Sid Bacon

I am happy to report that I am home; we got home around 3:30 this afternoon. It feels great to be home.   We are currently enjoying the Chicago-Miami game, so I’m going to keep this short.

We have the pain pretty much under control.  I can control it pretty well with methadone 3 times per day and dilaudid as needed.  I am very happy with this. 

I am dealing with a lack of appetite and nausea at times, although we have ways of dealing with that and I am confident we’ll get that under control as well.

Laura is here with us (at our house) watching the game. She spent essentially the entire day in the hospital, taking time off from work.  She wanted to ask questions of the medical staff and to just hang out.  What a great daughter!

Dan called us the past two days.  He is still a little jet-lagged, but has pretty much gotten on the right clock.  He had two good days at pre-school (work) but is glad that he only had a two-day workweek. It is good to have him and Liz back home.  We can’t wait to hear about their trip.

Thank you for all your support.  We need to ratchet up the fighting …. I know we can.

I’ll look forward to writing on Monday. 

It is warming up here in the Valley of the Sun … triple digits for several days in our long-range forecast (104 today), though only mid 90s by Saturday. Too bad, but it is certainly not unexpected.  It looks like it will be several months before I can wear my new Kansas Jayhawks letterman’s jacket, compliments of our friend Joel K.  It is a beautiful jacket, and a very generous gift.

We had a nice weekend.  Laura was at our house watching basketball games … great fun.  We also had a nice Mother’s Day, although Cathy had to contribute more effort than I would have liked for her special day.  Laura made a delicious brunch, and we were done in time for the 12:30 tip-off (well-planned). 

Cathy and I have gone on short walks the past three days.  The walks are always a great way for me to start my day. I’m walking rather slowly these days, however.  One of the reasons – I believe – is that the pain has generally shifted to my stomach and it tends to want to double me over. It isn’t painful when I’m just sitting around, but it hurts when I breathe deeply or get up to walk.  Weird.   Overall, however, my pain is pretty well kept under control with methadone and dilaudid. 

The biggest problem I have right now is appetite … I don’t have one.  I’m pushing food into my body, but it is a struggle.  Cathy is wonderful at finding or making things for me to eat. She is great.  We are doing pretty well, and I’m confident that we will get this under control sometime soon.  I worry, though, that I will have a very difficult time gaining weight.  I think my cancer is making weight gain a real challenge.

Dan is coming home next weekend!  It will be great to see him.  Cathy’s sister, Mary, is also coming to visit next weekend.  It will be fun to have them around.

Well, it is time for me to get back to my NIH progress report.  I sure wish I didn’t have to do this, but I do.  

Cathy and I appreciate your love and support.  We are very fortunate to have so many people who care so much about my health.  What a Team.  Team Bacon is working and fighting hard in this battle against the dreadful disease that is attacking my body.  We can’t thank you enough.

I want to thank those of you who offered to help me with my NIH progress report … so kind and generous.  I am happy to report, however, that I finished today at 11:00 AM (that made my day terrific).  I am very happy to have finished it so quickly.

It is, as predicted, a hot day in the desert.  But it wasn’t too bad this morning when Cathy and I went on our walk.  Cathy was so kind this morning; she went on a very short run (for her) so she would have time to walk with me before she had to go to work.

Piper called me this morning … my oncologist wanted a follow-up appointment with me.  I have an appointment with him tomorrow morning.  I think it is too early for him to have the results of the molecular profiling, although it would be great to have that information and to know what our plan of attack is going to be.

I lost a significant amount of weight (a good 5 pounds) while I was in the hospital.  I’m trying hard not to lose anymore, although it is a little hard not to when you don’t have an appetite.  Cathy is doing all she can do to make things that might taste good, but it is still a struggle … Nevertheless, I am optimistic that we’ll get past this bump in the road, and that I’ll be eating good portions of a regular diet sometime soon.  I just hope that I can avoid TPN in the meantime.  But it is good to have TPN as an option for getting good calories into my body. 

I am fortunate to have the great medical care that I am receiving (both at Piper and at Mayo), and to have such a wonderful group of supporters, collectively known as Team Bacon.  Both are critical to my care and general well being.  Thank you for the role you play.

I slept in late this morning, so it was pretty warm by the time Cathy and I went on our walk.  I may not do that again!  We didn’t go very far today because we were getting late for our appointment at Piper.  Also, I didn’t feel like walking too far.  I think I’ll walk farther tomorrow; it will be good to do that.  I need to stay in as good of shape as possible.

We met with my oncologist at 11:00 this morning.  They have the results of the tumor biopsy.  There seems to be no silver bullet for my tumor. But they do think it is worth trying a chemotherapy drug that I had in the fall. I had that drug along with several other drugs.  The other drugs made me sick, but we are hopeful that this one drug, when given alone, will not.  Indeed, it is known to have fewer side effects. I start my treatment tomorrow morning.  I’ll have this chemotherapy drug every other week.  My oncologist was not terribly optimistic that this would work, but he did feel it was worth trying.  He gave me the choice of trying this drug or stopping treatment all together.  I didn’t hesitate that I wanted to keep trying. I’m not done fighting.  We’ll continue with this drug as long as I don’t get too sick and decide to quit or as long as it is effective.  We’ll see.

I did ask him for his best-guess prognosis, as it seems we are starting to run out of treatment options.  He said months, not years, and estimated somewhere between 3-5 months. This is not great news, but not terribly unexpected either, given what we know about pancreatic cancer.  Only 4-5% make it two years after diagnosis of stage IV pancreatic cancer.  I’ll get close, and may in fact make it that far, depending on how effective the chemo drug is.  I’m sure going to try to make it that far, and even farther.

We have a formidable team, and Cathy and I are so appreciative of the love and support we have received from all of you.  We couldn’t be more pleased.  I feel so fortunate to have so many friends and family members who have showered me with love.  As I have said before, this is a blessing of having cancer … you have time to receive the outpouring of love and support from family and friends. Thank you Team Bacon!

Cathy and I went on a nice walk before coming to Piper for my 8:30 appointment.  We walked in the streets, rather than the desert, to be able to control better the time we used, as I wasn’t walking very fast and we only had so much time.

We are now at Piper. I am receiving fluids and then we’ll move to premeds (to ward off nausea) and then on to the chemotherapy drug. It will be good to have the chemotherapy drug in my system, fighting this nasty cancer.

Dan is coming home this weekend. I know he wants to be here as often as possible, and he does an excellent job at being here frequently.  We can’t wait to have him here.  Cathy’s sister, Mary, is also coming from San Luis Obispo, CA.  They will be in for a true shock with the weather, although it is supposed to dip from highs in the low 100s to highs in the low to mid 90s.  All of us living in the Phoenix area will appreciate the brief respite from the triple digits.

Cathy and I want to thank you for the many wonderful and uplifting posts to my guestbook yesterday.  It is so nice to have your support. Go Team Bacon!!