happy halloween

they still haven't found any infections, although they continue to watch very closely. still receiving alot of unique visitors, always very interesting. i remember one of the saddest days as a child was being sick on halloween, and not being able to trick or treat (or whatever it was we did in those days). here again, i'm locked up when i should be out celebrating halloween as adults do these days. oh well, another day in paradise. luv ya all!

10/30

the biopsy results from yesterday were mixed. typically day 21 is the standard, but he was looking for an infection in my marrow, so did one on day 14. a very small amount of leukemia cells were still present. we're hoping that the will disappear over the next 7 days. wish i had more, but running out of things to say

10/29

over 21 days already under lockdown. with probably 12 to go. hard to remain optimistic, staring at my unchanging prison walls. the great piece of news from yesterday is that my brother greg is a perfect stemcell match for the next stage of treatment. supposedly a transfusion from a close family member leads to to the highest success rates.


they sicken of the calm, who knew the storm. dp

10/28

sorry, trying to keep it rated pg. feeling okay. a little sore from the butcher of hyde park, but nothing i can't overcome. hope to get the results from the biospy wednesday. hoping for a clean slate. still not much hair on my pillow, keeping the faith. i'm getting a transfusion today to elevate my counts. other than that another day in paradise.lov ya all

P.O.F.

Jani, here.  Kurt's a LLPOF-liar, liar pants on fire.  It's a bit more eventful than Kurt mentioned.  The week's events included high fevers of 103-104 every day which leads/led to chest x-rays, CT scans, and ultrasounds.  They are trying to find an infection because his fever is high.  So I walk in this morning to half his fanny showing, and five doctors/nurses surrounding one doctor who was giving him a bone marrow biopsy in his hip (to see if they can identify an infection).  After it was all over, Mr. Blow-the-Dr.-Some-S--t Bodell says, "So was that your first bone marrow biopsy?" Her reply, "No!  I've done over 20." It took her three tries to get some marrow!! He was really pissed.  Next time give him the dr. who has conducted 300!  The tool they use looks like a wine bottle opener.  Not pretty.  He was extremely loopy for a couple hours. I was calling him lumpy, but today it was Loopy.

Last night I forced Kurt to walk the hall. I recall saying, "Get your ass out of that chair, we're going for a walk." His reply, "I'm not happy about this." My response, "Too bad."   Then we watched the Family Guy.  Stewy and Brian make me scream.   Laughter truly is the best medicine.  xxoo Nurse Ratched

10/27

sorry i haven't posted in a couple of days. the weekends around here are very quiet. no new news, just counting the days. still have my hair keeping fingers crossed. love ya all.

Bald men are sexy-post from Jani not Kurt!

Just to make a point, bald men can be very sexy--yes I am in my 40s, but my views have never changed on this point.  Look at Yule Brenner or Bruce Willis.  I'm sure Johnny Depp would look hot too if he was bald.  Greg, do you have anything to say regarding this point?

have a good weekend,

jani

10/24 6:30

got some news today. the earliest i will be released is 26 days from the 1st chemo, which would be around nov. 10th. that is later than i had origanlly anticipated. oh well. feeling decent, just resigned for a long stay. also was told that i still might lose my hair, as late as next week. love ya all.

10/24

i was able to get some sleep last night, inspite of the continual poking/ prodding. feel pretty good. still have my hair, and am counting the days down to when i'll be sent home. hopefully by next weekend.

10/23

a slightly less restful night. maybe i was just more sensitive to all the poking and prodding. starting on blood products today, to try and build my counts. one step closer to the checkers.
once again, thank you all

10/22

another uneventful 24 hours. i've been feeling pretty good since lunch on monday. hope i've made the turn. definitely watching over my shoulder for the other shoe to drop though. thinking maybe an omelet this morning.

it may be bedhead, but it's still here.

10/21

i don't want to jinx myself, but i'm starting to feel more normal. got up this morning and made the trek to dcam for a fried egg sandwich, and some real coffee. now that's the kurt everybody knows. staring out my 6th floor window overlooking garfield park.i can see the leaves beginning to turn. it's wild watching the geese work the lake. i don't think a couple gunshot reports would even raise an eye brow in this neighborhood.

10/20 update

finished the last of the iv chemo around 7:30 tonight. hallelujah! shortly after being unhooked, i took the first shower in over a week. felt great.

Post from Queen Bee

Hello everyone, it's Oct. 20th, and my host has been sleeping most of my visit! Hmm, the nerve. Move on over, your hogging the bed, I'm exhausted. Just kidding, Kurt. Anyways, friends thank you to all for your thoughts and prayers. If you have difficulty commenting here, send Kurt an email at the3car@msn.com. Fill him in on your latest. Did anyone get fired? Have a baby? Go on vacation? Get a DUI? Tell all.

