Happy New Year!!

I have to admit I was a bit pissed off with the "bad service" at TYKS this time around, so far I have never had to wait for several days for anything. Now I had to wait for an entire weekend and then some. But when I finally got there on Monday everything worked like clockwork! In a miniscule window of time I had to see the doctor, pick up a friend, go shopping for booze and explosives, drop off the friend, get back to the hospital, pick him up again, pick up my fianceé, pack everything up and organize a party for 14 people! And yes, it worked! I got to the hospital at 11:30, the doctor was available at 11:45.. It was the same doc that made the final dignosis and treatment scheme for the Lymphoma so I guess I was in good hands. She was pretty confident it was the radiation pneumonitis I have probably mentioned as a possible side-effect earlier but just to be sure she booked a blood test and lung x-ray. By 12:30 I had taken both. And the blood sample was taken with only one sting.. Imagine that! =) (So much for avoiding the blood lab 'til February) By 14:00 I had to be back at the hospital for results and prescriptions. The X-ray was in agreement with a pneumonitis and the blood sample had a slightly elevated CRP so back on cortisone and antibiotics! Both were old acquaintances: Prednisolone (20days) and Doximycin (8 days). (And a shitload of Ventoline!!) But I'll start with that crap next year! =) By 16:00 we were already setting up the party and we had a great new years celebration! Enter 2013!!

And yeah, I won't be going to work 2/1/2013. Sick leave continued..

Wheezing X-mas

The week before christmas I started to notice some degree of wheezing and bubbling in the lungs again when laying in bed trying to sleep. As usual the noice was worse when having all my weight on the left side of the ribcage (the cancer side) and only when breating deep slow breaths, as you would when you sleep. I think I even had to get up some nights to take a whiff of the good 'ol Ventoline (the one I got for my "asthma") to make it stop. The weekend before x-mas was even worse, didn't get quality sleep at all, and x-mas at the parents house made the symptoms go totally bananas! A house with two cats and six dogs running around wasn't what the doctor ordered for my already shitty lung-situation. Even with almost overdosing with allergy pills and regularly sucking on the ventoline discus I had constantly trouble breathing and felt short of breath even sitting down most of the time during x-mas eve. The only positive side is I didn't eat too much since filling the stomach maked breating even harder. During the night when I sleep in the "allergy-house" things usually get a bit better but once I go back to the main building it hits you like an avalanche in a matter of minutes. So after sleeping badly for about 6h and spending a few hours upstairs (where the cats hang out most of the time) x-mas day turned out to be one of the worst days since the start of the cancer. At about 4-5 pm I almost had to crawl back to bed (which was 150m away through deep snow) and I really had to dig deep not to collapse half way since I wasn't getting any oxygen at all. Felt like I was barely conscious and I had to take a break every few steps I managed to walk. Probably should've asked someone to help me out a bit? Well, I managed to get to my inhaler so I could breathe again and sleep a few hours in a cat-free environment. By this time I waqs also pretty sure I was running a fever. I think I woke up at 9 pm and by that time everyone had left except my parents so once I got back x-mas was pretty much over. Fun day!

I didn't spend much time in the big house after that, sat around in the allergy house 'til 4-5 am and slept like 10h after that. Most of the allergy symptoms was gone but by then but the cough was so bad that my entire ribcage and spine was hurting with every movement. Also the wheezing was loud and disturbing which ever way I tried to sleep so maybe it's time to call the radiation doctor and ask what's up! The next day I call TYKS to explain my situation but naturally 90% of the doctors are off for the holidays so the only available time is on new years eve..! The funny thing is that my inhaler is empty too, so all I can do is eat painkillers and pray for the next three days! Oh glorious christmas time..

Free at last..?

Well, at least I didn't have to visit the hospital for a good 3 weeks. And I call them good because those weeks were almost symptom-free and my skin didn't have to get punctured anywhere! =) Anyway, time to settle the score from September and finally get a complete allgery test done. This is done in three steps: Monday morning (10/12) I go to see the allergy doctor and we discuss what I want to have examined, she makes a list and I wait for the nurse to prepare the patches. The nurse then pretty much covers my entire back with strips of small round shaped paches with different substances that are common allergens. Then I take it easy (not that I was planning for a marathon) for 48h and make no sudden movements and try to sleep flat on my back so that the adhesive tape keeping the patches in place doesn't come off. On Wednesday (12/12) the patches are removed and the itchy spots are marked as possible allergic reactions. In fact all the patch-areas are marked with a black marker and covered with adhesive tape again so that they can find the right spots on Friday (14/12). But the exposed areas are not covered so they are now "breathing freely". Did I meantion I don't get to shower all week? At least not my upper body.. Sweaty and nice! Wednesday they also did a prick test on my arm which only took about 45min and gave no surprising results really.. Same old, same old! Finally on Friday all the tape is removed and patch-areas are analyzed and I get to shower! Not the most convenient of weeks but at least they got some new results.

From the prick test, which I've done once before, it was reconfirmed that I have problems with pretty much any animals with fur, horse being the worst, and some plants and trees (pollen). The only thing that changed is that I seem to have cured my dust mite allergy? Yay! The patch test confirmed that I don't have penicillin allergy (which I thought I've had all my life) and I do have a violent reaction to nickel. The newcomers were Lyral and some kind of perfumes mix that occur in most hygiene products, soaps, detergents and such. So that's fun, if it says "perfume" on the bottle, I shouldn't use it! One of these days I'm going to have to get me one of those bubbles to live in. "Look, there's Bubble-Bro!!" Looking forward to that. But yeah, all in all a "fun" week and I got to visit TYKS frequently yet again. Now to surf the web for a king-size bubble..

Prick test:

 

I can see the light..

Yup, I can see the light now! It's almost over and it seems I won this round. Had my last visit to the blood lab, the last doctors' appointment for a long time and there's only three treatments left! Not much news from the doc really, they won't declare me 100% healthy for another 5 years or so (if ever?), but the treatments are officially over Monday 19/11 and then there will be nothing hospital-related for about 3 months. The effect of the radiation will go on for a few weeks after the final blast. The risk of getting lymphoma-reloaded is there, but it's not that big. If I do get sick again, at least they will know it at an early stage since I'm going to have regular check-ups for at least those 5 years. The risk of renewal is at it's highest within 2 years from when the treatments end, so every pit-stop will be a nail-biter for that period of time.

