Thursday, December 26, 2013

December 26, 2013

I am straight up spoiling you readers. Three posts in three days? Who is this guy? What has he done with Nick?

Figured I'd get the news out there before it starts circulating otherwise. Scans came back with new developments, which I expected and I think most should've expected. There was the camp praying for the Christmas miracle but realism takes over at a certain point in my mind and you have to realize the nature of the disease at hand. I have bony metastases in four locations: my once mighty right arm near the shoulder (you're right I guess it's still quite mighty), my left hip, one vertebra in the lumbar region (L2), and the most concerning is in one vertebra at the top of the spine in my neck. The reason the vertebra at the top of the spine is most concerning is due to its proximity to the spinal cord, which it is not yet endangering - but if untreated could potentially paralyze me.

Interestingly enough, during my time in Mexico and even after, I have felt twinges of discomfort in all of the spots mentioned that lit up on the PET scan. Even more interestingly, all of these spots' discomforts have gotten less painful/uncomfortable directly after a Coley's treatment. The only one of these spots that I currently have any discomfort in is my arm, which started acting up yesterday - I'l be interested to see how it feels after Coley's tonight.

The reason that I don't find these scans all that negative is because my last set of scans was on October 3rd. Since then, I have had one chemotherapy (in Mexico), and that was in late November or early December. That being said, I went for about 2 whole months without chemotherapy and now only have four spots. Who knows what it was like before I started Coley's, after my big reaction/border crossing adventure, or during the rest of my treatment down there. I think it would obviously be beneficial to get some more chemo under my belt down there, but let's see if it makes sense to radiate this little bugger in my neck before that becomes a nuisance to the rest of things, shall we?

Merry Day After Christmas everyone!! Until the next update...

Wednesday, December 25, 2013

December 25, 2013






It's Christmas in New York again everyone! Merry Christmas from the Modico Compound to you and yours, wherever you may be!





And of course, for your listening pleasure...

Tuesday, December 24, 2013

December 24, 2013

Woof, haven't blogged in a week. Who writes a blog about his life with cancer and goes AWOL for a week?? Just keeping you on your toes people. Don't want you getting too comfortable in your computer chairs/desk chairs/couches/train seats(...this one was for you Janelle, because no one on God's green Earth gets comfortable in Metro North seats) while reading about my ventures south of the border.

Why no blog in a week? Well to be completely honest I've been mostly out and about, keeping busy and seeing the friends and family that I've kept in touch with and kept in touch with me while I was essentially practicing my Spanish and acting as a human pin cushion down there. Great times had by all, really. Also, given I was down there for five weeks, that means five weeks of no driving - perhaps my favorite activity as you well know. Needless to say I've been all over and back in this past week - and yes, it's officially pothole avoidance season.

Scans, scans, scans. Yeah yeah I'm sure you're all clamoring to know what they looked like on Friday. Hate to break it to you folks, but I'm not. Dooooooon't care. I told the docs down at Sloany Ketts to save any results until December 26th. Not about to have this all be the topic of conversation on Christmas. Plus, as far as my new treatment is concerned, this is a baseline scan to see what we're dealing with, not how it's going. If I could sum up how anxious I am about these scans, this is how I'd go about it: as they rolled me into the PET scan, you could see the machine start up and read "30:00" for thirty minutes to go. That's the last thing I remember until getting woken up by the technician saying, "Yo dude you're all done." Legitimately passed out so hard. Dooooooon't care.

What else is new in the life? Nada. Just living the dream here folks, the #ChemoDream. Hope you all have a wonderful holiday - to those who celebrate, Merry Christmas. Enjoy it!!

Tuesday, December 17, 2013

December 17, 2013

So awkward signing in to Google in English. I'm all about google.mx nowadays.

He's back. Yes indeed after a decently arduous five week treatment, I'm back at the compound - and it feels so right. Please excuse my lack of blog post immediately after landing; if I could've I would've. Of course, I hit the ground running. Gotta get my Christmas shopping done, yanno?

Got my white blood cell booster shot last night. For whatever reason I've been getting really nice reactions from it - not super white blood cell numbers but fevers! Cranked out a 101.6 last night, just moving those fighter cells around like it's nobody's business. On Friday we'll find out how the platelets are looking, among other things. Although we won't find out exactly how they look that very day, scans are on Friday. Again, these are more of a baseline to see what we're dealing with - so not much ado about these results.

Another quick thing - as a result of this new treatment, I'm on a completely new diet. It's known as the Gerson diet, which has me nearly vegetarian, juicing, and consuming incredibly small amounts of sodium (salt) and sugar. The family is going to try to adhere to this diet, albeit a little more loosely, in order to make it a bit easier for me to assimilate. True solidarity. That being said, as much as we appreciate it always, PLEASE do not send any food to the house as it will just go to waste or force us to find others to pass it off to! The generosity shown by others throughout this entire experience has always been unreal and like I said we really do appreciate it!

If you wish to see me, good chance you'll see me around trying to find places I can potentially eat at...kinda like a mini-scavenger hunt of sorts if you're bored. Later everyone.