We are doing okay on the homefront, David is in final rehearsals for A Streetcar Named Desire, and Maddy just finished the tennis team and is hangin' and shopping temporarily. As for me, the excitement continues with my manly duties, I brought my car in for service, disposed of a warm, dead bird, killed gigantic bugs in my home, dragged down the garbage and paid bills. However, my next creative adventure will be making jewelry and painting notecards at U of C. It makes the time fly.

Thanks Greg and Kristin for hanging out with Kurt so I can get some peace of mind.

Take care, jani (janibodell@gmail.com)

10/20

a good restful night. feeling pretty good this morning. supposedly days 8-10 are kinda rough, so hopefully by the end of the week i'll being feeling even better. when they disconnect the iv tonight i'll be able to take my first shower in a week. really looking forward that. so hope to post a picture of my handsome self later tonight. i am always asking dave who this quote is attributed to (dorothy parker) but it is one of my favorites and very appropriate now.


they sicken of the calm, who knew the storm

10/19

feeling pretty good right now, kinda ebbs and flows though. i get the 7th and last treatment tonight. almost home.

10/18

good news is i never saw thae soup again. nothing has really changed. just another tired day. my sister kristin is in town, so that definately brightened the day. today was the comer's children hospital walk. it is encourouging to hear about a bunch of young cancer survivers. if they can do it, so can this not quite middle aged man.

10/17

i went with the soup

10/17

starting feeling much better yesterday afternoon. was able to eat some food and didn't see it again. the question is, do you want have bowl of soup, so it comes back up painlessly? or something with more texture, which might be more difficult coming back, but not nearly as messy. just having thoughts like this confirms i've got a screw loose somewhere. i have a feeling the next several day are going to be more of this mundane crap. nothing to update, just moving toward the goal line. as always, keep the faith! love you all kurt

10/16

a little less comfortable last night. leaking from both ends. although i felt MUCH better after. last night was the last dose of the stronger drug. so, hopefully it'll be smooth from here on out. another thing is, today is 1/2 way through the treatment. all downhill from here (where going downhill is a good thing) once again , thanks to everyone for all the kind thoughts and prayers. we will survive!

10/15

my brother greg arrived from california today. very happy to see each other. the chemo regime they have me on is a one drug 24hrs a day for 7 days (this has very little side effects) the other one is 1 hr a day for 3 days. the side effects i've experienced from this one are flu like symtoms, fever, muscle soreness and fatique. i receive my last dose of this one tonight. hopefully i'll be feeling more normal by tomorrow afternoon.

A Post from Jani

Hello all. Thanks for reading Kurt's blog. Please keep him in the loop of you, your life, crazy stories about work/neighborhood--that will be a big help to brighten his day to the outside world. On the home front, Madeline (freshman) and David (junior) are hanging in there. They have a super group of friends, as they are friends with each other, so they have support. I am going to take them to the Wellness House which helps cancer patients families. As for all of you, thank you for supporting me. I love you friends. You make me laugh and help me cry--I am truly blessed. I know I can call any of you at any time. My car is on autopilot with T.I., Rihanna, Tragically Hip, Andrew Bird, Kanye West etc... on the ipod/radio, my veins are filled with coffee, Diet Mountain Dew and chocolate chip cookies (thanks Deb and Diane!!!). I'm trying to keep my head above water--taking a few minutes for walks/Pilates, laughing with my friends and sleep. Last night I went with my friend, Mari to see the author, David Sedaris at the Auditorium Theatre. He is my favorite author, who is hilarious. I laughed so hard my face hurt. Thank you, Kurt for the tickets.

Today is Tuesday, I think. Kurt started chemo late, last night. His mom was here in the a.m. I'm here this afternoon. He has been napping alot--baseball isn't even on the TV! (Is it still baseball season?). His brother, Greg is coming in town tonight; his sister is arriving on Friday. Come by and say hi--visitors are welcome, unless you have any suspicion of a cold or germs. He isn't allowed raw vegetables or fruit--if you all know Kurt, that's right up his alley. He usually says, "Yukopitewi." He can't have flowers or plants in the room.

That's it for now. XXOO Merci beau coup mi amigos,
jani

10/13 11:00 pm

i 've started down the road to recovery!

10/13

a very long, unproductive day. a couple more tests and a visit to the dentist. i did finally speak with "the team" and they did tell me that i have flt-3 chromozone mutation. around 45% of all aml is flt-3. they said there is an over 90% remission rate. also told me i should be connected very soon. supposedly i won't be feeling blue until 8-10 days out. i'm glad it's post season baseball because i'll be falling asleep to the dodgers again.

10/11-10/12

here i am on sunday. big day tomorrow

the hospital basiclly closes for the weekend, except for emergencies. so there was not much done to me medically. i had an unbelievable parade of visitors both sat. and sun. thank you very much to all who came. i appreciate everyone's well wishes and prayers very much. i was commenting how i was going to loose 20 pounds, and someone said i'd still be a fat f**k. now that's what friends are for. my last real meals before treatment included, johnnie's beef, alpine sub, aurelio's pizza and an omelet from lou mitchell's. fat and happy.

