(Lookin’ good, Laura! Nice to see the hair finally coming back!)
CagePotato HQ received some incredible news yesterday from our dear friend Laura “angrylittlefeet” Nicholson — who you’ve supported with your cash and kind words during her treatment for Hodgkins Lymphoma this year. Check out the update she sent us (after a celebratory margarita), and show her some love on twitter and Facebook!
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Hey there my fellow Taters! Many of you have been with me throughout my fight against cancer so I wanted to share the news with you all…
ALF defeats Hodgkins Lymphoma via KTFO rd 3!
I had a PET scan on Tuesday and just got results back and it was good as it could be. All my nodes are fine now and all internal organs are back to normal — no more swelling is present. Just some scar tissue from the lung surgery but that’s to be expected. Now I just go back in 4 months for a follow up scan and if all is still well they cut me loose except for semi annual checkups.
Many thanks to everybody who supported me during this ordeal!
ALF
(Lookin’ good, Laura! Nice to see the hair finally coming back!)
CagePotato HQ received some incredible news yesterday from our dear friend Laura “angrylittlefeet” Nicholson — who you’ve supported with your cash and kind words during her treatment for Hodgkins Lymphoma this year. Check out the update she sent us (after a celebratory margarita), and show her some love on twitter and Facebook!
********
Hey there my fellow Taters! Many of you have been with me throughout my fight against cancer so I wanted to share the news with you all…
ALF defeats Hodgkins Lymphoma via KTFO rd 3!
I had a PET scan on Tuesday and just got results back and it was good as it could be. All my nodes are fine now and all internal organs are back to normal — no more swelling is present. Just some scar tissue from the lung surgery but that’s to be expected. Now I just go back in 4 months for a follow up scan and if all is still well they cut me loose except for semi annual checkups.
Many thanks to everybody who supported me during this ordeal!
Our fundraising drive officially ends this Sunday, so if you haven’t donated already, please visit our Indiegogo page and do so! Every little bit will cover some of Laura’s medical expenses, and help bring a smile to her face. And that, my friends, is priceless. Thanks again, and read on for the final installment of angrylittlefeet‘s Fight for ALF blog. -BG
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Can you believe it, ‘Taters? As I write this there are only four days left in our Fight for Alf campaign. Time flies. Whether you’re having fun or not, apparently.
Anyway this will most likely be my last update. Therefore I want to say a huge Thank You one last time to every single one of you who were able to donate a little something and also to everybody who has been behind me this whole time with kindness and words of encouragement. (The haters and the spammers can eat a bag of dicks.)
Everybody knows that cancer sucks. Bad. It completely changes your life whether you like it or not. That being the case, I have decided to end this last update with some positive things that have come from this situation.
* The ‘ice cream rx’. I can’t seem to keep my weight above 95lbs. Therefore I have been given carte blanche to eat whatever I want whenever I want. I love ice cream and chocolate and treats. And soft pretzels at 2 in the morning. This most definitely does not suck.
* My day starts when I goddam well feel like it. When I was able to work I was up every day promptly at 5 am. No longer getting paid…That shit ain’t happening. It brings great joy to look at the clock around 8am, tell said clock to go fuck itself, roll over and go back to sleep.
Our fundraising drive officially ends this Sunday, so if you haven’t donated already, please visit our Indiegogo page and do so! Every little bit will cover some of Laura’s medical expenses, and help bring a smile to her face. And that, my friends, is priceless. Thanks again, and read on for the final installment of angrylittlefeet‘s Fight for ALF blog. -BG
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Can you believe it, ‘Taters? As I write this there are only four days left in our Fight for Alf campaign. Time flies. Whether you’re having fun or not, apparently.
Anyway this will most likely be my last update. Therefore I want to say a huge Thank You one last time to every single one of you who were able to donate a little something and also to everybody who has been behind me this whole time with kindness and words of encouragement. (The haters and the spammers can eat a bag of dicks.)
Everybody knows that cancer sucks. Bad. It completely changes your life whether you like it or not. That being the case, I have decided to end this last update with some positive things that have come from this situation.
* The ‘ice cream rx’. I can’t seem to keep my weight above 95lbs. Therefore I have been given carte blanche to eat whatever I want whenever I want. I love ice cream and chocolate and treats. And soft pretzels at 2 in the morning. This most definitely does not suck.
* My day starts when I goddam well feel like it. When I was able to work I was up every day promptly at 5 am. No longer getting paid…That shit ain’t happening. It brings great joy to look at the clock around 8am, tell said clock to go fuck itself, roll over and go back to sleep.
*Plenty of time to read now. Each chemo session lasts about 6 hours. The first mixture of it they put in some nice ativan which induces nappy time. But the next mixture is where they add in my steroids which seem to wake me up so I still have 5 hours or so to read. So yeah — guess I couldn’t pass any piss tests these days.
*Also plenty of time to catch up on TV shows. Working my way thru The Wire still. Next is The Sopranos. If anybody has any good suggestions for after that I’d love to hear them. No porn please you fuckin savages.
