bad at all but patches of the trail were icy causing our pace to slip some from our normal 10min mile. By April we will up to 13.1 miles

Dan's First Blog Entry

I have finally reached a point when I can actually sit and concentrate on any one thing long enough to form coherent sentences. And adding to this blog has been a high priority of mine since Ali started it, and I am happy to finally now have an opportunity. Unfortunately, Ali has covered most topics, but I will try to cover a few areas from a personal side that may be missing.

I would like to start off by thanking all of you who have shown such incredible support for Allison and I during our time of need. Everytime I hear about how many, either quietly in your homes, or even in your church groups and friendship circles, are thinking and praying of us, it simply makes me speechless. I had no idea so many people cared, and this is something that serves as a tremendous source of strength for both Allison and I. Goodness knows, we both need it...on our first day to the hospital, not only did Ali drive, but we got lost on the way (two things that never happen, and a sign of the stress we're under).

Ali has been doing a great job keeping everything up to date, and so I don't have a lot of new information or pictures to present. However, I would like to share a prayer sent to us by Mr. Moynihan (Ali's father), that I find especially touching and truly reaches my heart. This prayer was sent to us on Day 2, entitled "Live Strong!" and is one that Mr. Moynihan and many of his friends know by heart and say for us each day:

Thy name is healing, O my God, and remembrance of Thee is my remedy. Nearness to Thee is my hope, and love for Thee is my companion. Thy mercy to me is my healing and my succor in both this world and the world to come. Thou, verify, art the All-Bountiful, the All-Knowing, the All-Wise. (Baha'u'llah, Prayers Meditations by Baha'u'llah, p. 262).

Each day in chemotherapy lasts about four hours, with two hours of normal saline hydration, and the rest full of chemotherapy drugs and a balancing act of anti-nausea drugs. The nurses have been very good at helping to find the right combination of drugs to minimize my side effects, and I am extremely greatful to them for that. Even still, there is simply no way around the lousy feeling, and I find myself going stir crazy sitting in a chair being pumped full of poison for hours on end. However, it is a means to an end, and necessary to recovery.

Most mornings now I find myself waking up at about 0330-0400 due to an unraveling of my stomach, and I try to figure out what my stomach is able to tolerate. Lately it has been crackers (saltines, which help to an extent), and Mom's favorite chicken noodle soup. While they work reasonably well, they are intended for a different type of sickness. The good news is that the side effects with my stomach are apparently resilient to more varied and complex foods...like PIZZA! One of the world's small miracles I suppose :)

Ali has been posting mostly the pictures with meaning and that tell a story, so here I will post some of the others :) Here is the morning of Day 2, when I wasn't feeling so well (call it morning sickness). Luckily the dogs were there for comforting.



And here is me all doped out getting ready for going to treatment one cold morning. As it turns out, this is about how I look most mornings.

Here is a picture of me fighting down something simple like a glass of water (which makes my entire esophagus burn):


Regardless of all this mess, Ali and I are getting through, thanks to the terrific support of our friends and family. We are truly blessed to have so many of you thinking of us in our time of need, and cannot possibly express how much it helps us or ever hope to repay you for your generosity and good will. God speed to you all. Through it all we are relying on friends and family to keep us sane, as well as the decades of mental and physical training that makes us who we are...yes, that means when we have time and can concentrate enough to do so, we play video games :) It helps to bring back a little bit of normal life, even if for a very brief amount of time.

Thank you all.

Day 5

(<-- Dan in a wig!) Well the first week of treatments is now in the books. Today was a pretty rough day for Dan and according to his nurses this weekend will be the worst part of the 3 week cycle. The chemo, Cisplatin especially, has a cumulative effect so every day is a little worse until it peaks out and by Monday most of the nausea should be better. Yesterday Dan started having issues with his jaw involuntarily moving. He called the nurses and they said to try not taking the Compazine and only doing Zofran & Ativan that night. Today he was feeling pretty crummy so they gave him some Phenergan IV and the shaking became everywhere. He was very restless, arms and legs getting muscle spasms and just moving on their own. He looked like a Parkinson's patient. According to his doctor this is a possible side effect of Compazine & Phenergan type drugs (extrapyramidal reactions or specifically dyskinesia). They gave him some IV Benadryl & IV Ativan and about 1 hour later the tremors & twitching finally slowed down and now a couple hours later he is asleep in bed at home. So this weekend they are going to have him on the Zofran & Ativan plus Decadron to control his nausea.

Hopefully this weekend goes well for him and we can consider the worst part done with. We now know what to expect for the week, we will have a better idea for next cycle what drugs work or don't work for him so it should be smoother. Monday he will go in for lab work and his Bleomycin treatment. That should be really quick and then no doctors for a whole week!