Medical Archives - Page 5 of 6

My Chemo

Today is my month anniversary of finding out I had some sort of cancer. Things are a bit slower now that we have been poked prodded and tested. My knowledge about cancer has grown larger than I could have ever imagined. Before I started my research I thought there was one type of chemotherapy. I quickly found out that is like saying there is one type of soda drink or on type of car. I also found out that if you mix them you can get a better result. My doctors have chosen a protocol or cocktail called R-EPOCH.

R-EPOCH:

Rituximab 375 mg/m2 IV on day 1 plus

Doxorubicin 15 mg/m2plus Etoposide 65 mg/m2plus Vincristine 0.5 mg/day by continuous IV infusion on days 2-4

Cyclophosphamide 750 mg/m2 on day 5

Prednisone 60 mg/m2 on days 1-14; every 21d[29]

So within the protocol there are a few drugs that have a spot in the sequence and a duration before the next one runs. While at the hospital you are connected for 5 days and your nurses are changing bags to keep it running non stop for 5 day. They hang a new bag and switch over right as soon as the old back completes.

So it all feeds into your PIC line shown here. I tried to get another color but purple is all they had. If I trace the line in my body up to my armpit I can roll it and make the tail outside of my skin move. I know sort of gross, but I had to share.
This line will be with me until the end of my chemotherapy run in January. On my days off from MD Anderson we have to flush the line and keep the insertion point clean. Kendra is doing a great job taking care of me and flushing me each night. I’m still getting use to sleeping with a tube coming out of my arm. It also have to wrap it up while strumming the guitar. If I don’t restrain it it thumps the guitar and I have an accompanist drummer.

There are a few other meds that I take to help with the chemotherapy. One shot to help with white blood cell count, another pill to help with nausea created by the chemo and there is a antibiotic to help with staying infection free.

Well thanks for reading and staying positive. I’m off to find a place that can do my blood-work locally. Fun times in Perrin Land.

-Derrick

Don’t read the small print.

Posted by Perrin Derrick On F j, Y

Sorry but it seems like my post will all be poop-ish today. Keep up the laughs my friends.

Just so you know rectum = your bottom.

Things are about to get crappy – ha-ha

Posted by Perrin Derrick On F j, Y

So when you get cancer you want to do whatever you can to get rid of it quick. One thing I’m doing is injecting myself with poop. No, this is not some natural-path hippie medicine. This is the real deal $5000 a shot prescription by the best cancer docs in the world. Read the photo description above if you don’t believe me. I was almost happy to see this was a human derived medication since last week’s had mouse product in it.

The learning continues. Almost afraid to read the warnings at this point. This medicine is predicted to cause major bone pain. The pain comes from a flu like symptom that arises from the white blood cells being puled from my bone marrow and called into cancer fighting action.

I will let you know how this poop works.
Have a good day.
Derrick

One rough night

Posted by Perrin Derrick On F j, Y

So we finally made it home, got a bite to eat and crashed out. The crashing was short lived and I spent 1/2 the night in the bathroom acting as if I was a college age dunk kid. Good news is there was not a hangover. Kendra ran out and grabbed my nausea mediation and it immediately went to work. Most of today was spent in bed sipping the children’s electrolyte punch. I’m slowly adding calories via the blender.
Note to self, don’t forget to take the anti-nausea medication and life will be a beautiful place. Also noted is my wife is awesome. If you don’t have an awesome wife I would suggest you go do anything in your powers to find one. Your world will be a better place.

Thanks for reading.
-Derrick

Cancer treatment day 3 Video

Posted by Perrin Derrick On F j, Y

We are doing amazingly well for our circumstances. The hospital folks have been really nice and we have more love and support than we could imagine. Thanks for all your comments and prayers.

Cancer, Its a beautiful thing!

Posted by Perrin Derrick On F j, Y

I sat outside the doctor’s office where I had my MRI done. I opened up the paperwork preparing to see the length of my Hip labral tear and I did get that and so much more. In that same report I got the news that I had cancer. In that same second I got a new perspective on life. 15 minutes after reading the results and letting it sink in I had to pull the car over and reread the report and make sure Derrick Perrin was the name attached to the report.

Yep, it was me on the top of the medical report, and unless the scan of my most inner bits was 100% wrong I have some form of cancer. After the tears stopped I immediately had a new focus. I don’t know how others handle the information but my first question is how long do I have to live. I bypassed the “How bad is it” because I knew it had been hurting me for quite a while wasn’t getting any better.

