Thanksgiving 2010

Thanksgiving was great. When you have 4 days off, like Carl did, you can fill the days with lots of relaxation AND getting together with friends AND movies AND TV AND cooking. Perhaps a silver lining of Carl's cancer is that we are getting better at enjoying the weekends.


Carl's 'hobby' of cooking has reached new heights in 2010, and the whole family is glad. So, over the Thanksgiving weekend Carl made the Thanksgiving dinner. He made a turkey awesomely, used his new super cool meat thermometer, etc.

Carl's neck has begun to really bother him. At the beginning of 2010, Carl got a prescription for Oxycontin, 200 pills. Until the middle of November, Carl rarely had pain the required him to use a pain killer, usually Motrin or Tylenol. But in November, Carl started taking more pain killers, including prescription pain killers, and over the Thanksgiving weekend his neck was in pain almost every day.

On Monday Nov 30, 2010, Carl had a PET scan to see how the new Chemotherapy (Irhineotecan and Vinchristine) are impacting the tumor. On Thursday, Dec 2, 2010 Carl went to the Oncologist. He was scheduled to start a 3rd round of Irhineotecan and Vinchristine. But the Oncologist said the PET scan indicated that the Irhineotecan and Vinchristine was not being effective, and the neck tumor is showing metabolic activity. DXXM. I was hoping the neck pain was because the tumor was dying, not thinking about growing.

This means goodbye to these 'nice' chemotherapy drugs that let Carl's hair grow, and only take 2 days of chemo infusion every 21 days. We had to schedule new chemotherapy drugs, and they will take longer to infuse. But chemotherapy is better then no chemo, so....

The Oncologist gave Carl a new pain pill plan, and on Friday Carl's neck was already in better shape, pain wise. Wednesday Carl's pain was so debilitating that I was really worried.

With the change in plans, we got to have a nice weekend of getting ready for Christmas, eating at a really good Chinese restaurant (Yen Chings), and shoveling the first snow this winter, visiting the Domes and Discovery World, and more. I hope you enjoyed your weekend and Thanksgiving.