The soarness in the throat is slightly better too, either I'm getting used to the pain or maybe the body learned how to handle the radiation and produce sufficient mucus (gotta love that word) anyway? I hope my throat goes back to normal soon.. Also I had quite the sendoff from the blood lab yesterday (13/11). It was the worst amateur EVER!! And yes, it was a man. He kept tapping my veins for a long time, switched arms, taptaptap, went back to the left arm, taptaptap.. Then he made a leap of faith and stuck the needle in.. Nothing! Kept digging.. Nothing! Took it out, stuck it back in.. Nothing! GOD DAMN DUDE!! How hard can it be?? At this point I started to feel a bit queezy but at the same time he gave up decided to draw blood from my hand. Haha! My HAND!! Jeez what an amateur.. Well he got the job done. I don't like the blood lab anymore. Not that it has ever been a contending favourite in life. Today I made my last visit to the lab, fortunately only for a routine EKG. As I might've mentioned earlier, the radiation area is also covering my heart and lungs so they need to follow up on that too, so I don't get any immediate complications. But now it's safe to say: no more lab for months! =)

Radio Ga-Ga

TGIF!! It's funny how fridays have a meaning again, no radiation for two days! Three weeks down and one to go. This is starting to feel like going to work every day and that's a feeling I really don't miss right now. Even though being strapped down from my face for few minutes each day isn't that bad.. Only thing that sucks is the optimistic time-planning in the radiation deptartment. I've been to 15 treatments so far and I'm quite sure a maximum of 3-5 of those have been exactly at the given time. Either they're running late for some reason, sometimes early and a few times the place has been crowded because one of the radiation machines is broken. At one point this week two of them were out of service. With 5 radiation rooms and patients dropping in every 10min that can screw up a daily schedule quite badly! Also I've managed to get in a few minutes late (max 3min) a few times which means they pick the next one before me and I get to wait 10min. This also happens if you arrive at the exact minute you're supposed to get called in. Old people usually arrive like 30min in advance so I've lost my turn at least 3-4 times so far. At least I get to feel young in the waiting area, I think I've seen one person that can be categorized as the same generation as I am. Cancer isn't that popular among people in their 30's, weird huh?

Anyway, only side-effect I've felt is a soar throat. Both tubes! The trachea is in a constant state of feels-like-I'm-getting-a-flu and the esophagus is just short on lubricant. It hurts like hell when I swallow dry, hot, cold, coarse or acidic foods or drinks. It started some time last week and has been getting worse every day. So it's making eating and drinking somewhat restricted, maybe I can lose weight now? ;) (I wish!) Now that I think about it my skin has also been slightly reddish after the treatments but not anything like a sunburn.. yet! So not much left now. Every day I get in, wait for a few minutes to half an hour, get called in, take my shoes and shirt off, jump up on the motorized bed, get strapped down and get scanned and radiated. Takes about 5-10min once I'm in there! They also have to align me perfectly with my four tattoos and this takes some effort from the poor nurses who have to pull me back and forth on the bed. It helps a little bit that they have a sheet on a somewhat slippery surface, but still, I'm no lightweight. To make it easier for them I've quite well mastered the position I'm supposed to be in, Tuesday and Wednesday they didn't even have to touch me! I just found the exact position myself. They found it rather impressive. We're talking less than millimeter range here! But yeah, 6 treatments left and I'm a free man!

Here's a picture and a video of how the machine works:

Back to the oncology department!

It's a warm fuzzy feeling when you know that the entire contents of your ribcage will soon get bitch-slapped by ionizing beams of death.. I guess that's why I had a doctor's appointment first so they could explain how they do it? Well, at least I thought it was supposed to be a brief reassuring chat but I ended up spending 3h there! At first I did go for a brief chat and of course the usual crap where they listen to your heart and lungs even though I had recently had both spirometry and heart sonography and know those are in great shape, but I guess they have to do something to earn the 30€ I spend for each doctors visit. There is no such thing as free medicare..!

Anyway, then I hear I'm supposed to get x-rayed, measured and prepped for the radiation too. (And naturally another visit the blood-lab.) So I wait outside the X-ray room for a good 20min until I get called into a big spacious room with about five people ready to take me on. First they lay me down on a moving bed with the usual doughnut-shaped x-ray machine but this room had four lasers in the roof measuring me up on the bed. The nurses rock me back and forth and keep drawing on me with markers until they get me in a good position. Suddenly they attack me with a wet, rubbery asphyxation blanket and strap it down to the bed. (Sort of like this one: Neck Fixation) Apparently they need to make sure my chin and head do not move one millimeter when the radiation starts. In very short time the blanket started to shrink and harden and really pull my face down towards the bed. That was total sci-fi stuff! =) Now they have a fixation device moulded in my image to strap me down exactly like I was. On top of that they tattooed four dots on me for where the laser pointers had been. So I didn't manage to stay untattooed for the rest of my life after all.. They will take about one week to calculate the radiation dose with some physics geeks and try a simulation run next friday. The real radiotherapy starts on Monday (22/10).

Here's a slightly better picture of the facemask:

 

Ultrasound of music.. I mean my heart!

Oh yeah, the week was not over yet.. Monday: blood test, Tuesday: gastroscopy, Wednesday: (man I hate the spelling of that day) heart sonograph/ultrasound/ultrasonography! Yeah it's that thing they do to pregnant women with the gel and scanner thingy on the stomach. Only this was aimed at my heart. They measured every ventricle, artery, atrium and valve to make sure it's in tip-top condition. Took bloody 45min too! Why? Because the radiation will be hitting not only my tumor but also my heart, left lung, trachea and esophagus. The heart should be fine but I can get some immediate symptoms from the lung, throat and skin. Those symptoms include skin burning, heartburn (acid reflux) and "fake" pneumonia. So not real pneumonia but pretty much the same symptoms. But once again all symptoms are quite individual so you never know, I might just be compatible with radiation? ;)

Gastronomical findings?

Some things are, and should be, on a need-to-know-basis (at least in the movies they seem to have lots of that) and maybe that's good. When you get called to a procedure like gastroscopy it's really not good to read up about it too much and see what other people think. It builds up unnecessary anxiety. And for most people an experience like that can be quite traumatic I guess? So after reading up on it quite a lot I was a bit nervous that it would be as horrible as the lung endoscopy.. Well, it's not! Not even same ballpark! Sure you can find better things to do than puking air for 5min straight but this was just another quick stop at the docs office for me. I didn't even take the local anesthesia for this one. I came in, layed down on my left side on the bed, got a thickish (much thicker than the lung-tube) tube in my throat and tried to swallow it.. Then I started throwing up non-stop for a few minutes (which made easy access for the tube) and after a few biopsy claws had been in there, they pulled it out. I thanked for an interesting experience and walked to my car and drove home. Then I ate breakfast! Like a Boss! =)

Sure I had a bit of a sore throat afterwards, but the only thing I was interested in was the findings of the biopsy. They told me they would call me on Monday (8/10), I got the call on Thursday. No biggie, since I wasn't really that worried about it, but still kind of strange to keep me in the dark for over a week. Anyway, got the call and everything was fine as expected, so all this did was postpone the radiation for anther week. I might have some sort of chronic inflammation of the stomach wall but since I've never felt it or had any issues with it what so ever, who cares! I'm busy killing cancer!