As I sit today I know its a stage 4 diffused large b cell lymphoma.

When someone has a car wreck or a heart attack and dies they leave us abruptly. They are gone it a flash without a chance of saying thank you or goodby. I’m lucky and see the world through my cancer glasses. The world is so beautiful this way. I’m not sure if other folks can truly understand. Before I was diagnosed I knew a few folks who had cancer and had a perspective that only comes with cancer. I just couldn’t figure it out till I was diagnosed. Its like a switch went off, or on depending on how you look at it.

I now sit in M.D. Anderson. I’m on day 2 of 5 of chemotherapy. These last 3 weeks have been hard as shit. Be here, be there, come quick, wait long & come back soon. If taking care of cancer was just taking the right medicines I think there would be a higher survival rate. But having a new look on life helps get past the crap easier.

And back to how cancer is a beautiful!

New Living Translation – Psalm 139:16
You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed.

So knowing I don’t really have control helps and brings be comfort. We all know we are going to die sometime. We don’t know if it will be why we sleep or in a car accident or any other way he has chosen. We just know there is no fountain of youth and a day has already been chosen to meet our maker. In my new vision on life I can properly tell folks thank you and what they mean to me in my life. It gives me a chance to say goodby. We don’t know if that goodby is 3 weeks, 3 years, 30 years or longer. I get to share love with everyone who has shared their love with me. Each passing day I find there are more and more of you out there. If you have reached out I thank you so much and if I don’t get to personally chat with you please know I cherish each and every letter, card, comment, prayer, like, & share. You guys make this fight a lot easier to face. I’m trying to write more often and will be expressing things here. I’m finding a way to fold up the macho man appearance and share whats going on inside.

Derrick Perrin at the observation deck at M.D. Anderson – Houston, Texas

Thank you for the love and prayers. I appreciate all of you and am thankful I have what I have because I have been shown a greater love than I ever knew was possible. I’m trying to share that love back. I’m not wishing everyone could get cancer, I just wish everyone could see the world the way I do now.

Back to the fight. I love you all.

Derrick

PICC line is in

Posted by Perrin Derrick On F j, Y

So from here till January 5th I will have this purple tail hanging from my arm.

Watch “Chemotherapy setup day 1” on YouTube

Posted by Perrin Derrick On F j, Y

Beautiful rainy day here in Houston Texas. My hip is on day 2 of feeling really good. Almost back to walking normal with little effort.

Chemotherapy setup day 1 video: http://youtu.be/oPU9rklNjlE

So today will be long and compounded because of no sleep. We dropped the little ones in Port Lavaca at 5:30. Happy to be off the road and out of the rain.

Love
Derrick

Bone fun

Posted by Perrin Derrick On F j, Y

Today’s fun concludes with pulling bone marrow from both of my hips. This should conclude staging my cancer. These results will help them choose the right drug for the job. Looks like CHOP or EPOCH-R are the main contenders.

Thursday we will be back here to have my long line put in and start chemotherapy. It will run for 5 days ending next Tuesday. I will have 2 weeks off and then repeat the cycle for 6 trips. Only the first trip will be a hospital stay. The 5 others will be outpatient doping. I will keep the long line in for the 4 months I have treatments.

The most annoying part is every doctor and any cancer fighting book you read all say the same thing… get rid of stress. It seems like this place has been engineered to add and build stress. So their solution to saving lives is poison and stress. Things just don’t add up.

Freakish question during my PET scan this morning has me wondering about what they saw. They stopped the scan and asked it I had taken chemotherapy or radiation. That made me think it’s getting smaller. That is hopefull thinking. They proceed with a longer scan than originally talked about.

Without my family, crew this place would really suck.

All for now,
God Bless

Sunday, Sunday, Sunday Video Update

Posted by Perrin Derrick On F j, Y

Derrick and Benjamin from the tree house.

When looking into my dr notes online I found the answer to a question a lot of you have had. The question is, “Do you have Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma or the Hodgkin’s form of the disease?”
I have diffuse large b-cell lymphoma. This is the most common form of non-Hodgkin lymphoma
The notes also said it had a high proliferation rate. That sounds bad but the folks say that is great because that is the best for chemotherapy to attack. Chemo still scares the hell out of me. I could care less about the fatigue, hair loss, appetite suppression, or any pain it might bring… I just hate killing toxins with toxins.
We will be back in Houston to talk with the doctor and see where we go from here.

God bless
-Derrick