10/10

very busy day being bused around from test to test. one of the test today was a radiated sugar test. they inject a small amount of a radiated dye, which is attracted by any cancer cells in your body. it appears i only have 2 small abnormal nodes in my chest and the 2 in my throat. another piece of good news.

10/9

arrived at uc around 2:30 and was admitted. met with one of my oncolgist dr. odenke. she explained was to be expected. leukemia is a disease of the bone marrow. your bone marrow produces platlets, red and white blood cells. leukemia invades the marrow space and produces cancer cells instead of healthy blood cells. leukemia is typically diagnosed by very low blood counts. my blood counts are normal, meaning the leukimia has not completely overtaken my marrow spaces. this is one of many very encouraging things for me. another is my age. the typical leukemia patient is diagnosed at 65, so all the statistics you see don't truly relate to me. i am at the extreme end of the data pool. my age and health allows a extremely agressive treatment regime that older patients couldn't withstand. after meeting with dr. odenke, i had a bone marrow biopsy. these results will be ready monday morning.

10/8

jani and kurt's 20th wedding anniversary!

had a follow up appointment with dr. harper to review the excise biopsy. was told i didn't have lymphoma but acute myelogenous leukemia. we reviewed my blood work from my physical in april, and there were no signs of blast cells. this is very encouraging because the disease was not present 6 months ago. we reviewed basic expectations, but was told to wait for a call from the oncolgist, dr. mateson. went home and dr mateson called. he told me to come to the hospital the next day expecting to be admitted. i said i would bring a bag and expect to spend the night. he said to expect to spend the next 3-4 weeks in the hospital.

10/7

went in for the opening. sent home by my co-workers.

10/6

suffering from cabin fever, i went to work and was able to stay all day.

10/3-10/4

i was sent home. after several hours of waiting for my release, i drove myself home around 2:00pm. was able to drive my corvette and enjoy a nice weekend.

10/2

had the excise biopsy before lunch. went for a full torso mri as well. around 11 pm, sound asleep with all the lights off, a roommate comes in. they turn on every light followed by several doctors and 4 or 5 family members making an unbelivable amount of noise. they couldn't care that another patient was in the room. close to 2 am before all settled down and i was able to go to sleep.

10/1

very long day. after fasting from 8:00 pm the night before, it isn't until 12:30 before they inform me the procedure has been rescheduled for the next day. nothing else was done to me/ with me the rest of day. started fasting again after dinner to prepare for the next day. no roommate again.

9/30

parade after parade of doctors roll through my room. u of c being a teaching hospital, means they always travel in large packs. i am given a fine needle biopsy, where they remove a very small sample of the tumor to biopsy. the results come back confirming it is a tumor. with this knowledge, they schedule an excise biopsy. this is a surgical procedure where they remove one entire abnormal gland. they tell me to fast as this is scheduled for tomorrow. first night without a roommate, and i sleep pretty well.

9/29

i go to work with the intention of going to the doctor after the close, but with intervention from my co-workiers i leave for the hospital around 10:30. my general doctor is will harper at the university of chicago, and i had had a full physical in april, so i arrived at the u of c e.r. around 11. you have never seen people move faster than when you walk into an e.r. and say "i think i had a heart attack". surrounded by screaming babies and crying adults, i am immediately taken to an examination room. after being connected to an ekg and showing no signs of a heart attack, the extreme urgency exhibited just seconds ago is gone. i am moved to a stall in the back of the e.r. where, after quite sometime, a doctor begins examining me. in the course of the examination, trying to figure out my symptoms, i mention that i have a swollen gland in my throat. i have had water in my ear and the swollen gland for about 6 weeks. i thought it was an ear infection. after the doctor sees this, he orders a ct scan of my throat and some blood work. after he sees the results, he comes in, and tells me i have a malignant tumor in my throat. the blood work had shown that i had "blast cells" (inmature cancer cells) and the ct scan confirmed it was a tumor.
as i sit there, he says "do you understand the gravity of what i just told you." as i numbly shake my head, he tells me that i am being admitted. as the news sinks in, i call jani, and tell her that the good news is i didn't have a heart attack, but the bad news is i have lymphoma (the original diagnosis) and have been admitted. it turns out leukimia is misdiagnosed as lymphoma over 50% of the time. jani immediately packs me a bag and comes to the hospital. she arrives around 4, and we spend the next several hours waiting for a bed upstairs. it turns out to be 11:00 pm before i am given a bed in a non private room. very long night.

9/28

i have been experiencing back pain and shortness of breath. the back pain is much higher up than i have had in the past. the shortness of breath comes and goes, but is not related to excersion. i have been taking quite a bit of tylenol/ advil for the back pain. jani witnesses a bout of extreme heartburn ( the doctors later say the acid reflux was in response to all the tylenol/advil i had been taking). with the symptoms of shortness of breath, back/ chest pain, and heartburn, jani is sure that i am having a heart related issue. she is ready to call 911, but i convince her it is only heartburn, and i would go to the doctor the next day.