The CAT is my PET

Stay back kids and gannies, daddy is going nuclear! Or at least I was, for a few hours. Went for a complete body scan again and man is it boring! Once they inject the radioactive isotope, you need to lie still for like 50min.. and you can't even read a book! Or play with your phone!! Aaargh! AD/HD kicks in after about 10min, so I'd say at 50min it's borderline torture. At least when you're done, you get to tightly sqeeze inside a huge tube and not move a muscle for another 30min! And all this while glowing like the skyline of Chernobyl of -86. But it's all for the good of my health so enough complaining.. Even the cannula went in on the first attempt. =)

Then I got some interesting results the day after (27/9). I already had a radiation therapy meeting set up for next week but -whooptidoo- change of plans! It seems my stomach wall has some issues with either the pills I've been eating (corticosteroids) or the cancer I've been having so that's what's next on the agenda of check-ups. It's unusually thick or swollen and needs to be checked for cancer just in case. Now how do they do that..? **drumroll and french horns** Esophagogastroduodenoscopy!! Or as us mortals prefer to call it, gastroscopy. Personally I feel like one endoscopy was quite enough and rather unenjoyable too (the lungs), but then again, better to be safe than sorry and it's all for the greater good and blaah blaah. So a little trouble in "paradise" after all. IF it really is lyphoma acting up, even though it's very unlikely, I'll be back on chemo by next week. If not, we can just call this a minor speed bump and radiation will be back on the schedule as planned. Oh and yeah, the tumor is quite tiny now

Edit: Wanted to add this picture here.. Seems suitable for the gastro. =)

Chemo 6 of 6 and Spiro V?

6th time's the charm? Hopefully yeah, and also quite probable judging from the previous check-up. Blood tests went smoothly and all the values have been close to identical every three weeks so it's looking like Mike 6-0 Chemo. The last visit at the day hospital was almost bitter-sweet, almost.. 99% of me never wants to see that place again EVER, but that 1% of me got used to it and it felt somehow safe to be there, knowing that I'm getting taken care of. Even if it means having a god-damned cannula stuck in my vein. (I really hate those things by now!) And also it's the only place I ever read more than 20 pages from a book in one session. Now I'm never going to finsh the three books I have going. Anyway, if everything goes as in Strömsö, I won't have to go back in a long time! (Never say never..)

And then there was spirometry! I've honestly lost count but I have a feeling this is my 5th time.. Could be 6th or 7th if we count the failed attempts and multiple tests per day? However, because I'm a responsible adult and I tend to learn from my mistakes I managed to pull a Britney (Ooops I did it again..) and miss my Monday morning appointment (17/9)! Since I did make it to my second dermatologist appointment (3/9) I guess they thought Monday mornings are fine now somehow..? Well they're not! So after another earfull of bullshit over the phone I got it rescheduled to Thursday 20/9. This time I managed to get there, only about 10min late, since I went to three different places before I was pointed in the right direction. The spirometry and diffusion capacity measurings were done at the allergies-department now. Funny how they seem to have those machines on every floor at TYKS. The good news in all this mess was that my values in capacity, peak flow, diffusion and everything else were all back to normal (89-105% of reference values) compared to the 50-60% readings taken back in May. Lung volume alone went up two litres! So things are really looking peachy! Next stop, PET + CT!!

Dermatologist, take 2.0

Wohoo I made it! 8.15 on Monday morning and on time! I would've NEVER accepted an appointment this early if it wasn't for me f***ing up last week, but guilt makes you do stupid things. But this time karma really got to bite me in the ass. I had to wait for at least 1h30min before I got to see anyone! I wake up at 7:30 on a Monday morning, drive half-asleep in chaotic, aggressive, crappy morning traffic, show up on time with my hat in my hand feeling ashamed for last week and this is what I get!! I think I got called in at around 9:50! Spank you very much! The best part is that all the rashes I was supposed to show the doctor had now disappeared and I felt kinda dumb (and royally pissed off) coming in there with nothing to show. Of course I do have about a million allergies and stuff so I had a long list of demands.. err suggestions on what I would like to have examined. But of course they can't start anything before all the other treatments are over so I'll have my prick-tests and such done in December some time (4 appointments!). Also the bite from the tick wasn't looking like anything was blooming in there so I guess the visit wasn't all for nothing.. Fun times.

Oops..

Well I guess it had to happen at least once.. I missed a doctors appointment! For starters it was on a Monday morning, and secondly it wasn't really related to the cancer. So it was doomed to fail. I was going to check up on some skin rashes at the dermatologist to see if they were somehow related to the medicine I'm using but apparently it wasn't that important to me.. I did notice that I had the appointment though but a few hours late. So I called them and played my dumbass-card along with some exceptionally bad excuses and got another appointment for the week after (3/9). On Monday morning! Funny how they seem to have plenty of free timeslots for that time of the week, eh?

I also got to test my cardio-endurance the same week (31/8) when I took a trip to the Nagu forests to look for mushrooms. Usually you don't have to walk that far for a sufficient amount of shrooms to make you satisfied but I guess the strange weather this summer has produced a really shitty shroom-season. We walked around for about 1h20min in rough terrain and I almost had a friggin' heart attack! Sure we found a little something to put in a stew but it wasn't really worth the effort. Jumping Jesus I was exhausted! I could barely walk for two days.. I guess the chemo does have some other negative effects that you don't notice before pushing yourself physically. Anyway, aside from a disappointing amount of forest-loot I got a tick as well. All I need now is a case of Lyme Disease or TBE.

Chemo 5 of 6 and results time!

So one week went by and I finally got to know something about how the tumor is doing in there among all the toxins inside me. Well, it's not good news.. For the tumor!! =) It's down to 5x6cm in size now and has completely withdrawn from covering my left lung. Good old CHOP-R is kicking ass and taking names. Anyway, I'm not gonna start jumpin up and down (in risk of breaking the floor) yet, I'll save it for when the whole thing is dead and gone! After about a month after the 6th treatment I'm gonna go all readioactiveman again and go for a PET-scan where it will be decided how much radiation therapy is needed to blast the rest of the tumor out. Could be 4-6 weeks EVERY friggin' day (working day) for a whopping 1-2min at the time so I'm not looking forward to that. But all means are good means if I get completely cured!

I don't have much to add about the same old boring chemo-visits. I'm back to my good old room with my very capable and nice nurse, so things are running smoothly. They halved my dosage of vincristine so that I might get rid of the numbness in my fingers, hopefully that'll work. I was told (now!) that usually patients stop having finger symptoms between treatments, I've had them for almost two months now. So yeah, time to cut the dose! In worst cases it can be permanent! Apparently the thin nerves at the fingertops can just wither away and never return if you get too much Oncovin. But that's a minor problem. Still feeling good, no other disturbing symptoms and livin' la vida loca. (And for some reason gaining a lot of weight recently.. Typical!) 

Edit (24/7): Whaddaya know.. My fingers are much better now! =)

Chemo 4 of 6 and CT-scan!!

Well well, one more intravenous toxindump completed (2/8) and hopefully only two left?! The results of the CT (14/8) will determine if the 6x CHOP-R will be enough. And no, I don't have the results yet. As usual I'll have to walk around on nails and wait for it for a week or so. At least they gave me a leaded cup to protect what's left of my balls this time. Considering it's my third body scan it's kind of strange this is the first time I saw one of those. Also this time I didn't have to go all radioactive, it was a basic CT-scan, not a PET-scan.

