Good Things

Last week, the exhibit I organized, "Wisconsin Folks: Masters of Tradition," opened at the airport. We had a very fun opening reception with performances in the terminal and a party back at the house. The exhibit looks great and will run for 6 months.

On Friday, Ack had the latest of his 3-month checkups and got another cancer-free report card. Yea!

Another wig...

... and this one from Eileen can double as a beard when my hair grows back!

Chemo #3 day 2

Feeling just fine today! Even worked out. Though I did come  home at 2:30 to relax and nap on the boat with Anne.  Tomorrow is a full day of work. Meanwhile, two new submissions - one by Anne and the other by Alana. Both of them used Tom's tool at: http://profhorn.meteor.wisc.edu/wxwise/ackb/

Mr. Steve by Alana

Curly Grey Hair Guy by Anne

Chemo #3 - Day 1 (and wigs)

Well, today was Chemo #3.  Our stay at the hospital was a bit shorter today - we were only at the hospital from 8 am to 2:30 pm. Blood tests were done fast and while the nurses didn't do the 'rapid delivery' of the "R" helpful poison, they were able to increase the rate. So, that was nice. My reaction so far has been good, but unfortunately as I type this nausea sets in - and it is not because of my writing!

The weather was in the 80s, so when we got home we jumped on the boat and hung out on the lake.

While waiting at the hospital, Anne made some refrigerator magnets from the art supplies they leave in the waiting room. This reminded me of the great wig contest.  Here are my favorites so far (no particular order): They are by Mike (Simpson look), Erin (Bieber look) and Shaima (feather head man).

Give me a wig contest!

OK, I'm doing a contest.  Color in a wig for me. Two options. One is to save the image below, bring it into your favorite drawing program and add a wig. then email it to me.

The second option is to go to this web site, draw in the wig and do a save screen and send me that image.  Not sure what the prizes will be, but they should be good!

Fun day - Orange Party, Crabby Ack

Rose and Louise coming out of the 'gerbil treadmill' 

Ack, Anne, Rose and Louise went the Madison Children's Museum to celebrate Orange's 60th Birthday party. It was a great party and we got to explore the museum along with everyone else. Though, I did get crabby at the end, when I got tired and needed to leave. Sorry to those I may have offended.


Prior to the party we spent the day driving through Devil's Lake to get to the Crane Foundation, Ski-hi apple orchard (though they were out of caramel apples), Dr. Evermore's park and capped the day with a great homemade dinner.

Chemo #2 day 1

We finished the puzzle Bob, Kristy and Trina gave us, the missing piece is an Ackerman tradition

Well chemo #2, the day after - is going well. I feel a little nausea but other than that I'm fine. One short nap today when I got home. I am thinking of shaving my head completely.


I meet yet another colleague who new someone who had lymphoma and was cured. It was his mother and she was cured over 10 years ago. So that is about 8 people who I have meet who know a survivor. Of course I started thinking that is 100% cure rate so far, but the doctor said 81%. So, I need to find two unsuccessful cases, so that I'm not one of them! That is an abuse of statistics of course. It reminded me of when Anne and I were looking to Madison. We meet many people who loved Madison, so we went on a search to find someone who did not like Madison. Never succeeded at that either. So, now I'm planning on 100% cured!

Chemo #2

Chemo is all about poison to kill poisoned cells

So, today was Chemo day #2. It began at 8 am with the drawing of blood samples. Then waiting.

At 9 am we meet with the Doctor and 'fellow' to go over the tests and the planned treatment. Tests were good! Liver is back to normal so today they could give the full blown dose of chemo. And, since I did so well in Chemo #1, we decided we should go ahead with the nasty R stuff at a faster drip rate. Remember the first treatment they take their time delivering the chemicals to make sure there are no reactions. That saves about 1.5 hours! The bad news today, was that since Chemo #1 was not a full dose, we need to do 7 maybe 8 cycles instead of the 6 which many folks get. The theory was why mess around - let's make sure the cure is for good. Nice theory.

More waiting

Around 11:30 we went in for the chemo (see picture above). Well the fast delivery-rate plan worked for about an hour. then my throat got irritated and scratchy and my abdomen started to hurt. So, fearing my throat may close up, the nurse quickly turned the IV off, gave me benidrill (which made my sleepy) and went back to the slower mode of injection. So, no short cuts for me today.

Anne was a trooper throughout. Working when I slept. She got the new drug supply from the pharmacist. She also brought along 3 surprises - a box a chocolates (yum), a flip book of an egg exploding (more fun to watch than you would think) and a little painting activity (see picture below) - you wet the brush and sketch with water, when it dries the drawing is gone and you reuse the sheet.

Around 4 pm all was done. I was a bit fatigued when we got home, so I took a nap while Anne made a wonderful eggplant dish. Otherwise I'm OK.

The 'Buddha Pad' Anne got me for passing the time. She also brought along flowers to pretty the place up

Lex Luthor or Professor Xavier?

Here is my handsome-in-all-kinds-of-new-ways husband.

Chemo is working...

I was on a telecom today and at one point I found I was rubbing my head. When I looked down I saw several strands of hair on my desk. So hair loss has started which indicates to me that the chemo is working. When I am fully bald I will post a picture, but for now I show the strands of evidence.