* Yeah – I’m that asshole who has way too much time to lurk on Twitter
There are other positive things too – but I’ve probably already crossed over into TL;DR territory for some of you.
Thanks again to you all. It’s been real fun writing these for you guys. Well, that and it’s not like I had a whole lot of anything better to do
Sup Taters? It’s me again with another update. Since I last wrote something to you guys I’ve had my next chemo. Yes the hair is gone. No…I cannot talk about that. I fucking look like Yoda. Enough said.
The shot from the day after chemo, Neulasta, was one mean bitch. I’ve been hobbling around all this week like an old dog with bad hips and arthritis. But…that bitch of a shot did its job! Its purpose was to help my bone marrow produce the white blood cells that I need to fight the disease. I was back to the hospital Monday and my blood work came back all good! That means that for the very first time since treatment started — my white blood cells are holding their own! No transfusion needed this time! I still have a long road ahead but this is a very encouraging sign.
On a crappier note — now my goddam eyelashes are falling out. You know how annoying it is when an eyelash falls out and you need to dig it out of your eye? Now imagine that 10 or more times a day. What a freakin pain in my ass. Of course you know the hair on my legs continues to need to be shaved. Some shit just ain’t fair at all.
Have a good weekend my Taters. I have no Dr. appointments till next week, so I plan to as well.
Alf
PS: If anybody wants to buy me a beer…I’m allowed to have one or two again now 😉
Sup Taters? It’s me again with another update. Since I last wrote something to you guys I’ve had my next chemo. Yes the hair is gone. No…I cannot talk about that. I fucking look like Yoda. Enough said.
The shot from the day after chemo, Neulasta, was one mean bitch. I’ve been hobbling around all this week like an old dog with bad hips and arthritis. But…that bitch of a shot did its job! Its purpose was to help my bone marrow produce the white blood cells that I need to fight the disease. I was back to the hospital Monday and my blood work came back all good! That means that for the very first time since treatment started — my white blood cells are holding their own! No transfusion needed this time! I still have a long road ahead but this is a very encouraging sign.
On a crappier note — now my goddam eyelashes are falling out. You know how annoying it is when an eyelash falls out and you need to dig it out of your eye? Now imagine that 10 or more times a day. What a freakin pain in my ass. Of course you know the hair on my legs continues to need to be shaved. Some shit just ain’t fair at all.
Have a good weekend my Taters. I have no Dr. appointments till next week, so I plan to as well.
Alf
PS: If anybody wants to buy me a beer…I’m allowed to have one or two again now
Happy 4th of July, Potato Nation! Before you fire up the grill and start tossing around the bang snaps, please read the latest update from our dear friend Laura “angrylittlefeet” Nicholson, who is resting up before her next round of operations and chemo next week. Yeah, it’s a bummer, but that’s life. We’re proud as hell of our girl for hanging tough, under the circumstances. If you haven’t already, please kick in a few bucks to our “Fight for ALF” fundraising drive to help cover Laura’s medical expenses, and send her some love on twitter. Thanks a million, and enjoy the day.
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This week’s Alf update brought to you by Hodgkins Lymphoma……. Still NOT recommended as a diet aid.
Hi Taters! Alf here. Finally have a day between hospital visits to sit down and relax. And eat. At my last visit my Doc said I had lost entirely too much weight (I blame hospital food and boredom) and my job is to put some back on by any means necessary. Fast. Next operation is Monday, next chemo is Tuesday. He even went so far as to say he wants me eating cake and ice cream. Wait — Really? So now I have kind of a dr’s rx for cake & ice cream. Sweet! Now I just need my backwards-ass state to get on the medical weed bandwagon…..
Monday’s procedure is to have my chemo port installed. Somehow I don’t think a body was ever meant to have anything “installed” but what the hell do I know? Also they will remove this god-forsaken PICC line that has been driving my nuts and dangling from my arm since forever it seems. Oh I do hope I won’t need to be awake for all this festivity but I probably will. They seem to be pretty stingy with the sleepy time drugs.
They tell me that the second chemo is when the hair starts to go if it’s going to. Shit. shitshitshitshitfuckshitshit. Really, really bad girl-trauma on the horizon.
That’s it at this point. Just looking to get through next week and then go from there. One fucking thing at a time.
Hope you all have a great 4th of July. Have a beer for me and try not to blow off any goddam limbs or digits.
Alf
XO
Check out previous “Fight for ALF” updates right here.
Happy 4th of July, Potato Nation! Before you fire up the grill and start tossing around the bang snaps, please read the latest update from our dear friend Laura “angrylittlefeet” Nicholson, who is resting up before her next round of operations and chemo next week. Yeah, it’s a bummer, but that’s life. We’re proud as hell of our girl for hanging tough, under the circumstances. If you haven’t already, please kick in a few bucks to our “Fight for ALF” fundraising drive to help cover Laura’s medical expenses, and send her some love on twitter. Thanks a million, and enjoy the day.