Apparently my veins went missig again (1/8) at my previous lab visit. She changed arms three times to find a suitable candidate and yet again she had to go digging around with the needle to get blood. Even that failed so she made another hole next to it until she finally struck oil. I'm getting so used to needle-fails by now I pretty much laughed at the whole procedure. The important thing is that my blood, liver and kindney values are still back to normal every three weeks! So I'm really kicking ass with that! (4-0 Me!)

Since pretty much the entire hospital were on vacation I had my chemo down in the cellar in the T-hospital this time. I thought I would only get a chair and sit in a circle with a bunch of old people knitting and doing crosswords, but as usual I got my own room with TV and adjustable bed (while the old people sat out in the hall). I guess they really do feel sorry for young cancer patients? This time I got cookies too! Loots of cookies!! =)

Anywhoo, I'll post some results and stuff as soon as I know more!

Chemo 3 of 6 completed, still rockin'..

Yupyup, one more down (12/5) and still no bigger issues in the health department.. Two tired days and numb fingers is what I have to show for, not bad! I've also tried a bit of Frisbee Golf and some cykling so far, both have been kind of bordeline exhausting but still doable! =) The bloodwork from 11/7 came back almost identical as last time, so I'm still bouncing back from the toxins in three weeks intervals and they finally took the Alpha 1-Antitrypsin test and it also came back negative. No deficiancy yet. (And I'm putting down YET here because I'll probably get it later in life anyway!)

Yesterday should've been the day of our wedding but instead of moping about it we went out in Turku and did all sorts of crazy stuff with a bunch of friends. Like a little downhill carting at the Turku ski-center and taking the city tourist-train drinking sparkling wine all around Turku! =) So it was a fun weekend with friends just like the wedding would've been! So now we can start to focus on things to come next winter.. Still aiming on February but we'll now more when I've had the next CT-scan 14/8! =)

Chemo 2 of 6, in the bag!

So once again I'm filled to the brim with toxins and saline solution.. As I was hoping they now know how to work my veins (or at least my regular chemo-nurse does) so no mishaps this time either! =) But how could the tube slip out when it's like 10cm up my hand-vein? (She's using the big cannula now!!) And this time it was only about 6h of which 30min was spent in the doctors office discussing my progess, which also was pretty much packed with good news. My liver is doing fine, the CRP is back to zero (don't know if it has been under 50 during the whole year) and the leukocytes have bounced back to normal since the previous treatment. So no immediate infection-risk going on! And all the other blood values are in rage of normal too. I'm fit as as a fiddle! (Well, almost..)

Today I'm going to shave the rest of my head because I'm starting to drop itchy little straws all over.. Even though I have been -almost- bald lots of times I have never done a clean shave, so this will be interesting! And I wouldn't wanna make a hairy mess in other peoples beds now that we're going to Nagu over midsummer.. This might be my first midsummer with no alcohol involved since 1993, haha! That will also be extremely interesting! =) Other than that I have no big plans for the summer, I guess lots of fishing when I get around to it and hanging around where ever life takes me. So still feeling good, but very tired.. Still: Mike 2 - 0 Chemo

The bald and the beautiful?

Yup! It's a hairy business, but yesterday I started losing the little fur I still have on my head. Noticed something itchy on my neck and ran my hand over my head and found it was full of lose hair! Kinda makes it all a bit more real again.. Other than that I've had very little syptoms so far. Had one episode of feeling like crap and having a splitting head ache after a short nap, but it passed after taking a handful of pills. (Yeah, they really do help sometimes!) I also have a bunch of weird rashes that might be some kind of allergic symptoms but I'll let the doctors decide on that one. (Yeah, they do know some stuff as well..)


Also had my pre-chemo blood tests taken this morning, and hear this, no f*ck-ups!! =) One little prick and it was all over! Wohoo! Hopefully that'll continue tomorrow.. *knocking on wood and stuff* I'll probably write another update tomorrow so I'll keep this one short and sweet.. Cheerio.

Edit: My pill stash.. Take a handful each day! =) (At least 4 days after treatment)

Chemotherapy 1 of 6, done!

And still feeling.. pretty good!! I've been waiting for all kinds of symptoms now for two whole days but nothing seems to happen? Is this the calm before the storm? Hope not, if only possible I wouldn't mind feeling this ok the whole 5 months! =) So I'll call it Mike 1 - 0 Chemo, so far! Also I got some results from the PET scan and things are looking positive there also! No other tumors anywhere in the body and the one tumor had only grown slightly, laterally on the left side. The edges are very much metabolically active but the centre of the tumor seems necrotic. So I'm guess it won't be too hard to kill off this invading bastard!

Apparently my bloodwork and bonemarrow is excellent too. Pretty much every possible value is within range (normal), which is nice! (Some anomalies can be spotted but they all seem related to the cancer). The white blood cell count is very high! So maybe I can stand to lose a few when the chemicals start mass-killing my cells after a week or so. They say risk for infection is at it's highest after 7-10 days after treatments. So the second weekend after chemo I'm not going anywhere close to sick people.. Or maybe people in general? I need to get myself one of those bubbles to stay inside! =)

Next treatment is one day before midsummer-eve.. Until then, do your job oh mighty poison!

Edit: Added some pics of the X-mas tree of the CHOP-R stuff and the "mehukatti" (Hydroxydaunorubicin) going in my vein. (Makes the urine and mucus red for a while which is a little bit scary)

I'm positively radiant!

Yeah for real, I am! Thanks to the injected isotope Fluorine-18! I went for PET scan and they apparently had to make me radioactive to see all the stuff going on in my body (looking for more tumors). When I was done they told me not go close to any pregnant women or small children, haha, yeah I think I can mange to stay away for a few hours (because that's so likely to happen anyway)! ;) But as you can see from the wiki-link, the isotope has a very short half-life so I don't think I'll be getting super-powers from this dose..

Other than being radioactive it was a hell of a day (not in the good way).. First I had an early blood-sample session at 8:40 which was supposed be done by 9:00, so I could have a bone marrow examination right after. But things don't always work out as they should in hospitals.. The nurse somehow totally failed to find a good vein and kept digging in my arm with the needle, which made me feel ill, so I told her to stop! So now we had to wait for the colour to return to my face (they told me I was a little pale), but at the same time they started calling from upstairs that it was time for my marrow biopsy. Ok, so no blood yet, marrow first! And this was a lovely experience.. NOT! They laid me down on my stomach, gave me few shots of local anesthesia, cut my skin a little and started brutally drilling the back of my hipbone. It's a funny feeling when you have a doctor putting their entire bodyweight on a corkscrew (check the pic!) looking thing while slowly drilling deeper into my bone. And you can't get anesthesia inside your bone, so once in there, it hurts! So they took a biopsy and they were supposed to extract some liquid marrow as well, but that didn't happen. She poked around for a while in there too (with somekinda weird (but HUGE) needle) but couldn't find a spot with liquids. Thank GOD she gave up after the third try!