Strands of hair sitting on a piece of paper.

Good Liver!

Ack's bilirubin numbers

     Much of the morning of August 31 was spent in waiting at the cancer clinic. Blood tests first, then waiting for results so we can talk with RN. In the end the news was good. Bilirubin numbers are getting back down to normal (see chart).  In addition, other 'numbers' indicate that the liver is functioning in the normal range.  


     That means two things to me - full chemo treatment on 9/14 and a glass of champagne on Saturday to celebrate Sarah and Matt's wedding!

After hanging in the waiting room all morning, we had a nice latte and raspberry scone at La Brioche.

Chemo #1 Day 5

Fresh Pizza!

Day 5 passed with nothing special. Steroid dosage was cut in half today, but I didn't feel any real difference. Wednesday I go back in for lab tests and over to cardiology to have a background scan of the heart. They do this as a reference, so later they can do it again and make sure drugs aren't messing with my heart.

I went into work for most of the day today and that went fine - mostly meetings. After work I went and did a little exercise. I've lost about 8 lbs, which is something my doctor has suggested each year during my physical. It is not weight loss from the cancer but rather due to good eating, no beer, no over-eating, cutting back on sweets, and lots of fresh vegetables and fruits. The photo is of a pizza I cooked tonight - eggplant, cheese, roasted garlic and roasted onion. Yum! Anne is now baking a fresh apple pie!

Fresh Apple Pie!

Chemo #1, Day 4

So far I have not had too bad a reaction to the chemo - no nausea, no rash etc. So, that is good news. Four days following the chemo treatment it is an ingestion orgy of various pills: Prednisone, Allopurinel, Emend, Zantac, Bactrim. And Lorazepam and Compazine if needed for nausea. The lorazepam does put me to sleep! Still no alcohol, and we are eating lots of good veggies. I did have my first coffee in a while. On Saturday we made scones, got on the boat and meet Bob and Christy on the lake and tied up our boats. Bob makes a great cappuccino!

Fog rolling on the lake from the marsh

I woke up early on Sunday and watched the fog roll in from the marsh onto the lake (taken with phone camera), as well as watched a Great Blue Heron fish and a hawk sweep in on a missed meal of squirrel.  Early dinner on the boat with Anne and Fred and Wendy (Fred is an old badminton partner). 

Chemo #1

Wednesday, August 24 (one day after our 31st anniversary) was Ack's first chemo treatment. 

We got there at 8 am for blood tests. Then sat around waiting for the lab to work the numbers. My liver was out of whack for a while and while steroids were helping to get numbers within range, the doctors needed to be sure I was near normal. Alas, no, the bilibrubin was 2.7 (reference range is 0.2 - 1.3 mg/dL); it has been holding at around 2.5 for the last few tests (after being at 11.7). So, what that meant was in the R-CHOP treatment, they had to cut back on the H and O to half the full treatment (more on that below).  So, after that was all sorted out....

10:30 We were moved to the chemo-cancer-cubical (a private little room off a hallway and with a window). Meredith, the nurse for the day, started me off on IV of saline solution to hydrate me before they added the strong chemicals.

The pharmacist came in to tell us of all the pills I'll be taking. More than I thought (9, I think?). Some will be taken just on weekends - holiday pills!  I look forward to those.  Some nausea prevention ones that are optional, but I've taken them already just to avoid the problem.

So, R-CHOP stands for the chemicals they give me:
R- rituzimab

C cyclophospamide

H- doxrubicin (there is some historic reason why this is an H instead of a D)

O - oncovin/vincristine

P- prednisone - I take that in pill form for 5 days after the IV, given it is a steroid - then I crash!

Because of liver still not behaving correctly (but no sign of cancer there), H and O are reduced by half. They did not have to reduce R or P dosage.

At 11:20 the nurse started R treatment that would last about 3-4 hours. That is the one that people can have a strong negative reaction to - rash, low blood pressure etc. so they gave that slowly at first. I did not have any reaction to it.

At 3:40 they moved onto the H part (yeah, C came later). They also gave me some pills - anti nausea and things. I also got to suck on an ice cream Popsicle, something about keeping the mouth cold so the 'medicine' would concentrate and that might help prevent mouth sores. This only lasted 10 minutes (I mean, how slowly can you eat a Popsicle?), then she moved on to administering the O and C parts of CHOP. That lasted about 40 minutes. Then they flushed everything with another saline solution. By the time we got home it was close to 6 pm. Dinner at home was fend for yourself - which means I had a great chicken salad sandwich and some of Anne's great Peach Pie (with a few blueberries).

By 8:30 I was fighting to stay awake. In bed early and slept sound, though a bit of the night sweats. In the morning (7 am) I took my suite of pills, then fell asleep on the couch. I woke up after 9 and got to work around 10 am. Stayed at work til about 4:20.  Good energy level and no side effects.

As Anne noted: "It was pretty boring too though the staff were lovely and kind, and his room had a window though not much of a view - just of the beautiful day we were missing."  But we did get to watch the animated movie Tangled - it's all about the horse!

I'm scheduled to go in for the next three Wednesdays: next week for blood tests, the following week for blood tests with a doctor consult, and the third Wed (Sept 14, Eileen's b-day) for the next chemo cycle.