Celebrity ALL-EN and Chemo #10

We are huge fans of the show Flipping Out (where Jeff Lewis and his partner Gage renovate and redesign homes), so you can imagine our excitement when we saw that Jeff and Gage are ALL-EN!  Check them out:

Last Friday marked Allen's TENTH chemotherapy treatment.  We had a good meeting with The Cancer Ninja and everything seems to be on track for Allen's next treatments, scans, and radiation simulation.  Props to Allen's port for cooperating better than it ever has before, making treatment a whole lot less stressful this go around! 

Saturday and Sunday Allen had great long runs, running farther than he has since he started treatment!

We are hoping for a healthy, quiet two weeks until Allen's next treatment.  Thanks for all of your support! We are ALL-EN!!

Radiation Update!

We had a great conference call last week with Allen's Radiation Oncologist at MD Anderson in Houston.  She was amazingly accommodating to talk on the phone with us rather than make us drive all the way to Texas! (Leah can't fly this late in her pregnancy, and we didn't want Allen exposed to germs on a plane anyway.)  Not surprisingly, we had a long list of questions for her, and she answered each one, putting our minds at ease.  Our biggest take away was that she agreed with both The Ninja and The Radiator that we can get amazing care right here in Northwest Arkansas, and there is no need to travel to Houston for Allen's radiation.  This was great to hear, considering we had prepared ourselves to live in Houston with Aunt Barby (Leah's Aunt) for three weeks, deliver the baby at a hospital near MD Anderson, and have Leah's mom watch the kiddos in Arkansas while we were in Houston.  Now, Allen can have treatment before work each morning, we can have the baby here locally, and keep the kiddos in a normal routine. Plus, we would have really missed The Ninja if we had to go to Houston! :)

This week, Allen continues on with chemotherapy.  Friday will mark his 10th treatment! We are hoping to keep everyone healthy, so that things continue right on schedule.  Here is Allen surrounded by all the AWESOME cards you all have sent:

He really looks forward to seeing a card waiting for him when he gets home--they pump him up and keep him going during these last weeks when he is SO SICK of chemo! Thank you all for sending them! If you want to mail him one, email Leah at leahbates1212@yahoo.com and she will send you our address.

And, check out who is ALL-EN...

Minnie Mouse!! Uncle David and Aunt Emily just got back from a Disney Cruise and snapped this awesome picture! If you have ALL-EN pictures, we would love to see them! Email them to Leah at leahbates1212@yahoo.com.

Thank you again for all of your support!

Chemotherapy Treatment #9

We had such a GREAT meeting with The Ninja on Friday! Allen had been scanned on Wednesday, so we knew he would have news for us.  Waiting is SO HARD! But, it was SO worth the wait! Allen's scans looked awesome and his chest mass continues to shrink and shrivel up just like we want it to!  There is absolutely no CANcer activity! We couldn't have been more thrilled! There was a little "spot" in Allen's lung that The Ninja attributes to this time of year and a possible cold.  Therefore, just to be extra safe, we decided to drop one of Allen's chemo drugs that can cause issues with the lungs.  The drug has done it's job--eradicating the CANcer--so it isn't imperative to Allen's regimen, and we were planning on dropping that drug for Allen's last two treatments anyway (because it can have a bad interaction with radiation).  After our awesome meeting, we were off to treatment.

Chemo went well, although Allen's port gave us quite a bit of trouble to start with.  The nurse explained that since it isn't stitched down, it can move around as Allen moves.  Therefore, the same exercises don't always work to get it working.  But, we figured it out and once the port "woke up" things went smoothly!

This morning Allen went for a great long run! He has been struggling a bit with headaches, but other than that, he hasn't had very many side-effects.

Nine down, three to go! We want to thank everyone for being so supportive! Allen LOVES getting the little notes of encouragement in the mail, and the ALL-EN photos have been great too!  We honestly couldn't get through this without all of you cheering us on!

Scans This Morning!

Brookelyn and Braedyn are ALL-EN, hoping for Daddy to have GREAT, CANcer FREE scans this morning!  We are also wanting the scans to show that his chest mass is SHRINKING!! Results to follow Friday morning in our regular chemotherapy meeting with The CANcer Ninja.

Quick Update...

Allen returned home from his first business trip since being diagnosed.  Of course there was a TON of prep that went into getting everything ready for him to go - pills, cleaning supplies, special snacks, food, and drinks, etc.  But, it was all worth it when he made it home with no incidents while being away.  For this trip, he was able to drive.  But, in a couple of weeks there will be another BIG test when he has to go on a germy airplane (wearing his mask of course) for another business trip.  We are trying to just take it one day, one week, one hurdle at a time.

Next week is a BIG week for Allen.  He will have another round of scans.  We are hoping and praying that these scans will show that his chest mass has continued to SHRINK A LOT and that his ENTIRE BODY is CANcer FREE! They are scheduled for Wednesday morning at 9:00, and we should have the results from The CANcer Ninja on Friday morning at Allen's regular chemotherapy appointment.  Next Friday's treatment will mark #9, meaning he will have only THREE more to go.  Three sounds like a doable number with the end very near in sight.  In the meantime, we have to try and keep Allen healthy.  This is not an easy feat considering he literally has no immune system right now, and we have two very active, germy kiddos.  It is surprising we have any surface left on the light switches, remotes, door handles, banisters, etc with all the bleach wiping we do.  But, if it works, it is SO worth it.

