whitewater Archives - Columbus and the Valley

I write tonight with the bag containing dose number four dripping away above my head and into the PICC line. In spite of the brief bout of nausea and the shake, rattle and roll bit last night, today I have felt great. Although I haven’t looked in the mirror to check it out, I have been told that my skin is quite red, from my scalp to my feet. My face does feel a bit like I’ve spent too long in the sun.

As of this morning, I haven’t gained an ounce. I’ve been told that I’ll likely gain 5% of my rather ample body weight during this first half of round number one. I asked the nurse who just came into my room how I was doing compared to others who have come through Duke’s HD-IL2 program. “You’re doing great,” she said, but I could tell she had that “I-tell-everybody-the-same-answer-to-that-question” look on her face.

One of the attending physicians came in today and somehow (you guess how) we got to talking about whitewater rafting. He lit up! He’s an enthusiast who has several runs of the New and Gauley rivers under his belt. I whipped out my iPad and showed him just enough video for him to know that he’ll be making a trip to Columbus sometime next year. Richard Bishop must have the best job on earth. I consider myself an able assistant in the task of selling our tri-community region to people around the world in our magazines, printed and digital, my blog and in person. We live in an incredible place at an incredible time.

Back to cancer land: I spoke to Dr. Mike Morse’s physician’s assistant today and she gave me high marks for how I’m tolerating this difficult therapy. I also realize that I’ve claimed this and will likely be slapped down by karma, maybe even by the dose that is dripping right now. But for right this moment, I am here with my best friend, surrounded by some of the best medical minds on the planet in a most beautiful city. All in all, I’m happy. I’m enthusiastic and I’m optimistic about the next few days and for what is to come.

Thank you for all the great Facebook messages and the posts on this blog. Jill and get together and read them every day and I want you to know that these messages of hope and encouragement are hitting their intended mark.

I’m going to regret this blog post if I’m up all night hugging the porcelain throne. Selling Buicks. Talking to Ralph on the big white phone. You get it.

Just as I’m prepared to sign off, the beeping of the power pole next to the bed says that does number 4 is fully integrated into my body. Goodnight!

Because of the precarious condition of my back, I declined a generous offer to fill a spot yesterday in one of the rafts that navigated the newly-created whitewater course on the Chattahoochee. Jill made the trip and I stood on the sidelines and watched. I knew that I had made the right decision at exactly the instant I saw her leave the rubber rail of the raft and sail up and into the boiling cauldron that is the hole named “Cut Bait.”

After a few anxious moments I saw her head pop up and I knew someone would scoop her up and bring her safely back to me. Jill and Oprah Winfrey have something in common. Neither of them particularly likes to get their hair wet. Oprah would have been proud. Jill came out of the Hooch looking like a drowned rat and she will have stories to tell for the rest of her life about the day she ran the Chattahoochee at 9,000 cubic feet per second. Folks, that is some big ass water!

We pull out in the morning to begin the eight-hour drive to Durham, NC to begin the next chapter of my journey with cancer. My itinerary includes meetings with medical oncologist, Dr. Dan George and Dr. Michael Morse, who runs Duke’s high-dose interleukin-2 program. I’m fortunate that they’re going to be able to use all the recent scans from M. D. Anderson Cancer Center. To supplement those scans, I’ll have some lab work and pulmonary function testing (stress echo) to determine my ability to withstand the difficult HD-IL2 treatment regimen.

The first doctor visit is on Monday and the stress test and the visit with Dr. Morse are scheduled for Tuesday. We should be able to hit the road to come back home on Wednesday morning. If HD-IL2 will work for me, we’ll turn back around and head back up there to begin the treatment on either Labor Day or the day after. After seven days in intensive care, we’ll make the difficult trek back home for two weeks for me to try to bounce back from the therapy. Then we’ll do it all again. That is one round. Depending on how I fare and how I respond, I’ll have to do multiple rounds of this nasty therapy. Four rounds could take up to a year from start to finish. But, this is the only therapy that can offer me a cure. And, only in a very small percentage of cases.

Jill and I appreciate the continued good wishes and all the love we’ve received from our family, our friends and this remarkable community. If you add all the readers of this blog around the world, we aren’t tackling this difficult therapy alone. There is a veritable army that will go with us. I am going to attempt to blog my way through this entire treatment. With the very strong likelihood that there will some portion of the next few weeks when I’ll be physically or mentally unable to write. Because I want to capture all of this to be able to leave more breadcrumbs for those behind me to follow, I’ll ask Jill to either video some things or to type for me. Regardless of what happens, this is going to be a difficult, but interesting time in our lives.

I hope you’ll allow me a shameless plug for our business here. We have, at considerable expense, launched free iOS, Android and web versions of both Columbus and the Valley and Valley Parent magazines. As we begin to offer free, interesting local content in these digital editions as a value-added complement to our 21-year-old print magazines, we will be an even better value to our advertisers. When one of our account executives makes contact with you, please say “yes, I want to reach our potential customers regardless of where they are. At the beach, at home or in the carpool line.”

Here’s how to access all those magazine versions. Please download them, share them with your friends and let us know what you think.

Columbus and the Valley

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Valley Parent

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iOS: itms://itunes.apple.com/us/app/valley-parent-magazine/id548646604?mt=8

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