12 November 2009

He's Human... Again

I just got off the phone with Bad Dog who wanted to touch base with the outside world. Since he's in a strange world of isolation and is starting to feel more normal, he wanted to check in to make sure everyone else is doing alright.

He took the time to describe to me the weirdness that goes with undergoing such a violent chemical assault on the disease that is leukemia. The cocktail of drugs administered to him in double doses can sure take a toll on one's body and mind. It is commonly called "Red Devil" and it will kick your ass and make even the strongest beg for mercy. It kicked Bad Dog down too. Right now, he is without an immune system and is obviously and understandably quite a bit weak. However, the team of medical professionals have been hovering around him to make sure this chemo they have been pumping into him is not having too many adverse reactions.

There is a kidney doctor, a cardiologist, a pulmonary doctor, a blood doctor, an endocrinologist, an oncologist and more watching very closely his slow re-building of his immune system.

I asked him what he meant by "feeling human again" and he told me that the general feeling of hell has passed and that for the first time in weeks he's starting to have some normal functioning of everything else. In other words, specifically his words, he's not hurting.

This morning, on the air, he related to how the chemo therapy has affected the way foods taste. He related the experience of having a bit of breakfast yesterday consisting of toast, scrambled eggs and a bit of bacon tasting like paper mache. He decided that butter was not necessary since there was a simple fear that it would taste of wallpaper paste. The bottom line is he is eating.

His spirits remain high and despite the planned and executed crushing blow to his system to get this disease, he is feeling just a bit stronger everyday. These are all real good signs.

When I asked him about blood counts, he said there is nothing to count and in fact, at that moment we were talking, they were giving him some fresh blood. So, all in all, he's feeling... well, human again. Which is the ultimate goal. Judging from the way he was talking a bit ago, I would actually call it Superhuman.

Herculean fortitude aside, I think we can all expect things to go as the professionals have planned out. A couple of weeks of isolated recovery, another round of chemo (this one being significantly lighter than the first), a bit of recovery and then it's out of the hospital. That is not so much optimism speaking as it is the plain facts as they are... so far.

In the meantime, continue to say your prayers and think positive thoughts that this too, like all other things, shall pass.

Stay Tuned...

01 November 2009

Bad Dog

So the days of what we used to call "slow news days" are behind for the moment as are the days of setting this blog in a comfortable archive mode. Between Twitter and here, I'll do my best to keep you all abreast of Bad Dog's current situation as time allows. Your patience is greatly appreciated.

Patience being the key as all of a sudden your life goes from "just another day" to "Oh my God, now what?" If you are just tuning in, here's the deal. Bad Dog has been diagnosed with Acute Myelogenous Leukemia. Or AML as it is known in these circles.

Like you, I freaked out on the news of this. Then I settled down and began to absorb all that I could about the condition and the specific situation we are looking at.

The nuts and bolts of this disease are quite simply stated as "cancer". Scary, ain't it? At first it certainly seems that way, but in reality, the scary part is getting passed the the third word of the disease, leukemia.

In the past 20 years or so, there have been astounding advances in treating and beating this thing. So that is on our side. So is the simple fact that it has been determined Bad Dog has not had this for very long. A few weeks, to be as precise as possible. So that is on our side too. Add to that his amazingly upbeat state of mind and continued sense of humor and it looks now that we have a very positive situation on our hands.

Just today, the doctors put him into isolation. This is simply a way of preventing the outside world with all of it's illnesses from catching him with his immune system down. This is good, this means that so far, the chemo protocol he is on is working in the right direction. This coming Friday should be the last of the initial chemo and the hardest part of fighting this thing will be behind him. A few weeks of recovery and the next thing you know, he's back on the air with yours truly.

No doubt there will be some minor changes to this routine as we go along and understandably these changes are expected. Everyone being different in the eyes of a cancer patient.

Long story short, Bad Dog is expected to be back in true form, on the air and ready to come back full time around the 2nd week of December. What a great holiday gift that will be for all of us. In the meantime, it will be business as usual (as best as I can pull it off) around the radio station, on and off the air and I will give short bursts of updates as they come in from my Twitter. The link is on the right of your screen. When I can elaborate, I will do it here and on the air.

Rock 103 (link also on the right) has a place to post good will messages and the likes to him since he has access to a laptop and he can read your messages. Otherwise, should anyone have any questions you can contact me directly through this blog or my email through the station.

He's counting on your support and he knows you all are there and I for one, am most confident that he will be back sooner than you know and in full form ready to get back into the game.

Thanks for all your continued support, your thoughts and prayers and we'll be around. Until then...

Stay Tuned....