May 31, 2024: jgwkia has moved to substack


JGWKIA (jg will kick its ass) has moved to substack. You can access (and subscribe to) it by clicking here.

The full URL to my substack is http://jgwkia.substack.com/. There will be no more new posts here, and eventually jgwkia.com will point there, not here. Bye bye Blogger!




Home, Rest Assured, And a Life, Unobscured

Day n/a (I'm home)

Blogging Tunes: SomaFM Groove Salad

Of course my counts skyrocketed faster than the team anticipated.  We've done this before and we'll do it again.

So at about 1:30p PT yesterday (Mon, Oct 11) they removed my PICC Line, I did the mandatory 30 mins rest, started packing up my shit, and by about 3:00p or so, I was heading back to Marin.  Thanks for the ride, Beeks!


Gear packed

Zach (the Flyers fan!) wheelin' my gear

jg and Beeks in the GTI 6-speed -- nice ride, Beeks!

Brown (aka Beeks) and I stopped at the Kezar to pick up some wings and tortilla soup and then drove to Marin. Thanks, Brown and Laura for ordering and treating. 💕

Getting home after being in the hospital for 25 days straight is so surreal, I can't even tell you.  Just sitting in my own living room -- not connected to a bunch of tubes constantly giving me meds -- and sitting back chilling, was simply amazing.  Here are a few pics:

Home with Brown, Heather, and Katniss; getting ready for baseball

Katniss bathing and Brown... measuring something?

Orion enjoying some tortilla soup

Last night I got the best sleep -- about 9 continuous hours -- I've had in months.  Even before UCSF I wasn't sleeping well... maybe related to my blood going bad?  But in UCSF, I probably averaged (yes averaged) 2-2.5 hours of sleep at a time.  Sometimes if I was lucky, it would be 4 hours.  Imagine getting interrupted every few hours -- even in the wee hours -- for 24 nights straight.  That's what I was dealing with.

When I woke up at 5:30a today, I felt like a different person.  Hopefully this is a sign of high energy days to come.  Can't wait to get back to swimming, riding the peloton, hiking, and (yes) working!

A few more things before I sign off.

1) Next steps for treatment: I need to get labs (blood) drawn tomorrow but I don't need to go to UCSF for it; I can do it at Quest in San Rafael.  Then I have video call with Dr. Damon (or delegate) on Thursday.  Assuming all is well, I'll go to UCSF next Monday or Tuesday for a bone marrow biopsy so we can see if I've achieved a full MRD remission.  Assuming I did -- why wouldn't I? -- we'll start planning the logistics and timeline for the second stem-cell marrow transplant: likely late Nov or early Dec.

In between now and then, I'll likely have to some out-patient consolidation chemo.  This can likely be done at Marin Cancer Care.  Last time I did this I was riding my bike to these appointments.  "I'm here for my chemo" (with bike helmet in hand) -- some of the people looked at me like I was from another planet.

My home meds situation is pretty manageable for now.  It's nothing like post-transplant when I'll be on all kinds of immuno-supressants, anti-virals, anti-fungals, getting magnesium, etc. Still, at my request, H got one of those dippy old-person's AM/PM pill boxes:


2) Kitchen destruction remodel is in full swing.  As I type this blog entry, here's what's going on:

bye-bye foyer tiles

wide-angle kitchen/foyer war re-model zone

3) Ok, fess up.  Who sent these awesome shirts to Floyd and Orion?  There was no info on the package.  Whoever did, thanks!


That's it for today.  Will probably take a few days off from blogging.  Thanks for sticking with me!

iwkia...a.



Comments

  1. You've done this before and you'll do it again, one step at a time.

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  2. Back home, thats awesome!! One big step down, you'll get through the next steps just like you did before! So glad you get some time to recharge.

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  3. Good luck buddy, pulling hard for ya from CO

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  4. I'm so glad you got some great sleep! Keep up the good work, JG! We are rooting for you!

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  5. There you go! Glad to see you back home. You got this.

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  6. Great to see you back home! Lets do virtual bike ride if you have the tech to do it.

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  7. Glad to hear you're back home!

    I can relate to the biking to chemo thing. I took a lot of pride in being able to do it, and people indeed did look at me with my bike helmet at the Berkeley cancer center like I was crazy.

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  8. Dude, you are rocking your ANC! Rockstart bounce back, I have a feeling this means you took this round very very well. Onward to the next poke in the lower back (i always asked them for some drugs to make the afternoon nap after the biopsy more fun).

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