September 2009 – Benjamin Murphy

White Blood Cells – Fail!

Well my second chemo treatment on Monday was a dud. They always do blood work before they begin treatment to ensure that everything is good to go. My white blood cell count was knocked down too low to give me treatment. We were kind of wondering what was taking so long because the first time I was treated it only took about fifteen minutes for my blood work to come back. I guess they are double and triple checking my counts to make sure that they were reading it right.

Which sucks because now I will be a week behind and it just pushes off the inevitable anyway. Oh well, I guess I’ll let you know how it goes next week instead. They said that if this persists they will have to add another drug to my regiment to stimulate white blood cell regeneration. Just what I need, more drugs! The drug they are talking about giving me is Neupogen -(wikipedia link), for the curious. Better luck next time I guess!

Today I was hoping to get my braces off. I was scheduled for a “check for de-banding” at Dr. Kingas’ office this morning. In my mind that meant take these buggers off of me. But in reality that meant, lets take a look and let you suffer for two more weeks. Thankfully though his schedule was all booked up and the next best date is one week from today, hooray! So next Wednesday I should have a pearly new smile for everyone to enjoy. I’m pretty excited, nobody loves a brace-face!

Much Needed Break

Finally a much needed vacation! I needed to relieve some built up stress over the last few months of crazy tests and procedures. Much deserved? That I am not too convinced of. I’ve been quite a space cadet during these past few months at work, I can’t say I’ve been able to carry my own load lately. I need to step it up.

Myrtle Beach however was great. The weather was expected to be iffy, but the sun was shinning on Garden City all week long. We had just a few rains here and there but they didn’t interfere with our fun in the sun. “The boys” all got a little scorched the first day out, thanks to our ladies. I don’t think we will be hiring them to lube us up before our big muscle men shows. Gross, moving on!

We made sure our bases were covered for the week: massive amounts of sleep, fun in the sun, sand in the shorts, salt in the eyes, playing cards games and speed scrabble, swinging a few golf clubs, eating ourselves silly, puking in toilets, reading lots of comics, rocking the baby to sleep, visiting family, learning what white people like, watching the weather channel and cash cab, playing with fireworks, killing cockroaches, and many more things!

To top off the week Johnboy and I decided on sharing an experience everyone should share with people they love most: food poisoning. I’m just sorry that I couldn’t share it with my newest brother-in-law as well; Neil you lucky dog!

More updates tomorrow kids, stay tuned!

Back to Basics

So right after I email everyone telling them that I won’t be sending out mass emails and will only really be posting on my site so as not to annoy everyone, my site goes down. I blame SCIENCE! Oh well, let’s hope that doesn’t happen again.

I went into work yesterday and felt pretty good for most of the day. I went down to the gym just to stretch out a bit and test the range of motion in my right shoulder because of the port. I was shocked that I was able to do some push-ups without any problems. Even more, I couldn’t believe that I was able to stretch out completely and do a few full wide grip pull-ups. Just two or three to see how it felt. I’m pretty excited that it felt that well already. Maybe I’ll try a more normal workout later this week.

Sara and I were planning on meeting up at CEFC(our church) later in the evening for a membership class. Since I was heading that way I stopped at Becky’s to pass the time. I was feeling kind of gross so she fixed me up some yummy scrambled eggs to fill my stomach. It seems like I feel better the more I have something in my belly. However, I did weight myself at the gym yesterday and I was pushing 189. but that’s most likely a ton of water weight from all of fluids that were pumped into me the previous day and that I keep eating so I don’t feel gross. I better be careful I don’t get put on the biggest loser show next year at this rate.

Membership class was great but it ended fairly late. We didn’t get home until around 10pm and I was whupped from the entire day. I slept in this morning a bit because I was just beat. I think I should be able to take it easier today and just get some packing done for Myrtle Beach instead of all the running around.

Two days into the torture! Tony says, “Bring It!”

Here Goes Nothing!

In a few minutes I’ll be heading out for my first long grueling day of ABVD chemotherapy. I’ll be getting treatment for about eight hours today. I just hope with all of the many drugs they will be giving me that none of them react badly to me or each other and I make it through such a long day. Sara is coming with me to keep me company.

All or nothing, Round 1 FIGHT!

Update: I’m home and happy to be here. We spent a loooooong day getting chemo. They started the first drugs around 8:30am this morning and we finished up the last at 3pm. I was hooked up the whole time and had to cart my little drip bag around with me to the bathroom, of which I frequented. Sara got me lunch around 12:30pm, Wendy’s to the rescue!

They started the Rituxan drip last, which took about three hours alone. While Sara was out getting lunch I started getting itchy on my scalp. A Cortisone drip had to be added while I was finishing the Rituxan. We made it! 1 down, only 11 more treatments to go!!!

We stopped at Giant Eagle’s pharmacy on the way home to pick up some prescriptions for nausea and other stuff associated with the drugs. They are precautionary, hopefully I won’t have to use them.

Thank you everyone for thinking of us and praying for us for today. It was nerve racking in anticipation, but I feel as though it went very well. I’m not looking forward to next time, but at least I know what to expect. Check out all of the photos below.

p.s. – When I got home I check my emails of course. But I also checked a package I’m tracking for a new iPod battery I ordered online. Well check out where it showed up today! Not funny UPS, not funny…okay maybe a little.

Last Day of Freedom

Sara and I went out to Ruth’s Chris last night for a big date. We both got some juicy steaks to celebrate the rough upcoming months. She even went to the Pittsbugh Comicon yesterday just to show me how much she loves me. Seriously, that IS LOVE! She got to see the sights, smell the stinky smells, and even hang out with Darth. She patiently waited with me for about three hours while I flipped through all of the $1 bins looking for those elusive few issues I haven’t been able to find. Luckily I got nine issue of my want list a few extra for fun and only spent $25. We had a good time and some good people watching, heck we even saw 86 year old Stan Lee! Well, from about 75 yards we saw him.