10.1-10.6

This week has felt rougher than in the past, to be quite honest. Brittney posted recently a bit on this treatment from her perspective here, and I think she describes it well. I can't quite describe what it feels like to know that another round of chemo is coming the next day. It is starting to make me feel sick just thinking about it, even before any real physical effects set in. My strategy lately has been to stay up as late as I can the night before, and then try to act passed out/sleep through as much of the treatment as possible. It is crazy to just lie there and feel myself getting physically sick over the course of a few hours.

One hard thing as the treatments pile up is that I am sort of running out of things to eat, or rather things that sound good at all when I don't feel well. For the first two days after treatment nothing at all sounds good, and I am lucky to get down a piece of toast or something. In the few days after that, I can start eating, but I am very influenced by how good (or yucky) things sound. Any foods associated in my mind with the sick feelings of chemo are a no go. Then, whatever I manage to eat during these few days ends up not being appetizing the next time around. The biggest casualty so far is water. The thought of drinking water just disgusts me. I can still manage a bit if it is ice-cold and not in a cup, like from the faucet when brushing my teeth or at the drinking fountain at work. Up till now I have relied heavily on Tang to flavor water and help me drink liquids, but this time around Tang sounds disgusting too. I have tried some different juice-like drinks, but they have similarly fallen by the wayside. My big liquid staple the last few days has been some chocolate milk that Brittney's Mom stocked us up with when she was here.

Food-wise, the thing that has survived the longest is honey-roasted peanuts. Other than that, most everything has a fragile support in my psyche. All in all, yesterday and today I have been able to eat a bit more normally, but my stomach still feels off. I sure hope there are still foods that sound good to eat once this is over, and that eventually the ill effects of my mind wear off. I am not sure I could live without chocolate milk.

In other news, Brittney's Mom was here for almost a week, and it was wonderful. It gives me so much comfort to have someone here helping take care of the kids and ease Brittney's burden when I am unable to. In many ways I feel that the chemo treatment's are hardest on her. I am tired and feel sick and try and sleep a lot, while she gets to take care of the kids, worry about and care for me, and try to handle any household duties that need taking care of during my off days. She does marvelously at these jobs, but I inevitably worry about the burden they impose. So, when there is someone here to share her burden, help out with the laundry and the kids and the dinners, it is so nice, for everyone. We are so blessed that we have had people who have been able to come out and help so much. My Mom is scheduled to come help during the next treatment, and Brittney's Mom for the last treatment. We are so blessed.

9.1-10.0 Chemo this morning!

Yesterday I had my doctor's appointment. My blood work looked fine and we will leave for the cancer center in about 20 minutes. Chemo number 10. The ninth treatment went pretty well over all. I feel like I was hit harder by it for the 4 or 5 days after, but was still able to have a pretty normal week last week. The best part is that Brittney's mom was able to come out last Friday, and she gets to stay until this Thursday. It has been really great having her here. On Saturday Brittney and I made it to the temple in the morning, and then went out to dinner in the evening. The kids seem to be really enjoying the chance to spend time with Grandma, and I think Brittney is really enjoying it as well.

I can't say that I am excited about the chemo itself, but I am excited with each step that we take, getting closer to the end. The last few treatments I have started feeling a sense of foreboding as the next chemo round approaches. But, we have to go through with it. Luckily, Brittney will be able to be at the treatment with me today, and each of our moms have plans to come out once more, so that we have help for the last two treatments as well. We are so blessed.

Hall of Baldness: Ben, Jodi, Tessa, Ashlyn and Kylee

Ben is my cousin, Jodi is his wife, and Tessa, Ashlyn and Kylee are their three daughters (yes, they are triplets!) Ben and Jodi are really wonderful people, and great examples to us.

Ben is a professional football player, one of the biggest and strongest guys I have ever been around. He plays on the offensive line, so his job is to keep other big strong fast guys away from his quarterback, and to block them out of the way for his running backs. Suffice to say he has been rather successful at this task, starring in college at BYU, spending some time in the NFL, winning a championship in NFL-Europe with the Amsterdam Admirals, and most recently playing in the Canadian Football league for Calgary and now the British Columbia Lions. He won a Grey Cup (the Canadian Football League's Super Bowl) in his first season in the CFL and then won it again in the most recent season. The season before that, his last with Calgary, he was voted the best offensive lineman in the league. I even saw one newspaper article (check it out here) where they called him the player of the Grey Cup game.

Anyways, suffice to say he is successful at what he does, which I am sure requires a large amount of intensity, passion, and a little meanness. The best part is that Ben is one of the most humble, nice, polite, gentle and caring people that I know. His wife Jodi is equally awesome and we have loved the few times that we have gotten to see them over the years.

Our first weekend here in Edmonton, Ben happened to be here too, playing in a game on Saturday night against the Edmonton Eskimos. We went out for breakfast together and had a great time visiting. This was, of course, about three or four days since we had found out that I had cancer. He was such a calming and supportive influence. He managed to get us tickets to the game (which the kids loved, and BC of course won handily) and also helped us get settled. His generosity and kindness really made a difference during a potentially stressful time.

I am honoured to have a cousin like Ben, and amazed at the sacrifice of cutting the beautiful hair of his three adorable daughters. Ben, Jodi, Tessa, Kylee and Ashlyn, welcome to the Hall of Baldness!

Hall of Baldness: Brittany

Brittany is my sister-in-law, married to my brother Thom. She is from Texas and is just a sweetheart. I love seeing her and my brother interact, they seem so good for each other. We were so blessed to have Thom and Brittany visit during the Christmas break a few weeks ago, and it was so fun to get to spend time with them. I love watching Brittany interact with her kids, she takes very good care of them. She also was amazing at helping out around the house and making sure that Brittney (my wife, for those of you shakey on the spellings) got a little bit of a break now and then.

