From: Bryn Chowchuvech
Kim recently finished the first round of his new chemotherapy regimen. The regimen calls for four weekly treatments of 5FU, leucovorin, and CPT-11 coupled with bimonthly infusions of Avastin, the newly-approved wonder drug considered to be one of the best of the new cancer treatments to emerge in the last few years. Kim’s oncologist had to pull some strings to get him the Avastin and thankfully he was successful in doing so.
A couple of weeks ago, Kim suffered a fall while getting off the scale at the hospital. X-rays show that he may have a small fracture in his pelvis as a result. Luckily, the area is not weight-bearing and it does seem to hinder Kim’s ability to walk, nor does it seem to cause him any pain.
Overall, Kim’s ability to walk has improved slightly over this last month. The numbness in his legs has all but disappeared. Ironically, while his legs have gotten considerably better, the compression fracture in his lower back has been getting worse and has become the primary limitation to his mobility. The muscles in his lower back get extremely fatigued from even short bouts of walking, as well as from prolonged periods of sitting upright. He now almost exclusively uses a wheelchair whenever he leaves the house, and usually just stays in bed while at home.
Needless to say, he’s been getting a *lot* of reading done lately. Some of his recent interests include Genghis Khan, John Lilly’s research, falconry, and cetaceans (especially dolphins). He’s working his way through practically an entire set of National Geographic since we found them for $.10 each at the local library. He has read well over 50 of them in this last month. He’s also been watching quite a few animal documentaries lately, as well. And he still watches the daily/nightly news so he can get riled and then later rant about Bush and his cronies.
Aside from his medical appointments, Kim has ventured outside of the house only a few times in the last month. A couple of days ago we went to see the movie about big-wave surfing called “Riding the Giants.” For some reason, although having never done it himself, Kim likes to watch surfing movies. He started with “Endless Summer” about a decade ago and has moved on to see many of the more recent ones, including “Billabong Odyssey,” “Step Into Liquid,” and now “Riding the Giants.”
Last week we drove over an hour to eat at a fancy steakhouse. Kobe beef, at up to $300/lb, is perhaps the most expensive and sought-after beef in the world. With daily anointments of sake, daily massages from their caretakers, and on tap beer in lieu of trough water, these cattle whose bodies are destined to become this coveted beef are treated like royalty until their slaughter. Purportedly, this treatment leads to meat that is unbelievably tender, marbleized, and “buttery.” Kim recently learned of an American version of Kobe beef (still given beer and from the same Wagyu stock of cattle, but less the daily massages and considerably cheaper) and a steakhouse nearby that serves it. After eating the steeply-priced steak, Kim simply described it as “good.”
Unfortunately, trips like these tend to take heavy tolls on Kim’s overall physical well-being since it’s so difficult for him to move around. He’s currently fighting an infection that he contracted sometime this week (undoubtedly from one of his forays out of the house) and he’s planning to limit any future outings solely to hospital visits.
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