I told Rick that I’d love it if he would do a guest post from time to time to talk about what he is going through with the Cancer.
The following is an email that Rick sent out to his family and I am sharing it with all of you.*
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Well today was my first day of Chemo. It went well. They wound up taking several blood samples for testing. I guess they do that every week. Send the result out to some pharmacist and he or she figures out the chemo mixture for the week, emails it back to the staff at Marshfield and they whip it up right there on the spot. Today it was several bags of saline solution and the “fix”, a drug called “cisplatin.” It targets fast dividing cells such as cancer and causes them to die. I had one big bag of that put in me. It is like you see at the hospital a lot, metal holder on wheels that they hook the bags to and from there it is kind of a gravity feed down into your body.
The cisplatin, and the saline solution, were both put into that Port they put in for me last week. The cisplatin was “warm” at some points while they were putting it in, but otherwise went pretty well. Apparently the body takes these liquids, that are injected into a vein, and very rapidly route them through to the bladder, I think I had to go to the bathroom at least twice during this. Probably three times though. And by 1:00 pm they were all done. I do not feel horrible. I was told it can get horrible, nauseating… sick vomit, etc. but so far today I am fine. Sandy ran in to the pharmacy to get my additional meds. When she gets back I am gonna go to work. 33 more trips to Rice Lake and I will hopefully have kicked this SOB out of my system. Oh I found out the name of this cancer: Squamous Cell Carcinoma/Tonsillar.
Sandy showed me comments on a facebook page today by many of your children, our friends, and my children. I want to say thank you so very much. Sandy if you would copy and paste this email onto your facebook page, I would like to thank everyone for their thoughts and prayers. The journey begins with the first step. Today we officially have taken that first step. In 6-7-8 weeks I want this to be in the rear view mirror, got other things to do. Thank you all very much (Miigwech), gigawabimin, (see you later)
Rick
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Oh, and this is Oz. He was there for moral support. Support comes in many shapes and sizes.
And apparently fur. Lots of fur.
*Minimal editing for stupid shit like punctuation.