Please join us in our hopes and prayers for AMAZING, CANcer FREE, SHRINKING tumor, scans next Wednesday!  Thanks so much!

Chemo #8 and an AWESOME Fashion Statement

Last Friday Allen had chemo treatment #8.  He started with blood work, and then another wonderful meeting with The Ninja.  We discussed radiation again and our great appointment with The Radiator.  Not sure where we will have radiation yet, but we are really close to making that decision.  The one thing that is for sure is that to have the best possible outcome, Allen will need to have radiation.  We also discussed Allen's upcoming travel plans for work.  Since for one of his trips he will need to travel by plane, The Ninja agreed Allen had to be fitted for a special mask to keep germs AWAY! Little did we know the crazy process involved--we should have realized that nothing is easy or "normal" these days! The nurse took Allen away to be fitted and he came back smiling and showed me this picture:

The nurse sprays a stinky spray in the bag to see if Allen can smell it.  If the mask fits properly, Allen shouldn't smell anything.  (No, he doesn't have to wear the yellow bag on the plane, just the turquoise mask.)  What a trooper! Now Allen is fitted with his very own mask that he will debut in a couple of weeks.  Luckily Uncle David (and a few other "spies" from his office) will be going on the same trip, so I can keep close tabs on Allen--and trust me, I WILL!

After the mask fitting, it was time for treatment.  The port was a little ornery, but finally cooperated.  Allen was a pro, sailing through treatment like a champ.

Saturday morning he went for his normal post-chemo long run.  Check out his shirt! The wonderful ladies at Central Rogers MOPS made us a "Chemo Care" basket and included the Ironman shirt! It's Allen's favorite now! Thank you ladies!

So, eight down and four to go.  Next week Allen will have another round of scans.  We are hoping that the mass has continued to shrink, shrink, SHRINK! And, that all the CANcer cells are still gone, gone, GONE!  We would appreciate your prayers that those two things will happen.  Also, we are hopeful that we can keep everyone healthy amidst this crazy weather and sickness going around.  Thank you again for all the amazing support! We are so blessed to have such wonderful friends and family!

Meet The Radiator

Yesterday we had an appointment with a Radiation Oncologist. He is the guy who will be game-planning Allen's radiation treatment here (if we decide to stay in Arkansas versus being treated in Houston at MD Anderson).  We cannot express how impressed we were with him, who we nicknamed, The Radiator (you know--kind've like The Terminator--eliminating the last of any microscopic CANcer "seeds" as he referred to them). The Cancer Ninja referred us to him, so we should've guessed that he would be amazing--I mean ninjas only hang out with other really cool people, right?

The Radiator took so much time with us, answering our long, long list of questions with ease, patience, and honest interest. You can tell he is someone who geniuenly loves his field and could talk about it all day. (And if you know Allen, his curiousity is very easily spiked, so those two together could probably talk for weeks and weeks! I mean we spent over five minutes talking about protons and photons!) Probably the most impressive thing about The Radiator was the way he thought about Allen's case. He wasn't quick to lump Allen into a "cookie-cutter" treatment. Instead, he discussed with us that while Allen is a Stage III Hodgkins case, he is really more of a Stage II+ because the only thing putting him into Stage III, is a very small node in his stomach. Because of that viewpoint, he is considering also radiating under Allen's arm and along his clavicle where there were a couple of involved nodes. This is a personalized approach because typically in a Stage III, doctors only radiate the chest mass because most Stage IIIs have other areas involved and you can't be radiating the entire body.

We also learned that based on what The Radiator saw in Allen's scans (from after his 4th chemo) that Allen's chest mass has shrunk so much and retreated to the middle of his chest enough that The Radiator does not believe that Allen's heart or lungs will be directly affected by the radiation! Yea! That is such fabulous news! And, of course we are hoping that with Allen's next scans (coming up in two weeks) that the mass will continue to shrink so even less area has to be radiated! The Radiator also believes that what is left of Allen's mass at the time radiaton begins will not move with breathing. This is important because a moving mass means a larger field of radiation. There are techniques that can be used to control the breathing, preventing the mass from moving if necessary, but it was great to hear that The Radiator didn't even think Allen would have to worry about movement.

The Radiator explained that Allen's dosage of radiation will be less than 1/2 of what a lung CANcer patient would receive, and that Allen's relatively short time frame of treatment (3 weeks)  would probably prevent him from dealing with too many side effects from treatment. We also learned that patients who combined chemo and radiation have a 15-20% less likely chance of reoccurrence. Those were great numbers! The Radiator also reassured Allen that the radiation shouldn't interfere with his abiltiy to run and compete in triathlons, which made him very happy (and me a little terrified because somewhere along this journey Allen got me to agree to do an Ironman when he recovered)!

We certainly have A LOT to think about and discuss. Allen is hoping to have a long conversation with The Ninja soon to debrief and go over everything The Radiatior explained. But all in all we were so encouraged by what we learned! Thank you for your thoughts and prayers! They are WORKING!!