He's doing really well so far...

Biff slept great and is doing well today. He even walked the whole block round with Bopper and me! 

Click here to see a slide show of pictures from our walk.

So the day started out great, and we were both eagerly awaiting the delivery of the washer/dryer. Unfortunately, the drain for the washer was missing, so the new machines (and their install kits) have been put in the garage while we wait for them to send another install team with the missing part... Which they say can take at least a week!!!!🤬🤬🤬🤬 (Which I figure means even longer, you know?) I definitely lost my cool. I am super PISSED.

Especially since there is no way I can wait to do laundry, so a trip to the laundromat will be necessary...😫🤬

Nothing is easy these days. 

But at least Biff is feeling fine! In the scheme of things, that's all that's really important.✌️❤️

New chemo...

So far, so good. He had a trainee as his main nurse, which was a little annoying for him, but the head nurse was supervising and making sure everything was taken care of properly.

This pic shows the pump Biff has to wear until Friday. Attached to the port on his chest. For some reason, the head nurse decided to tape some of the excess tubing to his chest, too, instead of having him keep it in the little fanny pack-like pouch he keeps that pump ball in. The ball slowly deflates over the course of the four days.

So far, he feels good (despite what that looks on his face might suggest LOL). Of course, last time it took a couple days before he felt bad, so we still have our fingers crossed.

It was rough to leave Bopper home alone at 7am. I set him up with his old favorite "Doggy" and his new favorite "Lambchop" toys, but he really wasn't happy when he figured out he wasn't coming with us... 

And he was freaking out when I got back just after 9am, so I brought him along for the ride to pick Biff up. But, really, he was fine. Very "talkative," but fine. 

So, we are on the road again. Hope, hope, hoping it won't be as bumpy a ride this time around!!

Catching up before the next round starts...

Well it's been a lot the last week and a half. I thought I'd catch up here before the new chemo starts tomorrow, so here goes.

Biff is doing well, although the tension and worry about trying chemo again is having an impact (along with some grief - more on that below). He tends to sleep more during the day and then have trouble sleeping through the night. But he continues to get stronger and stronger.

He uses a cane around the house now, and sometimes out in the world, although he still uses the new walker if we expect he'll need to be on his feet more. 

Although neither of us care for the physical therapist that comes to the house twice a week, she does put him through his paces - and I encourage him and he tries every day to do the exercises on his own, too. Some days that works better than others.

Also, it turned out the Neuro docs wanted a CT scan of his head done before starting up with chemo again (can't recall if I mentioned that before or not). The results were generally very good. The small bleed they'd seen before from his falls back in May/June had reduced a lot, and he is healing as he should. However, his new Primary Care doctor (who we will actually meet in person on August 4th for the first time) called to also advise there was a small new spot they will be monitoring. She asked about any neuro-related symptoms, and he hasn't had any, so she agreed with the Oncologist that there was nothing to worry about and no need to delay the new chemo treatment tomorrow (Monday, July 24th).

The hardest thing is that our sweet, beloved dog, Snookie, passed away peacefully during the night last Monday (I found her in one of her favorite spots in the bedroom Tuesday morning, July 18). She was 14 years old and had been showing her age more and more the last year. We are grateful she didn't have any serious medical issues and never seemed to be in pain, but it has been devastating to lose her. She was truly special. The grief still smacks us in the face. You always know when you adopt a dog that they will break your heart eventually. Doesn't make it any easier when it happens.

But I wouldn't trade the joy they bring into our lives for relief from that pain. In many ways, there is something to be said for feeling so deeply, so profoundly, all that love. We're gonna miss her forever. Bopper, too, who has spent almost all of his 9 years not just with us but with her. They were super tight. He seems mostly okay but a little discombobulated. And I've been having a rough time figuring out how to feed him. Snookie was all about food, especially in her later years after she retired from playing so much, while Bopper has never been all that interested (except for chicken!). We're still figuring out how to make it work for him, poor little guy. He's more velcroed to me than usual now.

Back in her puppy days, right after we brought her home. 
(Biff in his goatee days.)