Anyway, back to the blood-lab! For some reason they now also wanted an EKG and a urine-sample along with the blood (only you have to keep it in the bladder for 4h+ for it to count).. So first the EKG, which took ages because the nurse doing that had like graduated yesterday! Then back to the vein-digging room.. This time they got the blood flowing nicely (6 vials! New record!), but I had to lie down during the procedure because I had gotten an image of being a pussy who faints while having blood taken. Funny how I felt all good this time when they actually put the needle where the blood flows instead of trying to dig a ditch in my arm. Needless to say they didn't get a urine sample because I wasn't warned to hold my pee for 4h, so I got a cup to fill at home..


After all this crap I still had a PET scan to go to! I was booked for 10:00, which naturally didn't happen so I was there at about 10:35.. I even had to change hospital buildnings in between so quite optimistic scheduling from their part. At the PET-center (yeah, for real! TYKS 14A) I only had to fill in a form, change shirts and lie down in a bed. Then comes the next pro-nurse to take a crack at my veins because they had to insert a cannula to inject the radioactive stuff. Naturally she fails as well! The first try was on top of my hand (where I have HUGE and very visible veins), but she told me nothing was going in because she might've punctured the vein. And they also do a test with saline-solution, if it stings, the cannula is not in place. The second attempt went a bit better but she couldn't get the needle in very deep, in fact it was barely in at all, but the saline went in nicely so she went to get the isotope solution. In a few minutes she came back with a massive lead box with one single syringe inside. She injected it nice a slow and then I had to lie still for 50min!! I didn't even get to read anything because any muscle activity could make the isotope solution gather in the muscles, because the oxygen atom that is replaced by F-18 to generate FDG (Fluorodeoxyglucose) is required for the next step in glucose metabolism in all cells. The scan itself took about 30min and after that I got to go home. I think the time was 14:00, time sure flies when you're having fun.

It's gonna be a looong year!

Yeppers! Treatment time! Well next week really, but I can't wait for this thing inside me to start withering away instead of explosively growing inside my chest! The treatment is going to be every three weeks, a few hours at each session and the regimen is a basic CHOP mixed with MabThera (=CHOP-R). The first chemical-cocktail kills pretty much any growing cell in my body and the latter one is a targeted drug for the infected B-cells. I'm also going to be eating a load of pills for nausea, kidney-function-medicine, cortisone and stomach relaxer. But before all this they are still going to run a bunch of tests, a PET scan and also I need to have some sperm frozen in case the cell poison makes me infertile. So next week will be quite action-packed!

I also got declared sick for the remainder of the year because the treatments are apparently heavy enough to keep me from working normally. So 7 months (+ the 2 months I've already had) off work, nice lil' vacation! Guess you gotta grasp for all the positives in these hard times? My offcial diganosis is (C83.31) Lymphoma malignum non-Hodgkin diffuse large B-cell, primary mediastinal, ST IBE. But I'm just gonna call it PMBL (or PMB-NHL, because it's cool to have a disease called NHL?), Primary Mediastinal B-Cell Lymphoma! So PMBL, prepare to die!

The CHOP-R stuff is quite potent and might put my body at risk for infections and such when killing off vital leukocytes. It'll also make me lose all my hair and at times I might be very ill and weak, even so that I won't be out of bed much. But most of the time I should be able to live a relatively normal life (with no excercise or alcohol, normal my a**). But all this risk also means that I won't be dancing at my own wedding this summer, so that's a big bummer (see what I did there..? Go buy me a Hummer!)! But there will be a wedding, just not this year.. We're aiming for February 2013, I should be all clean by then. And I guess it'll be refreshing to have a winter wedding for a change.. =) Our second back-up will be springtime..

So here we go..!!

Houston, we have a Cancer!

Ok, so the Pathologists finally got off the golf course and back to the lab and now I have an exakt dignosis. I'm not 100% sure yet (medical lingo you know..), but the tumor seems to be a large B-cell NHL (no, not the hockey league), which is situated in the mediastinum, which is the hollow space between the lungs, heart, trachea and other such semi-important human-parts within the ribcage. I'm guessing and hoping it's the "primary" kind which mainly affects young adults like myself, because it seems to be easier to get rid of fully. I have a meeting set up with the oncology depatment for Friday, and they are also going for some bone marrow and a few pints of blood in the beginning of next week to make sure it hasn't spread all over my body. So things are moving on..

The worst cough and bloody slime is also gone now, and I don't think I've been running fevers this week.. Got tired of measuring all the time! (and the pill-popping is also at a minimum) But so far it's been a good week and I'm happy things are going forward at TYKS. I'm also going to try and manage a wedding this weekend so that'll be a little test on my current physique. Might be the last party in a loong time if the docs slap me a strict non-alcohol regime when the treatments start! And the treatments might take up to a year so better make it count.. Just in case! =)

Still nothing..

So this week was fun! Since Sunday I've had a slight fever almost every evening (execpt once I had 35,8C which is weird) and the cold sweat keeps my pillow nice and moist all night, every night.. I'm also spitting out a bit of bloody slime from time to time and I still have some pain in the middle of my chest from the biopsy. The only thing that's getting better are the 3 holes between my ribs, they are pretty much closed up now. I was seriously thinking about almost considering dragging my behind to the doctors office again, but I decided I'll manage the weekend.. Getting sick of antibiotics!

I also called my surgeon today and found out.... nothing! Next chance for relevant information is Tuesday, so I got another 4 fun-filled days to look forward to. Guess I'm gonna team up with all the meds I have and host a 48h slumber-party this weekend! At least Team Finland is showing their claws this year (Icehockey you know..) so that's one big positive to look forward to! =)

I'm actually making a Blog?? (Start here!)

Yeah, so I kinda promised myself that I will NEVER start blogging because every idiot out there does it and most of the blogs are pretty much pure crap. Well, I'm not gonna make a fashionblog or foodblog or travelblog or interior-designblog or some other boring blog about my stupid life or hobbies! In fact I'm not even going to call this a "Blog" because I hate the word and concept itself.. (issues much?)

So let me put this blog-hate behind me and explain what I want to do here.. I'm thinking this would be a cross-mix of an informational text for people I care about and a personal outlet to help me deal with what I'm going through with my current illness. I was thinking of making a journal (old school, like in a book), but that would be near impossible to share with a large number of people, so I guess this the practical way to go. (But I'm still not calling it a friggin' Blog) The plan is to make a chronological collection of inputs of how my illness came to be and how I felt at each stage of every diagnosis and by doing this I have something to look back on when (not IF) I beat this. And maybe even help someone else cope who suffers the same fate as I have. I also hope that by writing about my symptoms in detail I can educate others to recognize the early symptoms of this horrible disease.

So..
 
This is the story of how I got Lymphatic Cancer and my road to recovery.

(I choose to do this in english even though swedish would be more convenient as it is my mother tongue, but as I know a lot of people who do not speak swedish, I think this is the best way to go. I'll try to keep it simple for my own sake and also for you guys who care enough to actually read all this. =) )

1st input, testing..

Testing testing..

Edit: Yeah, just checking how this thing works to get started! For some reason I feel like keeping this input.. =)

Home sweet home!

