Hey everyone,
I know I said I'd get to this a lot sooner, but I haven't really had the urge to write anything until now. Well here's what's been happening in the two months I've been home in New Jersey:

I've already undergone three treatments of chemotherapy at Sloan-Kettering in New York City. The facility there in Manhattan is absolutely amazing, but I guess I shouldn't have been so surprised since it's one of the most advanced cancer centers in the world. When I got home to New Jersey on April 1, I was running on about two hours of sleep every night because it was very hard to adjust to the fact that my life had been turned upside down in the matter of an hour in a doctor's office. Almost immediately after I came home I began running fevers well over 100 degrees and had almost completely lost my appetite because my liver had shifted and was pressing against my stomach. Between the nausea and lack of an appetite I've lost close to 30 lbs. since mid-March. The fevers continued for about ten days, I went to the emergency room one night because of a temperature that was 105 degrees. After determining there were no viruses or infections causing the fevers I was sent home, but was still very dehydrated and uncomfortable.

By the time I was ready for my scheduled liver biopsy and meta-port placement I was used to having the fevers all the time. I would take Tylenol for temporary relief, but breaking the fever meant sweating so profusely I would have to change clothes two to three times each night. Waiting for the nurses on the morning of my procedures I sat pleading with my body asking that the fevers would leave me just long enough for the doctors to be able to perform their tasks with no problems. Of course I was arguing with something that was trying to kill me so why should it listen? Well, my temperature began to rise and I was sent to the urgent care center, which is Sloan's version of an emergency room for its patients. In the urgent care center I was tested for infections and sent for x-rays because there was no apparent explanation for my fevers. The lack of answers mean the scheduled procedures were put on hold and I would have to be admitted to the hospital so they could determine how much of a risk it would be to perform any sort of surgery on me while having the fevers. I was in the hospital for three boring days and was so dehydrated I went through at least ten bags of I.V. fluids. After every blood test the doctors could think of was performed they determined I was most likely experiencing "tumor fevers." It is common for the tumor itself to be causing high fevers, but the problem was it was preventing me from starting my treatment.

The doctors finally decided that the benefits of doing the liver biopsy and placing the meta-port in my chest far outweighed the risks my fevers presented. The biopsy was a piece of cake and I really didn't feel a thing thankfully. The meta-port placement was just as painless and having it in meant I would start chemo the very next day. I guess I should explain what a meta-port is since I've been talking about it so much...it is a small piece of plastic that has a catheter which runs into a vein. This allows the doctors easy access to pump the chemo into me without having to stick my arms with needles everytime I go for a treatment. But everything was in place and the road to recovery was finally about to begin...