Another from the puppy days (okay, she was 8 months old).

A more recent shot when both needed my lap!

From one of our last walks together.

Bopper loved to use her as a pillow.

R.I.P. sweet girl.

Trying to help Bopper adjust, and needing to release some energy and grief tension, Biff decided to give it a try walking with Bopper and me around the block one early morning (before the heat got too bad):

Biff mostly led the way.

But he decided to turn back before we got halfway around, and trucked far ahead of us on the way back home... (He's that red spec way down the block.)

We also attended a memorial service for a wonderful man who had been part of our "Eclectic" theater community. He was actually a few months younger than I was (which I hadn't known before) and always had serious health issues related to asthma. We met when he became an Associate Producer on a show with me back in 2010/2011, and I ended up casting him in the show, too. It was a very special project, with a lot of special people, and it was moving and emotional to go through old pictures from that time. I put together a collage to add to a Memory Book. The memorial was in his wife's new home, and there was SO MUCH FOOD. We didn't actually know anyone else there, but we enjoyed meeting a few people from his various "circles." 

We didn't stay long though. Biff didn't have the energy for it, and it was emotionally hard, considering everything that's going on in our lives these days. But I was glad we were able to be there for some of it.

In the meantime, our laundry room has been completely redone! (Yeah, workers at the house every day for the last week - also a little exhausting...) New machines have been purchased (at a great sale price) and will be delivered on Tuesday. I can't wait. Although I think now I should have gone ahead and done one last trip to the laundromat last week, at least I'll have lots of laundry to test out the new laundry room at home this coming week. I promise I'll share some pictures after the new machines are installed. Maybe I'll even put up some "before" pictures, but they are embarrassing. That poor room had been so neglected for so long... Anyway!

They even installed a doggy door. Now I just have to figure out how to teach Bopper to use it. Snookie was supposed to take care of that - she'd have figured it out easily. She opened doors with her head all the time as it was. But Bopper is a little more shy about using his head to push things... I'll figure it out, but it may take a little time. And maybe even a new "sibling" to help him. Not exactly sure when we'll be ready for that, but I don't think we'll wait too long. Bopper really likes other dogs, and we hate having to leave him at home all alone too much. Luckily we are mostly here with him. But I'm not going to wait in the hall during chemo tomorrow, as I usually have. I'll take Biff in, get him settled, and head back to the house and come back to pick him up later. At least that way, Bopper won't be alone for hours. (Biff usually sleeps through most of the infusion treatment anyway, so he shouldn't miss me much, if at all.)

Oh, and that torn up back garage door has been replaced, with the framing fixed up, too. Still needs the new locks installed, but here's a picture of that:

It is wood covered with metal and a coating on top, so it will handle the weather and critter attacks!

Okay, I think I've covered pretty much everything. My brain has been a little glitchy lately (the fog of grief and fatigue, I think - I had a mammogram appointment yesterday, just routine/no worries, and I wrote my year of birth as 2023... LOL), but I'm pretty sure I've covered the important stuff. More updates forthcoming as we start the next leg on the treatment journey.

Bopper always loved to groom Snookie. She was so patient with him.

Two fuzzy faces adoring each other...

Snookie had the best smile. She was a happy dog!

Well, here's the latest news...

Had a phone call with the Oncologist today to discuss the results from Saturday's CT scan. No significant change in the spots on the lung. No change at all for "most of it," although a slight increase for a couple spots of no more than 1mm. Which led the Oncologist to wonder if there wouldn't have been improvement overall if Biff hadn't had to miss the next two planned treatments (being in the hospital recovering from the severe, toxic side effects from the first one 😡).

So, the Oncologist strongly advocated for doing another round of chemo, which will give the best support to the immuno therapy going forward, hopefully stopping any growth, possibly reducing the size of the spots, etc. 

Along with the lived experience of Biff's prior horrible reaction, the PHASER Program PGx test (gene test) that was done while Biff was in the hospital also gives the Oncologist more information to inform best treatment going forward. As I mentioned in a previous post, the test results show Biff has an "intermediate metabolism" - which I now understand is specifically regarding his "enzyme metabolism."

