Third Chemo Cycle

OK, so it turns out I am a terrible keeper of a blog! I do not update it often enough. Not promising anything but I will try to do it more often. Let me get you caught up on the last couple of weeks.

I had Chemo the week of January 6^th. The trial drug was also administered with this cycle. This was, by far, the worst cycle to date. I did not feel well for a good week and a half (nausea, at one point a drink of water almost made me sick!! Please laugh at that because it is funny). In addition to not feeling well from the chemo I also came down with a terrible stomach pain on the Monday evening and Wednesday morning the week after chemo. I have never felt any pain like this in my life! I ended up going to the emergency room both times. While there I was introduced to a great little drug called Dilaudid. Let me tell you, this takes the pain away immediately. It is so good I requested it on the second visit within the first 15 seconds of seeing the Doctor. I am not a healthcare provider but I am guessing that sent up some red flags!

They were unable to find anything wrong with me after running blood tests, a CAT scan, and an X-Ray. I saw my Oncologist the next day and he seems to think it was a reaction to a medication I was taking. It could be that it has something to do with the trial drug.

Speaking of the trial drug, it is possible that I am just getting a placebo rather than the drug. However, I have been having some odd symptoms since my last treatment that were not present with the previous two. I have developed a small rash in a couple of places (possible side effect), had flu like symptoms (possible side effect), and the stomach pain/ gastritis (possible side effect). We are not getting too excited but it seems that I am experiencing a few of the side effects of this drug. Hopefully I got it!

Today I went for my pre-chemo blood test to see if my white cell count is low. Miraculously, for the first time since I started chemo, I am fine. No Neupogen shot for me this week! We are very happy.

So I start the last round of chemo next week on Monday. I will get another scan in the couple of weeks after that to see what progress has been made.

Hope you are all well. Talk to you soon.

Great Scan Results

I will start with the best news we have had in awhile. I had a CAT scan this week and the results were great. The cancer tumors around my right lung have shrunk in response to the Chemotherapy. There are no signs that the cancer has spread anywhere else. All in all this is the best news we could hope to hear. So for now the course of treatment will continue as planned. Yipee!!!

We definitely had an interesting Christmas. It started with Sandi and the kids getting the stomach flu on Christmas Eve. I was sent into quarantine and not allowed to help or clean anything up. Sandi took care of the kids and herself. It was a big job with everyone vomiting for about 12 hours. She proceeded to clean all bathrooms multiple times to try and clear out the germs. To date it has paid off. I have not come down with the flu. On Christmas we went out for Chinese, not bad but a different sort of Christmas. It was great to be together and we are thankful for that.

I am scheduled to start the next round (3rd cycle) of Chemo on Monday. I had a blood test yesterday to check my White Blood Cell count. Again, it was very low so I got a shot yesterday and today to get the count up. I should be ready for Chemo on Monday assuming the SNOWPOCALYPSE does not shut down Indianapolis.

During this cycle of Chemo I will be given the clinical trial drug Yervoy (or placebo) in addition to the normal Chemo drugs Cisplatin and Etoposide. The clinical drug is also added in the 4th cycle. After the fourth cycle chemo ends, but the clinical trial drug continues every three weeks.

I also wanted to share a couple of our Christmas pictures. Thanks to Molly Connor ( www.mollyconnor.com ) for taking these on very short notice. We are very happy with how they turned out.

If you can not read the shirts, mine says Screw Cancer, Sandi's says Beat Cancer, and the kids say Fa La La La La. We thought they were appropriate.

All for now. Hope everyone had a nice Holiday Season.

Next Cycle of Chemo

I was supposed to start the next cycle of Chemo on Monday, two days ago, but unfortunately it did not happen. My white blood cell count was too low so I needed an injection of medicine to get the count up. I was told that the common side effect of this drug is that your bones ache. This sounded quite odd to me until I had a sudden pain Monday afternoon that felt like I had thrown my back out! After thinking very hard to come up with what I might of done it dawned on me that this was the side effect. No worries!

The white cells were up sufficiently on Tuesday to start the normal treatment. So we had the marathon first day session yesterday and got home around 7:00. While we were gone Aunt Shannon and Uncle Devin, along with partners Ellana and Ben respectively, took part in a gingerbread house making contest. Bennett got a better offer part way through the contest and went to play with his buddy across the street. Needless to say the work suffered and Shannon and Ellana were declared the unanimous winners.

Thanks to Aunt Shannon and Uncle Devin for coming in to help out!

Here is a picture from Chemo (just getting a little work done):

If you can not tell I do have a nice Sun King Brewing stocking hat on, thanks to my friend Mike for keeping my bald head warm.

I did have a little nausea last night but I did not let that stop me from having Taco Tuesday when we got home. Right now I am sitting here getting my second chemo treatment of the second cycle. Feeling great right now, just a little tired. One more treatment to go tomorrow.

Hope you are well and I will talk to you soon.

No More Hair

After a number of days cleaning the hair I was leaving all over the house I decided it was time to get rid of it. Bennett has actually been looking forward to this because he was told he could finally get the mohawk he has been wanting:

Ellana told me "you look like you are going to steel something!" She was not a fan of the mohawk.

Here is the final product:

All for now, everyone have a great weekend!

My First Blog Post..... I know it is shocking, try not to faint

The family on 2013 Spring Break

Those of you that know me well may be saying “Jason Morse is writing a blog you have to be #@%^&*$# kidding me.” This is not an easy thing for me to do. I do not enjoy talking about myself. However, I know people want to be kept up to date on what is happening in my fight with cancer so I am going to try and update this as often as I can. Please forgive me if I veer off into my personal reflections on the impact of this disease on myself and my family (which I intend to do from time to time). If nothing else I think this has given me a unique perspective and I would like to share that perspective with you. Who am I kidding if you don’t like it sorry about your luck!

I am 37 years old and live in Westfield, Indiana with my wife Sandi, daughter Ellana (6), and son Bennett (8). I was diagnosed with extensive stage Small Cell Lung Cancer on November 20^th, 2013. There were no symptoms until approximately 4 weeks before I was diagnosed. This cancer is typically associated with smoking or exposure to other environmental factors (asbestos being one). Neither of these fit my situation which makes the diagnoses very rare.  The normal course of treatment is a combination of two chemotherapy drugs given for three days followed by three weeks off. This is referred to as a cycle. I started my first cycle on November 25^th. I am fortunate to be involved in a clinical trial that adds a immunotherapy drug to the regimen. My next cycle of chemo will begin on Dec. 16^th.

Currently, there is no known cure for extensive stage Small Cell Lung Cancer. The treatment above has shown temporary success in fighting the disease. The clinical trial drug has been used to fight another form of cancer with added success so we are hopeful it will do the same for me.

Today.....I feel great. My activities are limited in very few ways. I am trying to eat better and sleep a little more. Sandi is trying her best to turn me into a vegetarian but that is going to be a difficult task! I am trying to avoid being around sick people as my immune system is not up to the task of fighting any other illnesses. My hair is officially falling out as of today. Fortunately, as a retired competitive swimmer, I have been bald in the past so at least I know what is in store for me!

I will fight this cancer to the end and am hoping for a miracle. We appreciate everyone’s well wishes and offers of help. At this point Sandi and I have more offers of help than we have things for people to do. It is great to know that we have such fantastic friends and family. I love you all very much and thank you.

That is all for now. First blog post complete! Please feel free to post any comments or questions and I will try to respond to all of them. I am leaving this blog open for anyone to read so share this with anyone who might get something out of it. Add your e-mail at the top of the page and you will be notified when I add posts. Thanks for reading.