Tom Faranda Hard to believe I’ve been here already for ten days. So hopefully about the halfway point. Today my white blood cell count reached the 0.0 level, as expected. So for the time being, I have no immune system. On Saturday I will start receiving injections of Neupogen, to help stimulate my stem cells to rebuild … Read more
(Tim likes to sing this before he goes to sleep and he told me he sings it to himself when he is at school!) I love Daddy, I love Daddy I like Daddy, I like Daddy Who doesn’t like Daddy? Everyone likes Daddy. Goodnight Daddy, Goodnight Daddy (First sung January 10th, 2006, Tom’s second night … Read more
It's midday and Brigid is here. I am tired (but not exhausted – more like the chemo fatigue I felt with the RICE protocol). My cell levels are low – white blood cells almost to zero, platelets at 44. And there's a metallic taste in my mouth. This is all as expected. When my platelets … Read more
Got my white blood and stem cells back today at 10:15 in the morning – 4 million of them in one large syringe. The whole thing took less than 15 minutes. Side effects included feeling warm and a funny, metallic taste in my mouth. And – they’d given me some sort of sedative, so I … Read more
The attending physician and the nurse practitioner were both very optimistic this morning about how things are going. In fact they suggested I might be out in ten or 12 days rather than in two weeks. Hope they’re right. The nurse practitioner, who has been talking to me, Lorraine, wont be here tomorrow for re-injection … Read more
Still feeling good. The nurse practitioner Lorraine discussed my stem cell return, scheduled for Monday at 10:30 in the morning. It will take less than 30 minutes. More on that tomorrow. Here are two pictures from yesterday, when I was visited by two Islamic women from Croton. First Brigid, then my friend and assistant Judy. … Read more
11:15PM and I am having my last dose of chemotherapy, which will run until after midnight. This is my eighth cycle of Etoposide, which I’ve received every 12 hours since Tuesday (Monday I had something else – can’t remember the name) at 10am and 10pm. Saturday I will get a dose of Melphalan, in the … Read more
Despite lying around in the hospital with lots of free time, I had no stomach to watch the senate judiciary hearings on Alito. Chemotherapy hasn’t given me nausea, but the senatorial windbags speechifying and playing to the cameras – that brought it on if I watched for more then two minutes at a time. Here … Read more
My good friend John Brown is a teacher and the head of the science department at his school in England. Evidently not that impressed with my reading list. Here’s his email to me: Dear Tom, Just been on your website and great to hear things are going well apart from the insomnia. Mind you having … Read more
It’s 11:30pm of day three, and so far there have been very little in the way of side effects. Only issue is some insomnia – I am given the chemo at 10AM and 10PM, and there are steroids in the mix, which make it difficult to get to sleep. And of course people traipse in … Read more