everyone is still alive

I suck. I am woman enough to admit it.

This is just a quick note to say we are both still alive, albeit one of us has less hair than a year ago, and moving along.

A giant thank you to Tyla, the Dogs D'Amour, the wonderful Katy Hudson and a load of other people who know who they are, who have made these last few months amazing!

I promise I will fill in the blanks soon.

As John Lennon used to say, "Life is what happens when you're busy making other plans."

get your arses down to the cancer is a cant fundraiser july 28 at 5pm

Tell all of your friends, all of their friends, your family, strangers on the street to come on down to Ye Olde King's Head on Saturday, July 28th at 5pm for the Cancer is a Cant fundraiser and auction. DJ Danny will be spinning the tunes. There will be drink specials. There will be amazing auction items such as a 2 night stay at the Casa del Mar, an iPad2, dinner packages, gift baskets, jewelry, a gift certificate for 2 people to have their makeup applied by a celebrity makeup artist, a gift certificate worth $500 for a cut and color at the famous Fred Segal Salon, autographed Neil Gaiman items, game cards, t-shirt and Farmville plush toys from Zynga and much more.

If you can't make it to the event, please click on our PayPal donation button on the right or send a gift via email at cancerisacant@gmail.com via PayPal and give what you can. Spread the good karma. Share on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, MySpace.

Let's make this an event to remember!

Please note this website is still a work in progress and I am doing my best to get the story completed. So check back often.

our first cancerversary

Today marks a year since we found out Paul had cancer. Well, I should rephrase that and say it's a year since I found out about his cancer. But since we have different days of revelation, we have opted to consider today the day. Sadly we couldn't do anything to celebrate the occassion since Paul is still extremely frail and has a hard time walking due to the neuropathy in his feet and getting out of breath after just slowly walking a few yards. Still, the fact that he made it to the year mark is a major accomplishment.

What you see above is a picture of all of the prescriptions that he has been given over the last 365 days. Yes, I've made him keep all of the empty bottles of pills, lotions, mouthwashes, fiber, laxatives, immodium, vitamins, etc. The picture doesn't really capture the enormity of it since I had to stack a lot of them on top of each other in order to get them all in the picture. The scariest part is that if we were to pay retail for all of this, the cost would be somewhere in the neighborhood of $70,000! And that's not even including the 14 bags of Oxaliplatin that he has received which would total $350,000 and the 10 tiny bags of Avastin which ring in at another $100,000.

Makes your head spin, don't it?!?!

scanxiety nightmare part 5

This is just starting to become a joke. I called yet again to see if I can get the infamous comparison report. I figured after the oncologist's call to the imaging center that something would get done but, alas, that was me just trying to be positive, something I have not ever been very good at.

There is only one person in the records department who will even speak to me at this point. He informed me that the radiologist was to have this report done a few days ago. I corrected him and said, "don't you mean weeks ago?" He then informed me that the radiologist was running into problems doing the report because "it is complicated." I told him that I found it amazing that after now five weeks of waiting for this all important report, why can't the radiologist ask for help from her boss or another more qualified colleague. I mean if there was something I didn't know how to do in my job or was having problems with I would ask for help. It's not like we are dealing with a broken arm or a cold - he has STAGE 4 CANCER!!!!!!

I am seriously considering pitching a tent in the middle of their reception area and staging a protest until I get that damn report.

scanxiety nightmare part 4

So we went to the oncologist today for our usual check up and chemo #10 and guess what still no comparison report. The doctor is beyond livid and got on the phone right then and there in the hall way and we could hear him yelling at the imaging center about how this needs to have been done weeks ago. We shall see if that gets theirs asses moving. Just unbelievable.

As for the kidney stone and spinal degeneration things, there is nothing anyone can do to fix them so we just have to wait it out and see what the comparison report says about the tumors and to see if Paul passes the kidney stone. Trust me I am NOT looking forward to that at all.

scanxiety nightmare part 3

Well, guess what, after numerous calls from me, I finally received a report for the PET and CT scans but it's absolutely useless to us. There is no comparison, no measurements of any of the tumors, nothing. The only thing it revealed is that Paul has a 3mm kidney stone in his left kidney and some form of spinal degeneration. I sent it to the oncologist, who had also directed his staff to demand a copy of the report and by the tone of his email, he was none too pleased with the half-assed report that we received.

We shall see if he gets anything in tomorrow morning when we go for Paul's check up and chemo appointment.

And people wonder why my blood pressure is through the roof.

scanxiety nightmare part 2

Will this nightmare please end? Today's call with the imaging center was yet another chapter in the file "I couldn't make this up if I tried." So after last week's debacle of getting DVD's over to them, they call me late this afternoon to ask me if I have a copy of Paul's former scan reports. Little did they know, that in my backpack I have every document that you can imagine since this whole thing started. Thus, the guy on the other end of the phone was shocked when I asked him what his fax number was so I could send it over right then and there and that I would not hang up the phone until he told me that he was in receipt of the reports.

He tells me that he has what the radiologist needs and that it should be another day, two at most to get the reports. I tell him that that is good to hear since Paul's next chemo session is on Friday and we need those results no later than 9.30 Friday morning.

Let's just see what transpires in the next 48 hours.