Having two Britt(ney/any) Archibald's in the family has led to some fun moments. Like the time when someone sent Brittany a package, without the right address, and somehow someone looked up her name on BYU's database and found Brittney's name and sent the package to us. Lucky for them we are related. Or the time that Brittany and Thom were visiting us in California and Brittany introduced herself in Relief Society and got some odd reactions out of people - "You're not Brittany Archibald, I know Brittney Archibald, and it isn't you." Maybe they thought she was trying to be funny or something.

The good thing is that now my youngest brother Edward knows what his wife's name will be: Britney or Britany or Brittnie or Britny or something like that. We think that would be a hoot.

Anyways, back to Brittany. . . I am so happy to have her in the family, and hope to repay their visit(s) in the not-too-distant future, once this whole cancer thing is behind us. She is a great sister-in-law and a wonderful person. Brittany, welcome to the Hall of Baldness!

9.0: Back to the yuck

Today was chemo at 8:45 am. I was on my own this time, and things went ok compared to previous times. I start feeling sick as soon as I enter the building, and I have a hard time getting out of bed on chemo days. They got the IV started after only two tries this time (yay!) and I slept as much as I could. I was surprised to toward the end by my Brittney and the kids, who came to visit. They had some pictures they had drawn for me, and Gwen just kept repeating "Hi, Daddy!" over and over and burying her head in my face. It was cute. They had to wait a little bit long for me to get done, but they behaved very well.

I was a little unsure as to whether I wanted them to see me like that, but I tried to truthfully answer all their questions about the tubes and machines and other things. I am amazed by how they can handle everything in stride (or seem to, I am sure they can sense the stress of the situation at some level). They know that I am sick and that I am getting better. And I try to make sure that they also know how much I love them and how much they mean to me.

Since then I have been lying in bed. My stomach feels quite upset and delicate, like anything could push me over the edge to throw up. So far that hasn't happened yet though. Now for some sleep.

8.11-8.12: Chemo Tomorrow!

Tomorrow is already the next treatment, the time has passed more quickly this time, what with the CT scan during this last week. We had a really good Saturday and nice Sunday, and I guess we are as ready as we can be for tomorrow. Hopefully everything will go smoothly. I hope to return to more frequent posting, now that the holidays are officially far behind us. As always, thanks for your support and love, it makes all the difference in the world.

Hall of Baldness: Gary and Paul

Gary is my uncle, and Paul is his son, my cousin. Gary is, like all of my mom's brothers, one of the nicest guys around. His family live close enough that we were able to see a fair bit of them growing up, when we would get together for family parties and the like. My favorite time together with them has been our yearly excursions to Cedar City for the Utah Shakespearean Festival. Gary, his wife Kristy, and their kids have been there every year for as long as I can remember and I always love the time to spend with them. They have both been so great at welcoming Brittney to the family and really inquire as to how we are doing every time we see them. They are great parents and have raised and are raising some wonderful kids, which definitely includes Paul. I am so grateful for their support and love. Gary and Paul, welcome to the Hall of Baldness!

8.5-8.10 : Good News!

Yesterday I had a CT scan done at the Cancer Centre. This is apparently what is done at this point in the treatment (4 months in!) to see how the cancer is responding to the treatment and if anything needs to be changed going forward. The scan was fairly uneventful, quicker than I thought, and not too bad. The nurse said that it usually takes around 10 days to get the scan results back, so I wasn't planning on finding out the results quite yet, but today Brittney found a babysitter for the kids so that she could come with me to my appointment.

There had been a scheduling mixup, but they squeezed us in and we were able to see the doctor. I was happy to hear that he had the results of the scan already, and even happier/elated/relieved/grateful beyond description to hear him say that the results were good! It looks like all of the different enlarged nodes have shrunk in side, most to around 1/3 of their original size. One measurement of the biggest one showed a decrease from 3.5 cm to 1.2 cm. Some of the smaller nodes have disappeared altogether. The doctor seemed pleased with these results, and since he was we also were.

The plan from here on out is two more months of chemo, at which point there will be another scan, and then if everything is gone we will move to a checkup every 3 months for 2 years, and then every 6 months for 3 more years. So, still a long road, but two more months of chemo is all, as far as we know now.

We also found out that things are good to go for chemo on monday, so now we are ready to enjoy the happy news for 3 more days until the reality of chemo sets back in. But I think it will be easier to endure this time around, with the knowledge that it is working, and with some light at the end of our tunnel.

Thanks to everyone for your prayers and love. We have been so blessed in so many ways, and I get overwhelmed thinking about all of the wonderful people who love us and support us so much. We love you all!

Hall of Baldness: Bryce and Ben

Bryce and Ben are Brittney's cousins. They are brothers and grew up next door to Brittney, so 'cousin' doesn't quite seem to capture the closeness. I have spent quite a bit of time with them when we have been visiting at Brittney's parent's house over the years, as well as at their family reunions. Bryce and Ben have always been so friendly and welcoming to me, and I have enjoyed the time I have been able to spend with them and their family. Bryce recently returned from his mission in Romania, and he spent some time in Moldova, which is where a sister on my mission was from. I think he even met her at some point, but I might be misremembering. Ben is great at tinkering and building things, he always seem to have a new airplane or helicopter in the works when we are at his parents house. Brittney tells me that when he was younger he wasn't allowed to take the garbage out because it would take him too long, since he like to pick through it and find things he could use and build things out of. Bryce and Ben are great people, and I am so blessed to now have them in the family. Ben and Bryce, welcome to the Hall of Baldness!