Friday, December 13, 2013

December 13, 2013

Friday the 13th, and I haven't blogged in a while. I owe you guys one.

What's new with Nicky Mo? Lots to update since the last blog, so let's get started! The platelets were a paltry 67 on Monday. I was encouraged by this because they had gone up slightly (I think from 63) after I had weaned off steroids which were intended to help the platelet number go up. Couple that with starting up this platelet stimulator, and the number should go up, no? Well that was the plan. And all I do is execute plans with terrifying efficiency woooooooooooo. You thought I was about to drop some depressing nonsense on you but nopeeeeee; on Thursday morning, my platelets were 101, a 50% increase in merely 3 full days. Still a ways to go to be able to do chemo, but at least my bone marrow isn't totally fried yet.

Now everyone is probably wondering if I'm getting the reactions that we're all looking for with this treatment. For whatever reason, I haven't been getting the violent shaking, chills, and overly high fever (104ish). However, I have been getting delayed reactions...I'll be fine for like 4-6 hours and then I'll just start crushing a low grade fever, anywhere from 99-101 degrees. The whole point of the shot is to trigger the immune system into action, as evidenced by the fever...so the fact that I'm getting the fever eventually means the immune system is kicking into gear and doing its thing. In essence, somehow my body has found the "Goldilocks zone" of this treatment, so far: I don't get the violent reaction that is seemingly common, but I don't get zero reaction at all - it's a nice little spot in between.

Of course the weather is getting ridiculously nice out here as we're wrapping up this trip...first day at home and the high here is supposed to be 80. Of course. Wouldn't have it any other way though. Gimme that 20 degrees and face frozen off in 2 minutes...that's home. Later everyone.


Monday, December 9, 2013

December 9, 2013

Time for an update.

Platelets...no bueno. Just not cooperating. Just not being cool guys. Am I mad at them? Nah. Maybe just a bit disappointed. Sometimes you gotta play the guilt card with these platelet guys. Make 'em feel bad about their relative lack of effort. Letting the rest of the team down with their 50% hustle of sorts.

So what are we gonna do here? Well for one, start up a drug for some platelet stimulation (did on Saturday). Two, get off these steroids which are making me have a suppressed reaction from the Coley's. Looking to get that full shakes and fever woohoo! Three, see how one and two go. Viva!

What else is there to say about this Giants team? Time to lose out to get better draft picks, boys. Need to get that O-Line back in shape, pick up a wideout for when Nicks jumps ship, and look towards next year. Maybe it's time for Coughlin to hang 'em up. Definitely time for Fewell to hang 'em up. Later GMen; it was a really disheartening season.

It's about time to get home for the holidays. I'll be doing my best to make that happen in a timely fashion! Until next time, world.

Thursday, December 5, 2013

December 5, 2013

Early morning, December five...I woke up! I'm still aliiiiive. (This was set to the tune of "Pride (In the Name of Love) by U2 re: MLK...if you didn't know, now you do. You're soooo welcome.)

A very docile couple of days here at clinic, just making our way through treatment. Platelets don't want to cooperate, so we're still bumping those up, and we'll see if chemo is possible tomorrow or Saturday...but most likely won't happen until next week if you ask me. And I'm practically a licensed doctor now sooooo take it to the bank, baby.

What else is new? Nothing. As long as I reach my tamale quota for the day, coupled with some coffee and watching my San Diego weather ladies...for the forecasts, I'm a very happy camper. No doubt about it. Unbelievably, the high temperatures for New York and San Diego are the same today. On December 5th. New York. San Diego. How.

Also it appears they lit the tree in Rockefeller Center last night. Lost on me at this point. Certainly doesn't feel like the holidays here so I really can't get into it. Gonna be a highly condensed holiday season when I get back, but at least I'm getting that. Can't wait. Yet another thing to look forward to, like the flight home.

Until next update...later everyone.

Monday, December 2, 2013

December 2, 2013

Nicky Mo, so hot right now. Nicky Mo.

Boys and girls, it finally happened. On Saturday, I cranked out the elusive fever we've all been looking for. That's right I did it. Act like you're shocked, I dare you.

That's part of the news fit to print. The other part of the news fit to print is that my blood numbers are too low for chemo this week; the numbers required to do chemo here are different than at Sloan. And get this...they're more conservative here. So back home, at good old Sloany Ketts (who I'm losing faith in by the minute), they'd be like yeah man let's go crank out some chemo it'll be fun!! Yet here they're more along the lines of "no way dude let's get your blood numbers better and help your body fight the disease". Weird...what a novel idea.

So I get hit up with the shot that produces a fever again tomorrow. Obviously having a fever isn't fun but hey if it's doing the job activating the immune system against these cells...do you think I care? Let's do it up.

Diet update: it's going okay. I've adopted the juicing well and am limiting the non-naturally occurring sugars and salts pretty well. It's a decent existence that I foresee lasting 13 of 14 days. Cheat day once ever two weeks. Love it. Need it. Gotta have it.

Viva Mexico. Until later folks.