Regarding the 4-day pump chemo treatment, Fluorouracil, his enzyme metabolism indicates he should not receive a dosage larger than 500 (I forget what the measurement terminology was he used, only having noted the numbers). The dosage he was given back on May 15 was 800. The Oncologist says he wants to do a dosage of 300 next time, giving Biff the best change of not having severe side effects but still, hopefully, an effective treatment. He will also reduce the dosage for the companion chemo, Carboplatin, by 20%.

Based on scheduling needs, Biff will go in for the next treatment on Monday, July 24th, again wearing the pump for 4 days, returning Friday, July 28th, to remove the pump. And we're scheduled to see the Oncologist the following Thursday, August 3rd, to see how he's doing.

Of course, in advance of that, aside from other appointments, Neurology wants another CT scan of his head to check the issues with brain bleed from the previous falls before another chemo treatment, which I'll be calling tomorrow to schedule. And he'll need to go in the Friday before, July 21st, for pre-chemo bloodwork.

We asked about proactive measures we might be able to take to reduce potential side effects, something we were able to do for the radiation treatment, but the Oncologist advises there are no such options in this situation. He did say that Biff's mouth is more healed now than it was when he had the May 15th treatment, which should help to minimize the potential for another severe case of mucositis.

Presumably, if all goes well with the next treatment, there will be two more rounds after that (three weeks after the last treatment for each would be the plan - although on this schedule, that would mean the third treatment would fall on Labor Day - and since, with the pump thing, he needs to start on Monday so the pump can be removed the following Friday, that could very well mean they'd push that out another week). We expect to find out about going forward when we see the Oncologist on August 4th for the next follow up.

Biff is pretty nervous about having to do chemo again, very worried about the potential side effects. He definitely doesn't want to end up in the hospital again. (I say that like I'm not crazy worried myself... 😨) So please send out those positive vibes, prayers, best wishes and all that, wishing him a much easier time this go round. We love you all for the ongoing support.

On a different note, he had a great time doing his animation voice acting job today (it was today, not yesterday as it turned out - I had it wrong in my calendar, but Biff remembered it as Tuesday, so I double-checked before we turned up a day early!!). The people were lovely, as always, and he truly enjoyed working again. And he felt good about the work he did, too! His voice held up beautifully. 

They also had a very pleasant lounge where I was able to work on a photo collage on my laptop that I'm hoping I can bring to a memorial this coming Saturday. Found out a few days ago that a lovely man I worked with back in 2010/2011 passed away in May. He was basically my age, in fact a few months younger. Mind blowing. Heartbreaking. And yet it has been a little bit wonderful going through the pictures from back then, remembering a project that I worked so hard on, with so many cool and creative and hard-working people. A very special time. Tough way to be reminded of it, but I am still somehow grateful. Is that weird?

In the meantime, I am waiting to hear back from a handyman to come to the house to see the work needed in the laundry room, and I'm fully expecting to hire him and move forward on that as soon as possible. In fact, I'm going to add replacing the back door to our garage, since I discovered this a couple days ago:

The door needed to be replaced anyway, as a previous guy replaced the old door with an interior door which was immediately water-damaged by the heavy rains back in February. But it was at least still intact until this happened. Pretty sure it was racoons. Nothing inside seems to have been touched though, so I have no idea what motivated the crazy critters. Big Sigh. It's always something, right?

The new yard service came yesterday, and our yard continues to look so nice and tidy. Not attractive but at least not derelict. I'm very close to contacting 1800gotjunk to come remove a bunch of garbage in the backyard that we'd expected (and paid) to remove back in February (yeah, we were pretty screwed by that "service" - live and learn, sometimes over and over and over. LOL). But getting the laundry room fixed and new machines installed is top priority for the moment (other than maintaining work recently done inside and out)!

