Another Round

Well, bad news: another round of chemo; good news: it's Christmas time at the hospital - snowman, poinsettias, and holiday scrubs. Aaron went in to see the doctor on Monday and ended up having to stay for his fourth cycle of chemo. The CT scan showed that he still has a tumor that is about 4 cm long, but it is still shrinking. To make sure that there is nothing still living inside it that could reproduce more cancer cells, Aaron will be doing one more cycle consisting of the five 4-hour days and two quick treatments on the following two Mondays. In a couple of months, the doctor may choose to do surgery up at OHSU to remove anything that might be remaining. He sounded pretty confident that Aaron would have to do the surgery, but you never know, so keep praying!

CT Scan

Aaron had his CT Scan yesterday. It went fine, but unfortunately we won't know anything until Monday. He's scheduled to start his fourth cycle on Monday, but he will visit the doctor first to see the results. So it may just be a doctors visit and no chemo, which would be great. I think Aaron is ready for it either way - a little more Chemo wouldn't hurt to beat that dang cancer to the ground. And if he goes in assuming he has to go in for the chemotherapy and the doctor tells him that he doesn't need to, it will be like a really awesome early Christmas present !

Have a great Thanksgiving! And like you all know, we are very thankful for you!

Well, I've been pretty terrible at keeping everyone updated, so here's the latest...

Today, Aaron had pulmonary function tests. His lungs have been monitored because the Bleomycin (one of the chemotherapy drugs) can cause some changes to lung tissue. The tests showed that his lungs aren't putting oxygen in and removing carbon dioxide from his bloodstream as efficiently as it was before, but he's still within a good range. It's a good thing he initially tested way above normal. Aaron's last test showed him in the 118th percentile - no wonder that kid could run so fast. Now, he is in the 85th. His blood work looked good. His white blood count was a little lower, but still decent. Great news is that his alpha-fetoprotein and human chorionic gonadotropin (hcg) levels are in normal range. These numbers often increase with the amount of cancer that is present, but do not necessarily mean that there is or isn't cancer in the body.

On Monday, Aaron goes in for the last treatment of the third cycle. The doctor has scheduled him for his fourth cycle of chemo to start the first week of December, which would give him a nice week off to enjoy a big Thanksgiving dinner. However, he has a CT scan on November 25th and if everything looks good, the fourth cycle will be canceled! How exciting would that be?!?!

Poker Fundraiser

Man, what a turn-out, huh!?! You guys are amazing. I don't know how we are ever going to thank you enough. I just hope that each and every one of you know how much you are appreciated.

I also wanted to let you all know that over SIX THOUSAND dollars was raised that night! That is going to be so helpful.

Aaron told me that he mostly enjoyed the great conversations that he had with everyone. Knowing that so many people were praying for him and supporting him is very comforting. Again, we do not know how we will ever thank you all enough.

If anyone has any stories, I hope you share. I also hope that you share any pictures that you might have. If you are able to, it would be great if you could e-mail them to abuckendorf85@gmail.com.

I guess it's time to shave it...

Aaron frantically looking for a hat.

McKenna and Uncle Aaron

What's that McKenna??

Congratulations Jake!

Week 2

Aaron has just about made it through another week and seems to be doing pretty good. It was nice that he didn't have to go in every day this week to receive treatment. Even though he only had to go in one day, it wasn't until, I believe, Thursday that he was able to kick the nausea. However, even without the nausea, he has been so weak that he still hasn't been able to do much. Just the littlest activity makes his muscles start to shake from fatigue. The other day he took the dog for a short walk around the park. He learned that it wasn't an exaggeration that every ten feet would feel like another mile. It was a good thing that he drove there; otherwise, I don't know that he would have made it back. Besides the lack of energy and physical strength, he's noticed that his mouth has gotten pretty sore and he's not sleeping too well. Last night, he didn't even fall asleep until four o' clock.

On Monday, he'll go in again for another lab, visit with the doctor, and to receive the Bleomycin. Then it is no more appointments (hopefully) until the next week, which is the start of Cycle 2 - that's one cycle down!

Today's Appointment

Aaron had an appointment this afternoon for a short treatment, which ended up being about three hours. When we got there, they had his blood drawn and then he met with Dr. Pierce. Aaron had lost quite a bit of weight since the last appointment, but we were happy to hear that Aaron's blood count was great. Aaron was also happy to find out that he's really not a wuss and the doctor expected the first week to really suck. Aaron had read otherwise, but apparently this treatment does hit you the first week. So far, he's had nausea, fatigue, a nickle-taste in his mouth, dry skin, and now his scalp was starting to hurt. He's also having a weird appetite and doesn't know what to eat; so far, he's wanted boysenberry yogurt and broccoli and saying no to Brown Cow and Chocolate Peanut Butter ice cream!

After he chatted a bit with the doctor, he headed to the room of lounge chairs with the other patients to receive his treatment. We knew that he would be getting the Bleomycin, which wouldn't take long, but they decided to also give him extra fluids to give him energy and keep him from being dehydrated and extra anti-nausea medicine since he was feeling sick. He was feeling good about halfway through, but by the time he was done, I don't think he was looking too forward to the car ride home.