After having all the tubes and needles removed on Friday (11/5) morning I started moving around a little bit and felt quite ok. The horrible part was when they pulled out the drain tube! It was like 30cm inside me! YUK!! I got to eat breakfast and go to the toilet and everything! (feels great after being in bed for 24h) I also had visitors dropping in and bringing me goodies all day so I really felt good enough to go home the next day. Also got a lot of information from the doctors in the morning and they gave me a really positive prognosis. So things were looking up! (Considering..)

By 10:30 the nurse had all my papers ready and I started to pack my things. Heidi came a few minutes after 11 and it was bye bye TYKS.. For now! We spent a relaxing night at home since Heidi had cancelled her b-day party because of everything and we went to bed early. Sunday was mothers day so we went to visit my parents and even Heidis parents made the trip from Ekenäs. Sunday night I had a slight fever (37,3C) but no big changes in my condition. I just wish they had stiched up the drain-hole in my side. Now I have to change band-aids (or adhesive bandage) a lot since it's still leaking stuff. I had another slight fever (37,2C) yesterday (15/5) and the cough gets worse at night, but the Ketorin 100mg and Codesan is quite effective at handling that. But I'd guess I'm running another infection.. Again!

So, now all I can do is wait for Friday to get more news on what kind of lymphoma I have. They should have the answer by then but you never know. There are over 70 different kinds so I'm hoping for one of the "easy ones" to beat. They usually are at my age! Until then..


This brings my journal up to date and I'll try to write as things keep happening from now on. Time to start spreading it around I guess! =)

Happy Birthday Heidi, your man has cancer!

While riding in my bed to the operation room all kinds of panic went thorugh my mind. (I was also enjoying the ride for some reason, exiting!) You just can't help thinking that once you go to sleep, you might never wake up. The procedure is done by humans, and there are no perfect individuals among it's species. Once we got there I had to get up and move over to the operating table. Man this room looked like a space station! In no time at all they had pierced me all over with different cannulae and kept slapping EKG-stickers ALL over my body. Then I was offered THE gasmask. All I had time to say was "good luck" and -boom- I was out cold! During this time untold horrors were done to me and I sincerely hope all eveidence of this unnatural act will stay hidden forever.

The first memory I had was at approximately 12:30 (give or take a whole lot of minutes). Someone was poking me and asked me how I was doing and if I was in pain. My head was clear enough at that point to manage the question: "did you take the whole thing out". When I got a disappointing "no" to my question I quickly needed more drugs and in a jiff I was back to sleep. The next memory I have was about one hour later as they once again offered me more drugs, and of course I happily accepted. The next hour was a series of falling asleep and waking up and getting drugs until finally 14:30-ish they rolled me back into my room. The elderly gentleman who was occupying the bed next to mine had surgery right after me and came into the "wake-up room" right before I was rolled away. He was screaming and howling and kicking around like crazy calling for his mother repeatedly, I guess they overdosed him a bit with the drugs. (Later he told me he was totally "euphoric" while in there, I chose not to tell him he was screaming for his life..)


When I was back in my room I still had two cannulae attached and long tube sticking out of my side. The tube was apparently a drain to remove excess blood and pus and as long as my lungs weren't leaking air (which would have made the drain bubble) they promised to remove it the next morning. In my right arm I had the second bag of IV-fluid going. The second canula could now be removed and since it was right in my radial artery they had to put a pressure bandage on it. When looking around I had at least 8 needle holes in me, three big holes between my ribs (two of them stiched up) and my face and chest was covered in yellow stuff. (Probably Betadine?) But the important thing was I couldn't feel any of it! Drugs ahoy! =)


At this moment I can't remember when they told me about the cancer but at some point someone told me it's most likely lymphatic cancer, not lung cancer. While it was a relief I didn't have lung cancer, which is usually fatal, I wasn't too happy to know I still had cancer. For some reason I didn't react that badly to the news since I was kinda expecting the worst.. Still a bummer though. But at the same time I was told (I'm pretty sure the nurses kept me informed) that lymphoma is highly treatable by chemotherapy and needed no further surgery. So it was a lose-win situation. I took it quite well.

After 15:00 the relatives started dropping in, my dad and sisters all came at once and I got to deliver the news right away. They also kept calm. They brought me a pile of magazines to read but I couldn't move around enough for that yet. The worst part was when Heidi arrived and was not expecting any news at all, only to find out how the surgery went and I how I felt.. It's was sort of like: "Happy birthday honey, I have cancer". She did not take it well.. Worst b-day ever? That also made me feel a bit worse than I was earlier. =(


Anyway, the family left after a while and Heidi stayed for a few hours. I got a drug refill (shot) right as Heidi arrived so I was a bit groggy most of the visit. I guess we were discussing the upcoming wedding and if we would be able to have it and so on.. I don't remeber much of that evening. The surgeon was scheduled to visit the next morning to give me more information about the operation and lymphoma. After a total of 4 bags of IV-fluids they closed he canula for the night and I also started drinking fluids orally. Because of the drain tube and oxygen-flow-tube in my nose I was still hooked up to wall with two devices so I had to pee in a bottle. The rest of the evening I was watching icehockey and sleeping. This time sleeping wasn't too hard, got some additional pills before lights-out. ZZZzzzZZZ

So I have a tumor, what's next?

After a long weekend of soul searching and meeting with my parents and such I was very much ready for the phonecall on Monday! Naturally they kept me waiting until about 15:30 but at least they called as promised. He told me that surgey was imminent and if I wanted more information or to speed things along I could call the Thorax-Surgery department myself the next day. Luckily they also thought time was of the essence so I got the call myself in the morning even before I had woken up. They told me to check in at TYKS A-building, department 211 at 14:00 on Wednesday (9/5) and that I had to spend the night even if the surgery wasn't until Thrusday morning. I got permission to bring my laptop and pretty much anything I wanted so sleeping there shouldn't be a problem.. 

During Wednesday they took two different blood samples at two separate occasions (one for blood type, the other for compatibility), I also got an EKG and they measured my blood pressure. Then I got to meet the surgeon and his staff and recieved some detailed instructions on post-surgery rehabilitation from a nurse from the physical therapy department. Those included breathing excercises and such because they were going inside the ribcage which could cause lung complications. The main plan was getting inside the ribcage to take a look at the tumor and if possible even remove it, but at least get a biopsy for futher identification. This required at least 3 small holes in my left side, or if needed a larger incision below the ribcage.

Sleeping there was horrible. The bed was uncomfortable, way too narrow and the pillows were flat and lumpy and inside a plastic bag. I did sleep a few scattered hours but they came in already at 5:00 and gave me a Diapam to keep me relaxed while waiting for 8:00 which was go-time! No breakfast or even drink was allowed because most people get sick when the anasthetics wear off. I think I fell alsleep as soon as the Diapam kicked in and woke up as they rolled me away to the OR. (Yeah, I said it, OR!! And I hate hospital TV-series!)

Worst news in my life.. So far!