I have arranged for a cleaning service to start next week, coming in for a couple hours every two weeks, at least for a while. Still have some deeper cleaning projects that need to be done, aside from general maintenance. Hopefully we'll get to a point where we can cut the regular service down to an hour every couple of weeks or maybe a couple hours once a month... We'll see how it goes. I just can't let it get behind, with dirt and mess building back up while I continue work on the bigger "purge and reorganize" project, you know? Gotta keep this place a healthier oasis in support of Biff's health! (And my sanity?)

Thus, the long and winding road takes another turn. And we keep on keeping on. 💖

Since he's been home...

First trip to a restaurant post hospital!

June 26, 2023

I don't know how it has already been almost two weeks since he was able to come home. Apologies again for such a long delay updating here. I've been super busy, but more on that later.

The good news is he's recovered from the mucositis and the rash! He's still relatively weak, but he's getting stronger and stronger every day. (If you want to skip down to the latest news specific to the cancer, I've put that section in bold. I know my "storyteller voice" is too wordy for some folks. I take no offense, I promise. 😘)

We are trying to take walks every day, not always successful on that, but we are trying. The heat limits when we can do them, and life can be so chaotic. But he's also getting out more and more, and walking is always a part of anywhere we go... He's required to use a walker for now, but the VA sent him a fancy "cadillac" walker with a seat, which is very cool. Of course, I'll need to figure out what to do with the cheaper version I'd bought online before our road trip back in April (hardly used). LOL

Here's a look at him on our first walk down the block the day he got home, at the point where we took a break before heading back. He can go much further now.

At the resting/turnaround point. (Using the old walker - I'll have to get a picture of the new one...)

Looking back toward home...

It was such a pretty day.

He's had at-home visits from a nurse to check his vitals and evaluate things at the house, a Physical Therapist to do an initial evaluation of his needs, and his first official Physical Therapy session! We're expecting a call to schedule the next session any minute.

He's eating well and has most of his taste back, although he says things don't all taste the same as he remembers them tasting. Currently, he's trying to just learn what the new tastes are and work from there. Honestly, he'll eat some things now he wouldn't have touched before - go figure!

He had one dizzy spell shortly after he came home, and it turned out his blood pressure was extremely low, so he's not taking the one remaining BP medication they still prescribe. Instead, we check his blood pressure regularly, so if it spikes, he can go ahead and take it. We confirmed with a nurse in his Primary Care doctor's office, and with the at-home nurse, that that is the proper way to handle the matter.

He does still deal with a sore throat at times, along with the ongoing struggle with dry mouth. He's been weaned off of a medication he used to take 3 times a day for a tremor issue (not Parkinson's but something every older person can end up dealing with, and it runs in his family - Katherine Hepburn had a strong case of this same issue). Luckily, we haven't seen any increase in his tremors, because a major side effect from the medication is dry mouth. Dry mouth is something he'll have to deal with the rest of his life, due to the radiation treatment, and it exacerbates things like mucositis. They have also given him a spray to induce saliva which helps a lot - much better than any of the Biotene-type sprays/gels/pastes/rinses/lozenges we had tried before. 

And one of his shoulders bothers him now and then, and his hips, too. Achy pains. But most of the time he is pain free!

And, just in case anyone was wondering, no ill effects from falling and knocking his noggin - it pays to have a hard head sometimes, right?!!!

The biggest news, although still mostly preliminary, is yesterday he had two on-site appointments at the facility close to our house. 

The first was a Swallow Study, basically video x-rays of him eating and drinking, including Barium so they can see his swallow function in action. There is a little concern that a tiny bit of liquid sometimes flows into his airway instead of the other passage in his throat down to his stomach. It's very hard to see for the untrained eye, and it's not a crisis or anything (just could become one). Mostly means they want him to be careful about some foods for now (particularly foods with a thin liquid and solids, such as cereal with milk, chicken noodle soup, that sort of thing), and they will continue to monitor. And he REALLY needs to do his swallow exercises every day to help loosen up the sphincter muscle that regulates which "pipe" things go down and strengthen related muscles (yes, we humans actually have two sphincter muscles - who knew?!?) He was originally taught these exercises back during radiation treatment in January and February, and he was pretty diligent about doing them back then, but he's been resistant about continuing to do them since, not really feeling it was such a big a deal more recently ("I exercise swallowing all day long when I eat and drink!"). He now understands the importance, and I'll keep reminding him more now. He'll love that!