Walk to Keizer Rapids Park

Saturday, Aaron felt good enough to walk down to Keizer Rapids Park. We went slow, but it was quite the walk. Come Sunday, he was thinking that he maybe overdid it.

From the Beginning...

Visit with Dr. Eikrem

Monday, August 18, 2008

Aaron finally went in for a check-up. I have been begging that guy to go see the doctor for years now, but he is just too stubborn. Lately, he has had increasing pain in his testicle and abdomen and he has had a cough since the beginning of the year. I guess he had enough of the pain and decided to make that dreaded phone call to see the doctor.

The doctor told Aaron that the pain was probably just an infection and not to worry too much. Dr. Eikrem decided to schedule Aaron for an ultrasound anyway to rule out the possibility that it could be a tumor. Right before Aaron was leaving the office, the doctor asked him if he had known a kid about his age. "He had testicular cancer and he's doing perfectly fine now," Dr. Eikrem said. Was that suppose to be some kind of assurance? I thought that it was most likely an infection, not cancer - what is he not telling us?


Ultrasound Results

Tuesday, August 26, 2008

Aaron talked with the doctor and found out that the ultrasound was inconclusive. Dr. Eikrem had thought that the tumor was not attached to the testicle, but the ultrasound showed otherwise. Dr. Eikrem asked Aaron to get some blood work done. He was also going to refer him to an urologist this week who will take a look at the tumor to see if it needs to be taken out and biopsied. At this point, Aaron's main concern: "Great, that’s all I want is more men with their hands down my pants!"


Aaron's New Toy

Wednesday, August 27, 2008

I gave in; Aaron finally got a new gun, which he's been asking if he could get for several months now. I think I felt sorry for the poor guy since there is going to be a little more privacy invasion to come. However, I did draw the line when he asked if it could sleep on the bed with us.


Canceled Appointment

Thursday, August 28, 2008

The appointment with the urologist was scheduled right away and Aaron was going to be going in today. However, right before the appointment, the doctor's office called and canceled the appointment. Dr. Eikrem was upset. He wasn't aware that they had canceled and moved the original appointment to the 8th. He called over to the urology office to let them know that he was not happy with them and rescheduled Aaron to go in on the 3rd. It kind of made us a little nervous that the doctor wanted to move so quickly. Is this more serious than we think?


Blood Results

I'm not sure when Aaron received the call, but Dr. Eikrem had the blood results. He said that Aaron's tumor markers were quite high, but they weren't the highest he's ever seen - that's real comforting.


The Weekend

This weekend we went to Detroit Lake to go camping with the family. Aaron debated whether or not he should tell his family what he's learned so far. He didn't know if he should worry them quite yet. For all we knew, the tumor could still be benign. However, I think Aaron was pretty confident of what the results would end up being as the pain was getting worse and it now was moving to his hip. He had little energy and his cough was not getting any better. Every symptom had lined up exactly with what he had read up about on testicular cancer. He considered telling them until we found out that our four-year-old cousin, who has been battling cancer since birth, was fighting for his life. Maybe it was better not to add to the stress. There was no reason to worry anyone if we did not have clear results. Aaron decided to wait to tell them until the tumor would be biopsied.


First Visit with Dr. Elmgren

Wednesday, September 3rd, 2008

Aaron went in for his first appointment with Dr. Elmgren, the urologist. He said that the cancer had spread and he had a large mass in his stomach. After Aaron came out from visiting with the doctor, we had to wait to be called back in to speak with a nurse about tomorrow's schedule; tomorrow, he would undergo surgery to remove the tumor. Before, we could leave the hospital we had to do a little more running around so that Aaron could get an x-ray taken of his chest and another sample of his blood. They sure work fast. Tomorrow, we would be back at the hospital at 9:15 am for Aaron to be admitted for his operation.

That night, I was gone at school until 10:15 pm. Aaron decided that maybe it was about time to tell the family, so he went over to Jake and Leslie's and he met his parents there as well. He let them know that tomorrow he would have the surgery to remove the tumor. He didn't want anyone to make a big deal out of it, so he told everyone that there was no need to come. It was a simple procedure, but he assured them that he would call if he needed anything. He didn't even want me, his wife, to stay. He thought I could drop him off, go to work, and pick him up when he was all through - right.


The Surgery

Thursday, September 4, 2008

Admission was at 9:15 am. When we got there, Aaron received yet some more paperwork to fill out. He took it into the waiting room where we stayed until the nurse called him back. After a while, the nurse let me go back to see Aaron until it was time for his operation. After sitting a while with Aaron, Jake (Aaron's brother) showed up. Although I know Aaron didn't want anyone to be concerned, I was kind of relieved. It was going to be a long day if I didn't have any company.