After a fun and exhausting Wappen it was time to finally find out what the heck was wrong with me. During the waiting period my father had recieved the final diagnosis for Alpha 1-antitrypsin deficiency or A1AD, (he was also experiencing wheezing and coughing while sleeping) and I was pretty much 100% sure this was my problem as well. All the symptoms were there and it's very likely to be passed on to the next generation. These are some of the symptoms descibed in wiki: "Symptoms of alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency include shortness of breath, wheezing, rhonchi, and rales. The patient's symptoms may resemble recurrent respiratory infections or asthma that does not respond to treatment. Individuals with A1AD may develop emphysema during their thirties or forties even without a history of significant smoking, though smoking greatly increases the risk for emphysema."

A1AD is totally treatable and the genetic mutation my father had was of the lowest degree so I was almost hoping this would be my diagnosis as well so I could start getting better! Well I wish.. The CT-scan showed a huge tumor (9-20cm in diameter) on top of my left lung (going over on the right one a little bit as well) and since that was the last thing I ever expected it hit me hard, really hard. Took me a while to realize that the doctor was actually talking about a TUMOR on my lung, but when it finally sunk in my life just stopped. I asked the doc some questions and he tried to calm me down by saying it's probably benign but all the horrors of cancer and death came flooding in my head at once and it almost crippled me. I managed to ask when I'll get more answers and he told me he would call me on Monday afternoon and that he would consult some cancer specialsts and put together a meeting (Monday) to determine my future care. The good news in all this was that the lung biopsy came back clear and the NSE value was only 24 when 18 is normal.

I somehow managed to walk to my car but with every step the fear became worse and by the time I got the car I was totally overwhelmed with sorrow and fear of my life. For the first time in my life I was faced with the possibility I might die soon. I think I sat in my car just crying and staring at nothingness for over 30min trying to gather myself to call Heidi and my parents with the grave news. Since Heidi was at work I thought it would be better to send her a message in case it would be a bad time for her to pick up the phone. After doing that I had calmed down enough to try and call my dad without losing my composure on the phone. That didn't work so well, all I could muster up was something like "it's a tumor, I have a lung tumor".. That was an exhausting phone call. After a lengthy conversation with my dad I was calm enough to call Heidi who kept trying to call me a few times while I was talking to dad. That went a bit better but all sorts of feelings was stirring up with every minute passing so after the conversation with Heidi was over I didn't drive away for another few minutes. The rest of the day was pretty much a blur.. 

I did write my sisters with the bad news and some close friends as well but at this point I didn't want that many people to know.. It was bad enough I had myself guessing what it could be.. I think I narrowed it down to a likely adenocarcinoma if it didn't turn out to be benign.. But I tried to stay positive. I had the longest weekend in my life in front of me..

Diagnosis: D38 Turmor Thoracis

Getting worse..

Even though I was on sick leave and had a nice stash of painkillers (Panacod 500mg, Burana 600mg) and such at home, my cough was going insane and I had to visit Keskusta 3 once again! At this point sleeping at night was really hard due to cough attacks and constant slimyness in the throat and I had also had a slight fever (37,5C) on Wednesday (25/4). I could also feel a mild pain in my chest from time to time. Like always they sent me to check my CRP value and like always it was elevated enough to get another lung infection diagnosis. This time they prescribed me a batch of Avelox 400mg (10 days) which is like the scariest poison I had ever had to eat. The list of side effects was endless! Moxifloxacin is the working ingredient and I guess it is a very broad spectrum antibiotic but not as broad as the list of symptoms I was waiting to experience. On top of everything it was expensive like hell! About 10x the price of the other stuff I had been prescribed so far.

She also though it could be good to have a strong cough medicine, Codesan 500ml, and a pack of Precosa 250mg to prevent diarrhea caused by the strong antibiotics. Didn't get that though, my stomach can handle most things! (And it did..) Before I had time to tell the doc I already was on sick leave she had printed me a new one from 27/4-3/5. Needless to say I didn't send that paper to my employer since I already had sent the one with sick leave until 6/5.

CAT scan

TGIF, and time for a CT-scan. This time at Turun Kapunginsairaala. Somehow they had failed to inform me to come 1h earlier to binge a few litres of iodine solution but that didn't delay my appointment much. I just had drink faster and somehow I've picked up that skill over the years, no biggie. Since most of the contrast solution had to be fed intravenously I they put a cannula in my arm, I'm pretty sure that was my first time ever. Not a big fan! (Doesn't really hurt though) The procedure itself was easy and fast, just a machine telling you to hold your breath while the bed you're lying on is going back and forth thorugh a big plastic donut which is bombarding you with X-rays. So I'd say the worst part was the cannula. (Or finding a parking spot in the rain)


Now all I had to do was wait for the results back at TYKS 3/5..

The pain of finding out why you're sick!

While I was on sick leave I got a fat letter from TYKS for a series of examinations. Instead of feeling all well and eager for a comeback to work this Monday, I spent a few hours in TYKS T-hospital. 12:00 pre-medication, 12:30 spirometry (for real, again?) and 13:00 bronchoscopy, which I knew was going to be nasty but I had NO idea! This also meant that I didn't get to eat or drink for a few hours so I was really thirsty by the time I got to the last procedure. Anyway, the pre-medication was some sort of saliva-stopper injection that would dry up my mouth for a few hours and a walk-thorugh of what was coming. While the meds were kicking in I went for yet another spiro without any significant result. I'm a pro at this by now.

Time to stick a tube down my lungs! For starters two sets of anesthesia were just sprayed in my mouth and back of the throat (no needle penetration). While I was waiting for those to kick in they had to change the operating table because I was too heavy for the one they had, haha! So I got a bed rolled in for me instead.. Kinda embarrassing really. =) Anyway, then I got the "lie down and relax" command, it's funny how they all say that. In fact I was quite relaxed since my pulse was only 85, they told me most people are at 150 by now. Badass! But only for a brief second since as soon as they started jamming a thick tube down my trachea the fun was over. After a good 10-15min of feeling like drowning and throwing up at the same time, all while watching the inside of my lungs on TV, they pulled the damn thing out. While in there they took 3 samples, (biopsy) so now I was coughing up blood as well as hurting all over and feeling generally violated. Fun times!

They had me sitting in the waiting room for about 30min (under "obervation" with nobody watching me?) only to send me back upstairs to get a few blood samples. I don't know what the guy did wrong but after filling 5 vials of blood he pulled out the needle and told me "that might bruise a bit". My entire friggin' arm was blue and yellow a week after that! I looked like a total heroinist. Good work mate! I asked him why the heck they needed 5 samples for and if I remember correctly they were for checking CRP, liver values, cancer values (NSE), kidney values and hemoglobin..  (I was a bit worried they wanted to test me for cancer!) They needed to check that my kidneys were ok because I had a CT-scan later that week and the radiocontrast agent used can be damaging to the kidneys.

