Chemo Holiday

Me, my Dad and two brothers. Nice to all be together.

Chemo-holiday is what the medical professionals refer to the breaks a cancer patient receives between rounds of treatments.  The month of July has been my chemo-holiday. 

I had grand visions of feeling completely normal, back to my original self during this break.  However, the physical damage caused from the radiation, chemo and surgery has left me feeling a bit worse than I care to admit. I guess I am human after all. I do actually feel much better than I did last month, I just don't have all of my energy back yet.

I did have a great time during my chemo holiday.  The month started with my brother flying down for a few days.  We had a great visit with him and other family members. Thanks to my other brother and a friend of his I got to spend a day on the ocean fishing for cobia. I also had a couple of friends come in from out of town.  The three of us plus a local mutual friend had a great weekend, with the highlight being a day at the Salvador Dali museum.

Hanging with Christian, Dave and Jason at the Dali museum.

Next we visited Rhonda's family for a couple of days before heading to North Georgia to stay at the Second Wind Cancer Retreat.

The beautiful Second Wind Retreat cabin

Second Wind was the perfect closing to my "holiday". Earlier this summer when I received the news that I had cancer, we were forced to cancel our summer vacation plans.  Eventually Rhonda found the website for Second Wind. What a blessing!  This place is absolutely amazing.  Peacefully situated in the mountains of North Georgia. Located far enough away from everything to be completely still, quiet and beautiful, but close enough to several great little mountain towns if you need to see civilization.

Chilling on the front porch at Second Wind

We did some nice hikes where I pushed my body harder than I have since my surgery.  I was able to handle things pretty well, but definitely felt the fatigue.  Quite the humbling experience it was to have to struggle through a hike that I used to be able to do without breaking a sweat.  Unfortunately my son was unable to join us otherwise, the trip was perfect.

With the month coming to an end, I return back to my new "normal". Monday starts the first of three consecutive days of doctors’ appointments.  By the end of the week I will most likely be back on chemotherapy, but since I have learned to take things day by day, that is a story for another time.

Rhonda and Illiana on the bank of the Toccoa River

Diver Dan at Central Florida Hyperbaric

 

Brain cancer cells are nasty little beasts.  They drag themselves through the brain, like “Thing” from the Addams Family, looking for a nice oxygenated spot to hunker down and start growing a big fat tumor.  Unfortunately, as they slink around they create a web of cancer cells that wrap around the areas of the brain that you might find pertinent, like the ability to ask for a cold Guinness or recognize your kids when they bring you one.  The goal is to stop the little monsters from running crazy through your brain, because once they do, it is very hard to control them.  Want to throw some Temodar (chemo) at them? Go ahead!  They just smile and mutate!  How ‘bout some Avastin (another chemo)?  They just creep gleefully deeper into the brain! 

Dan in hyperbaric chamber

HOWEVER, there is one option that seems to help stop them...OXYGEN…LOTS AND LOTS OF RICH PURE OXYGEN!  Now you’re probably thinking, “Isn’t that exactly what the little grim reapers want?”  Why, yes it is…but the greedy oxygen addicts aren’t expecting the overdose that hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT) can cause.

 Inside a hyperbaric chamber, the body is exposed to air pressure up to three times higher than normal which means your lungs can gather up three times more pure oxygen than when you breath at normal air pressure.  All of this scurries through the brain giving the cancer cells massive amounts of oxygen which stops them from plundering through your grey matter looking for more.  Since the oxygen addicts are satisfied, they sit bloated and happy in one spot making it easier for the radiation and chemo to annihilate them.  

Super oxygen saturation also kills cancer cells in a second manner.  As stated above, they are addicted to oxygen BUT they are totally adapted to thriving in low oxygen environments.  When a brain cancer cell gets too much pure oxygen, because of its damaged mitochondria and adaptations to low oxygen, it basically has an oxygen overdose and dies.

Central Florida Hyperbaric

Interesting Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy facts:

1.     Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy (HBOT) is FDA approved for treating 14 conditions in the U.S.  Insurance will only cover the cost of HBOT for these 14 conditions.

2.     A single one-hour treatment at Central Florida Hyperbaric is $135.  The exact same treatment in a hospital would be between $1000-$2500 in the U.S.

3.     HBOT is approved for treating over 80 illnesses in numerous other countries.

4.     Pharmaceutical companies in the U.S. actively lobby against HBOT.

5.     Pharmaceutical companies in the U.S. are successful when they lobby against HBOT.

6.     See number one.