**********
This week’s Alf update brought to you by Hodgkins Lymphoma……. Still NOT recommended as a diet aid.
Hi Taters! Alf here. Finally have a day between hospital visits to sit down and relax. And eat. At my last visit my Doc said I had lost entirely too much weight (I blame hospital food and boredom) and my job is to put some back on by any means necessary. Fast. Next operation is Monday, next chemo is Tuesday. He even went so far as to say he wants me eating cake and ice cream. Wait — Really? So now I have kind of a dr’s rx for cake & ice cream. Sweet! Now I just need my backwards-ass state to get on the medical weed bandwagon…..
Monday’s procedure is to have my chemo port installed. Somehow I don’t think a body was ever meant to have anything “installed” but what the hell do I know? Also they will remove this god-forsaken PICC line that has been driving my nuts and dangling from my arm since forever it seems. Oh I do hope I won’t need to be awake for all this festivity but I probably will. They seem to be pretty stingy with the sleepy time drugs.
They tell me that the second chemo is when the hair starts to go if it’s going to. Shit. shitshitshitshitfuckshitshit. Really, really bad girl-trauma on the horizon.
That’s it at this point. Just looking to get through next week and then go from there. One fucking thing at a time.
Hope you all have a great 4th of July. Have a beer for me and try not to blow off any goddam limbs or digits.
Alf
XO
Check out previous “Fight for ALF” updates right here.
Alf here with an update on the fun ride that the past week or so has been.
First off, the PET scan was no big deal after all. They just shoot me up with some radioactive crap and then stick me in a dark room for about an hour while this works its way thru my system. From there it’s into a big ole scanner that makes some noise & moves around but is really pretty comfy. Again they say don’t move. So…sounds like two medically prescribed naps to me. I can handle this. Pretty much same deal with the CAT scan. Just waiting around for the radioactive stuff to work it’s way thru. Sadly, so far no Ninja Turtle skills have been acquired.
On to the bad news. Scans showed a lot of fluid built up around my lungs and heart. So off to the ER for that to be dealt with. They of course admitted me immediately. This was last Monday. They drained my lungs that night and I felt a whole lot better. But of course that shit just built right back up. Then they put a chest tube in to drain. What fun. Next day the tube came out and the villagers rejoiced. Not for long though. At this point they shipped me off to a second hospital to have the fluid around my heart taken care of. Now in this modern day of technology you’d think they’d have some way to use a small tube thru your arm pit or something. Oh no sir! Five 1/2 hour wait and then they bring out a needle which they proceed to jam into my chest. They don’t put you to sleep for this either, by the way.
(Not the ALF in question, but still…feel better, ALF.)
Alf here with an update on the fun ride that the past week or so has been.
First off, the PET scan was no big deal after all. They just shoot me up with some radioactive crap and then stick me in a dark room for about an hour while this works its way thru my system. From there it’s into a big ole scanner that makes some noise & moves around but is really pretty comfy. Again they say don’t move. So…sounds like two medically prescribed naps to me. I can handle this. Pretty much same deal with the CAT scan. Just waiting around for the radioactive stuff to work it’s way thru. Sadly, so far no Ninja Turtle skills have been acquired.
On to the bad news. Scans showed a lot of fluid built up around my lungs and heart. So off to the ER for that to be dealt with. They of course admitted me immediately. This was last Monday. They drained my lungs that night and I felt a whole lot better. But of course that shit just built right back up. Then they put a chest tube in to drain. What fun. Next day the tube came out and the villagers rejoiced. Not for long though. At this point they shipped me off to a second hospital to have the fluid around my heart taken care of. Now in this modern day of technology you’d think they’d have some way to use a small tube thru your arm pit or something. Oh no sir! Five 1/2 hour wait and then they bring out a needle which they proceed to jam into my chest. They don’t put you to sleep for this either, by the way.
Back to the original hospital we go. Fluid is under control so now it’s time for my first chemo. Not a hell of a lot of fun I must say.
Next morning they come back and take a chest X-ray and lo and behold the fluid is back around that damn lung again. Off to this third hospital where finally a major operation on the lung was done. Hurts like a bastard to move. Hopefully this does the trick though!
And that’s where I’m at now. Still in hospital healing from that surgery. Thank God for the pain meds! I have to try to sleep kinda sitting up too, and therefore my ass is always asleep.
Oh, did I forget to mention the bone marrow biopsy? It’s probably because I’m trying to repress the memory. Trust me… no joy to be had there.
That’s the short of it my fellow Taters. I’m down but by no means out!
“Be more concerned with your character than your reputation, because your character is what you really are, while your reputation is merely what others think you are.” These words spoken by the late, great coach John Wooden still have the p…
“Be more concerned with your character than your reputation, because your character is what you really are, while your reputation is merely what others think you are.” These words spoken by the late, great coach John Wooden still have the power to change lives to this very day. This has proved to be true in […]