X-Ray and first signs of lung-trouble

Three days later (5/4) I finally got my lungs X-rayed. To this day I just can't understand why they didn't already to that at Terveystalo.. Medical professionals my ass! This was supposed to be a quick in and out procedure but the attentive X-ray nurses told me to go back to see a doctor when they got a look at my lungs. Some kind of oxygen-free pocket at the top of my left lung wasn't looking that good apperently.. So back to Keskusta 3 (same building) to see a doc. Of course with no appointment I ended up waiting about 2h but this time it was totally worth it. I explained my symptoms from the last 3 months and she was really shocked that nobody had done futher examinations earlier. My CRP was once again elevated and the diagnosis was "unknown lung infection" (J18.9). Sick leave until 15.4 and a full set of examinaions for the week after that! Not a great way to start a new career but at least I can finally get some answers! 

This time I got a prescription for Tavanic 500mg antibiotics. (10 days)

Feeling sick again

After working a hectic week at my new job I started to feel sick again in the beginning of April. Since I no longer had free medical care from my job I went to the Turun Terveyskeskus Keskusta 3 health station, which is the one the public uses and the number corresponds to the area where I live. The wheezing and bubbling had become more fequent and noisy and I had also developed a strong slimy cough and felt tired all the time. The only way I could sleep now was on my right side since most of the breathing noice was produced while having weight on my left lung. (Same problem while speeping my back) The doc perscribed me a cortisone inhaler, Flixotide evohaler 125µg/dose and told me to book lung x-ray just in case. X-Ray, finally!!

Up until this day I had still been actively going to the gym about 3 times a week.. I think my last visit was 4/4, it'll be a long time 'til next next time!

Spiro II, Aki III, leaving Terveystalo!

Friday morning! Now that I knew what spirometry was all about I almost tried to fake it a little bit to make sure they find at least SOMEKIND of variations in the before and after values but not really.. What they did find is that my values (especially the important FEV 1) were kind of low for my size and age, about 80% of the reference value. This seemed to be the case with all values FVC, FEV 1, PEF, and the before and after differences were at 1-3%. To prove asthma they should be at least 12% and severe asthma up to 20%.

So back to the oh-so-familiar doc Aki Äijälä. Of course he still insisted I have some kind of asthma and that further examination should be done. Since I was quitting my job this week the free service at Terveystalo would also end. So he wrote me a recommendation to further examine the asthma by methacholine provocation. Well, that never happened! Bye bye Terveystalo!

Spiro Time!

By 20/3 I had completed the PEF testing at home with very varying results, especially the second week of testing (using the Ventoline asthma meds) showed some big jumps in the before and after values in the mornings. So they decided I should try spirometry. Somehow I didn't get "good enough" results so we decided to try it again later the same week earlier in the morning when the PEF values are at the lowest. Also the nurse managed to delete all the results by mistake so I actaully HAD to do it over later the same week. So another hour and a half of my life totally wasted..

Back to Terveystalo

Since i didn't get sick leave at the emergency room I had to visit Terveystalo once again. Incidentally I got the same doctor (yeah, still physician) as last time and he was still insisting I have some sort of asthma.. Regarding the chest pain he diagnosed me with something called "fasettilukko" which is somekind of spinal nerve lock of the muscles around the ribcage. He had me laying on my belly while pushing my spine and back muscles and concluded this was the case. To ease that pain he gave me prescription of Dolan pills, some kind of muscle relaxant containing paracetamol. So with a lung infection and spinal muscle lock he generously gave me 3 days sick leave! (I actually tried to go to work on thursday 1/3, but had to go home after 1,5h trying to not collapse while working)


Diagnosis: M54.6 and J06.9

On top of this he told me to book an appointment with the allergy department and get a PEF meter for home measuring of my lung capasity in the mornings and evening.

Heart attack?!?!

26/2 was a weird evening. I had been quite well since January but every now and then the wheezing and bubbling had been an irritating factor when sleeping but I guess I kinda got used to it. I think I tried the inhaler once since I got it. Anyway, it was late Sunday evening and while watching TV my left side was cramping up and I started to have shooting pain around my ribcage and along my left arm and shoulder. Having watched a lot of movies with people getting heart attacks I felt like I was having all the symptoms associated with that. Since the pain was getting gradually worse we (Heidi and I) decided to drive the emergency room at Turun Kaupunginsairaala. By the time we left, 23-ish, the pain was so bad I couldn't stand up straight so Heidi had to drive me and scrape the windows of the car too. (It was very cold outside)

Even though I didn't REALLY think I was having a heart attack I was really worried about the pain around the heart and lung region.. You can't play around with that stuff. So at the emergency room we stood at the information desk for several minutes and nobody paid any attention to us. (I was standing crooked like Quasimodo but that didn't have any effect either) After a good 5-10min a lady opened the window at the desk and asked what we wanted.. I went up to her and said I might be having a heart attack, but by all means, don't let me disturb you or anything. That got her attention and in a jiff I had nurse pulling me into one of the roms for an EKG. Ok, that's a first, was kinda cool and scary at the same time. Had like 8-10 stickers slapped on me connected to wires and stuff and quite soon it became clear there's nothing wrong with my heart. Blood pressure was good too.

So now we had to wait for the doctor (should call them psysician, but doctor is easier and commonly used) on call, the queue was a good 4-5 patients. When I finally got my turn she dismissed the heart attack and suggested some kind of bronchitis but had to get a blood sample to see if my infection value (CRP) was up (surprisingly I also had 38C+ fever going). So back to the nurse and then again back to the doc (and queue) and all this took like 2,5h.. The doctor thought I should get a shot of antibiotics intravenously because all the drug stores were closed so I had to make a third trip to the nurse. Because I'm a big man I needed two shots (in the ass!) but the clumsy nurse sprayed the other one all over my butt so she had to leave and mix another batch so that delayed everything another 10-15min. And poor Heidi had work in the morning. I guess mondays are supposed to suck..? I think we got in bed around 2a.m.

I got a prescription for Doximed 100mg antibiotics (10 days).

The beginning..

Even though I'm starting this page with it's series of texts 12/5/2012, I'm going back to 5/1/2012 to get a look at my medical history and all the symptoms that were probably caused by the Lymphoma and not all the other stuff the crafty medical "professionals" made up for me.. I'm not sayin' they were wrong but it sure took them a while to start looking for the REAL cause of my problems.

Anyway, at some point after x-mas (could be before too) I started to notice some degree of wheezing and bubbling sounds coming out of my lungs when sleeping or otherwise being in a horizontal position for a longer time (= slouching on the sofa). Because I have a number of allergies I didn't think much about it and figured it was probably the dust-allergy getting worse or something. Dust Mite

5/1 I went to visit the new medical center my workplace had recently switched to for work related medical care, Terveystalo. The main reason for the visit was a swelling salivary gland (#3 in the picture) which was starting to irritate me a lot. So that was probably the first infection this year and also my first set of antibiotics, Kefexin 750mg.

While I was there I thought I'd get some cheap antihistamines for my cat and dog allergies. He ended up giving me the following prescriptions: Loratadin Actavis 10mg (antihistamines), Nasonex nose-spray (for allergic nose leakage, didn't get that though, expires very soon after opening), Ventoline Inhaler (for allergic asthma, should open up the throat if breathing gets heavy). So I got what I needed and bit more. =)

Diagnosis: J30, J45.0