Soon, the anesthesiologist came by and said she was going to slip Aaron a "Mickey." She explained that it was kind of like a liquid Valium and it should hit him fast - similar to drinking a lot of beer on an empty stomach. In a matter of seconds, Aaron agreed and was looking pretty relaxed. He didn't have a care in the world that they were wheeling him off to surgery. The nurse told me that the doctor would come talk with me around 12:20 pm, so I should make sure that I'm around. I wasn't going anywhere; I was going to stay in that waiting room until I knew that Aaron woke up and everything was fine.

The day is kind of a blur, but I do know that it seemed long as no one came out to see me, what felt like, forever. By that time, the whole family was almost there. Finally, the doctor was ready to talk with me. At that point, despite what Aaron thought, I was happy the whole family was there so I would not have to repeat any news that the doctor would tell me. Later, he too would recognize how fortunate he is to have so much support.

Dr. Elmgren first informed us that the operation went great, but this would only be the beginning. He explained that the cancer was well-advanced. By a physical exam, he could tell that there was a large mass in Aaron's stomach and the x-ray taken yesterday showed that he had three lesions on his chest with the largest being 5.5 cm. Although there was no scientific proof without the biopsy results, the doctor was pretty confident that it was a nonseminomatous germ cell tumor, which meant that it metastasizes quickly and is more difficult to treat. He correlated the situation to Lance Armstrong's diagnosis, although we wouldn't know if it had spread to the brain until Aaron had a MRI.

It all hit at once while the doctor was talking with us. It was one thing to have Aaron keep saying that he knew that he had cancer, but to have the doctor confirm it was another. I had to keep telling myself what Aaron had reminded me of: Whatever happens is a part of God's plan and He does not make mistakes.


CT Scan

Monday, September 8, 2008

Aaron had an appointment at Salem Radiology to get a CT Scan done on his abdominal and pelvic area. What we thought was a quick in-and-out appointment ended up taking at least a couple of hours. The CT Scan itself only took about 15 - 20 minutes, but when we got there we learned that Aaron would be drinking juice for an hour. He had four cups of Crystal Light each with a different chemical that help things show up in the scan. He had to drink one cup every fifteen minutes and once he was done, he had an IV of some other fluid that helps with the contrast. We still have not seen these pictures.


Dr. Pierce

Tuesday, September 9, 2008

Aaron got a phone call in the middle of the day from the oncology office. They wanted to know if he would be able to come in today to see Dr. Pierce. Aaron didn' t know what the appointment was for or who Dr. Pierce even was, so I looked him up. His named popped up on an internet search as a Salem, Oregon oncologist. It appeared that he will be Aaron's doctor for chemotherapy. We went in at 4:45 pm to what ended up being a very brief 5 - 10 minute consultation. He was ready to start Aaron right away on Monday with the chemotherapy treatment. He asked if we were interested in children and we were. If we wanted to do the sperm freezing, we would have to put the treatment off until the following Monday. Scheduling closed at 5:00 pm, so they would be calling with the treatment schedule. The treatment would consist of at least three cycles. Each cycle is three weeks long: Monday - Friday he will go in for four hour treatments and the following two weeks he would only go in on each Monday for approximately 40 minutes. The doctor then mentioned that most likely at this point, Aaron likely wasn't fertile anyways. On the way home, we decided if that was the case, we should just get the treatment started and not worry about the banking. However, when the office called, they had went ahead and scheduled Aaron with the week off to provide time to go up to Portland to the fertility clinic.


Post-Op Appointment

Thursday, September 11, 2008

Aaron had his post-op appointment with Dr. Elmgren. We both really like him, so it was nice to see him again. He took some of the stitches out from the surgery and then asked if we had any questions about the chemotherapy. We both had read up some much on the topic that we didn't know what we didn't know, so we figured the rest would come from experience. He asked when Aaron would be starting and once he found out it wouldn't be until September 22nd, he wanted to know why Dr. Pierce was waiting so long. When we told him that we had considered sperm banking, but changed our minds, he highly suggested that we rethink our decision. He would hate for us to lose our chance to have a little Aaron and Amanda running around. He said he knew that it wasn't our top priority right now, but later he wouldn't want us to regret our decision, so he advised Aaron to get a sperm analysis done. Let me tell you - what a day that turned out to be! We got that business taken care of and the doctor called a few days later with the results. It ended up that we would not have to make that trip to Portland after all.


MRI

Friday, September 12, 2008

Today Aaron went back to Salem Radiology for a MRI of his head. I was a little nervous for him to have to lay still for so long because his leg had really been bothering him, but he got through it.

Wednesday, September 17

Aaron received a phone call and shared with everyone some great news:

"Hello Everyone!! Just sending out a mass e-mail so everyone knows the latest and I don't have to repeat myself too much (yes Dad, Dick and Ray I will probably have to tell you again after you read this, you guys should maybe look in to an MRI ha ha). I got the call from the Dr. and he said the MRI was clean so it showed no tumors on my brain. So I will eagerly be awaiting Amanda's diagnosis of why I can't listen, pay attention and can't retain any information that does not pertain to sports, history, trivia, guns or how the Left is running this country into the ground . Thanks for all of the support you guys have given us, it is very much appreciated!! -Aaron"


First Week of Chemo


Aaron's hangin' in there, but the dog on the other hand....