One Quarter Blind

Starving brain cancer

The idea of starving glioblastoma and other gliomas is not necessarily a new concept, of course.  Still, it makes perfect sense to rehash this constantly.  Saw this article a couple of days ago.  

     "By inhibiting fatty acid synthesis in the brain, this option will literally cut off the cancer energy source. The team at UCLA found the epidermal grow factor receptor (EGFR), when amplified, does make cells more depended on fatty acids synthesis. When interrupted, it results in massive cell death."

I never really thought about my weight and my nutrition my whole life, and even after diagnosis and subsequent treatments.  I was at 183 lbs before I got sick, and then I was all over the map, depending on what I was dealing with.  Temodar, radiation, antibiotics, treatments ... too tired most of the time to truly give a shit about that stuff.   

With in the last year, when I realized that I wasn't going today or tomorrow, at least not from GBM, I decided to take this a lot more seriously about my weight and body.  Dana and I had dinner one night about 8 months ago, and she talked about cutting out poultry.  She had already stopped eating beef, pork, etc.  I said that I would do the same thing.  Cut out chicken, turkey, beef, lamb, and I would only eat fish and shrimp for meat.  

At that point, I was at 163.  

Weighed myself this morning at 139.2 on the digital scale we bought a few months ago.  I usually eat between 1800 and 2200 calories (not necessarily by design) per day, and I'm actually never really that hungry anymore.  More supplements, more wheat grass, working out a little more.  Still get a beer or two.  

I'm getting close to the three year "anniversary" of diagnosis (11/15/07).   The idea of staying here for a while is nice concept.

lee

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Band:  Tides

Album:  Resurface

Song:  By The Droves

02 By the Droves

I'm sitting here at Dave & Buster's, waiting to meet up with my co-worker, pounding Diet Coke because the Keppra is making me tired.  I know that is a chain restaurant, but shit, the music I'm listing is awful.  Bland, boring, redundant music, and it's making me even more frustrating because everything is completely mid tempo sterile dreck.  I think I just heard the Goo Goo Dolls.  

When I had the resection of the tumor, I lost of my hearing on the right.  I'm kinda wishing that my left side hearing is compromised, as well.

To purge, I put my earphones on, listening "I Against I".  That's going to be my next tattoo.

lee

I Against I

Headaches, seizures

What's new ...

Like I said before, I had a MRI a few weeks ago, and it was basically clean.  Of course, feeling pretty good about that.  I think that was the 8th or 9th in a row now.  

That was a Monday (6/21).  A couple days later, on a Friday morning, Dana and I were walking/running.  We had just started.  Crossing a street on Oak Knoll and Cordova, I slipped and fell.  I got scrapped on my knee, elbow and shoulder.  Dana looked at me, and even though I was feeling a little off, we kept walking.

Later that day, I was getting ready to get a rent-a-car for Vegas.  Originally, I just thought about flying there, but the cheapest flights were $300.  Scratched that. My buddy Mike and I left at 1:45pm or so.  By the time we got there, I was really tired, but once you get in a casino, they pump up the O2, I was no longer tired.  

My friend Tim was playing in the World Series of Poker for the whole weekend, and my the time I got there, Tim was one of the down 42 players left.   Tim, his brother, two cousins, and Mike and I started playing Pai-Gow.  I don't gamble, but Pai-Gow is poker for fun.  You can't really win a lot of money, but it also means that you can't really lose a lot, either.  So, I played a little bit.  Mike started playing with $40 and between him and I, as the surrogate, we ended with $220.  

By the time we were done, it's 6am, and Mike and I called it quits and went back to the suite.  Slept a couple hours (barely), then Tim rented a cabana at Rehab.  Sat there, watching the US/Ghana game, and just hanging out.  

At this point, I'm still feeling fine.  Around 3:30pm, realized that it was time to go.  We had the car until Sunday morning, but we knew that driving back to Vegas on a Sunday is less than fun.  

Got home that evening, and I'm getting a headache.  Ok, that makes sense.  I just needed to sleep.

On Sunday, return the car.  Headache is still there.  Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday ... the headache is getting worse.  Dana is thinking that I've a migraine, or concussion.  I also had a inner monologue on my right ear, a bunch of weird commercials about tires, ending up with "...you need to fix that tire because you need to get a MRI because you have another brain tumor or concussion ...".  So fucking weird.

I called Rudnick, and he said to take some Tylenol.  I do that.  I still have some Klonopin, an anti-anxienty med, so I take that as well. The headaches are still pounding, on the left front and middle part of the head.  On Thursday, I called Rudnick again, and he said that we'll do another MRI on Wednesday (7/7).  

At this point, I'm also still feeling "off".  Speech is screwy.  

A couple of days pass, and things start to normalize, but still, I had a couple more bad headaches.

The MRI finally comes on that Wednesday, and while there are still no signs of the tumor, I got a series seizures or seizure-like experiences.  Rudnick ordered a prescription for Keppra, an anti-seizure medication.  It's not the first time I'm had to take it; when I was diagnosed a couple of years ago, I took it for a while.  This time, Rudnick wants me to take this for 6 months.

Of all the medication I've had to take, Keppra is actually pretty easy.  Makes me tired a bit, but nothing else.  

Funny thing is, I no longer just get headaches anymore without it's something significant.  I get a headache from a tumor.  Or, a headache from a staph infection.  Or, a headache from a seizure.  

Side note:  My friend Lisa Lee emailed me and a bunch of others saying that her fiancee, Tony, dies this morning.  He was another GBM patient, and he had been in Hospice for a while.  For what it's worth, I never met nor talked to him, just Lisa, but we have had some good conversations about this.    

I'm sorry, Lisa and Tony.   

lee