I was sneaky and took a little video of one of the swallow x-ray videos - freaky stuff:

PLEASE DISREGARD THE AUDIO.

The second appointment was with the Oncologist. We had hoped there would be more information ready for going forward, but it turned out to be more about how well he's recovered and his current condition. They were pleased with his recovery from the severe side effects of the chemo treatment back in May. They also reviewed the results of the gene test they'd done to help identify why he had such a toxic reaction and to help determine what treatment options will be more tolerable for him.

It turns out he has an "intermediate metabolism" for the chemo treatment, which obviously wasn't a great fit with the dosage he'd been given. 

Before deciding on the treatment going forward, he's going to have a CT scan of his lungs tomorrow (Saturday, July 8th) to see how those 3 little spots are doing, see if the chemo had a positive impact on the cancer. Then we'll meet again after the doctor has reviewed those results to make decisions. The doctor didn't feel a PT scan was necessary at this time.

The options being considered include the possibility of continuing only with the immuno therapy or the immuno therapy and a much-reduced dosage of the chemo. As it was explained to us, immuno therapy overrides the cancer telling the body not to attack cancer cells, allowing the body's natural immune system to get back to work. 

They advised that the toxic side effects were not in any way caused by the immuno therapy.

As for resuming chemo, if the CT scan shows a "great response," the Oncologist said he would advocate for trying a lower dosage for three more rounds (once every 3 weeks). The dosage they gave him back in May was at 80%. If he decides to try it again, they would knock that down to 30-40%.

Unfortunately, there are no guarantees that it won't cause severe side effects, although the chances are reduced. 

So, that's where it stands on all that for the moment.

In the meantime, Biff is doing a voice acting job on Monday for a Disney+ animated show. He's pretty excited to be able to work again. And he likes the idea of more Voice Over work: no memorizing, and he can do it siting down! And no 16-hour days on a set either. Although I know he actually misses those.

Also, his movie with Jake Johnson called Self-Reliance is officially going to drop in September on Hulu, and there may even be a limited theatrical run. Jake very much wants Biff to do some press with him, so we are hopeful Biff can be well enough to at least do some local stuff. Jake says everyone who sees it tells him Biff steals every scene he's in. We saw a preliminary cut a couple of months ago, but Jake has done a lot of work on it since. I'm very excited to see the final version.

All in all, it's been great to have him home again. 

And it is great that progress has been made on the "House Project!" It was such a bummer to have all my plans postponed when I caught COVID, and it would have been great to get more done while Biff was still in the hospital, but it didn't work out that way, so there you go. Instead, during the day when a crew was cleaning the house, Biff got to spend several hours with a dear friend at her house, and I got to spend some time with our neighbor who helped me out so much while I was sick - as well as before and after, walking the dogs and being awesome. So, silver linings, you know?

Honestly, it's been nice for things to be relatively calm, even though I've been busy. New appointments are being added almost daily to Biff's schedule, so all that is going to get busy again. Sincerely hoping we can avoid any new crisis, but the journey will take us where it takes us. We just keep plugging away.

Love and gratitude to everyone for your support, in so many ways. The financial support on GoFundMe and directly in some cases, has been - continues to be - overwhelming. And a blessing. Such a relief from related worries. Still feels weird, but we are grateful. But, mostly, knowing there are folks out there that love us and are rooting for us really does help keep our spirits up when things are especially hard. 

I hope everyone had a safe and fun Independence Day - hope you could find some relief from the heat in your celebrations. We kept things peaceful at home, as usual. Our little dog, Bopper, has a very hard time with the firecrackers and requires a lot of attention during the noisiest times. Our old girl, Snookie, used to really freak out, too, but she's so deaf now, she sleeps through all of that. More silver linings, eh?

Here's to a safe, peaceful summer of love and laughter and healing!

More updates to come as things go along. XOXO