May

In May I stopped my trial oral chemotherapy because I had a 9 day stay in the hospital.  I went to the hospital because I had horrible back pain and I was having trouble eating. While I was in the hospital I was only allowed to have 2 full meals. Thus, I lost a lot of weight. The Dr.’s found out that I had some blockage in my bile duct and they wanted to put in a few stints to open the blockage. The blockage was not allowing my liver to extract my bile into the intestines. I finally had 2 stints put in the bile duct by using the ERCP procedure.  The stints made everything feel a lot better and my liver labs were back to normal.

June

After I was discharged from the hospital my Doctor’s and I decided that we should take the opportunity to find a new chemo trial.  So I continued not to take chemo through the month of June.  Next thing you know it, I found myself back in the hospital because of pain in my ribs.  After some test my liver was still functioning well, but it looks like that I had some gull bladder stones.  Plus the doctors gave me some pain medication to help me function throughout the day.  I was only in the hospital for 3 days, but during those 3 days I became very excited and at peace with the next decision that I was about to do.

Just a few days after the June hospital stay was Fathers Day.   Bahar’s mom invited my family to come over for a Fathers Day dinner.   My Dad, Aunt BJ, & Stan came up from central Illinois and we had a great time together.  Later that night, I proposed to Bahar! FINALLY!

The proposal

I proposed to Bahar through a photo album. The photo album consisted of all the pictures of the adventures that we had during our relationship. At the top left hand corner of each page I wrote “ W-I-L-L Y-O-U M-A-R-R-Y M-E-?”. At first, she didn’t see the written proposal, so I had to show it to her and she began to cry and said “YES!”.

I didn’t have a ring ready for her at the point in time, but I had an idea of what I wanted to give her. I wanted to give her my great aunt, grandma, and my mom’s diamond ring. She loved the idea and we finally got the ring made and now she can’t take it off. She loves the ring so much. I’m so happy too.

So the next step is the WEDDING.

We decided that we wanted to get married before November and the holiday season.  We are ecstatic, happy, honored and excited to be a part of Wish Upon a Wedding.  We can’t believe that we were selected by Wish Upon a Wedding to help us organize and manage our wedding. They are an amazing organization that is out there to help couples that are going through hard times because of a disease. There aren’t too many organizations like this out there and we flabbergasted that our wish was granted.

To learn more about the company and to read our wish application please visit this website (Seriously you should read it is really good):

http://wishuponawedding.org/nick-and-bahar-have-been-granted-a-wedding-wish/

New Chemo

After 3 months of no chemotherapy I was finally was able to get into a new clinical trial. Most of the people on this trial are in France. I’m going to be the only person in the United States that will be on these new drugs.  My blood work and liver labs are doing great and are under the regulations for the study.  I started the 2 new oral chemotherapies.

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While hiking in Portland we came across some cool wet moss. I had to take a video of it to be “artsy”.

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Just after I left Portland, I received a call from Sara to let me know that Moby has passed away. This video goes out to the memory of Moby.

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All the time while Yi is trying to fall asleep, I try to ask him if he is asleep. I think it is hilarious.

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While I was in Portland we found out that the Chicago Bears were going to be playing against the Seattle Seahawks. Seattle is only a few hours from Portland so Carrie, Sara, Bahar, & I decided to go show some support for the Chicago Bears. So we found tickets, drove up to Seattle and had an awesome time.

All the fans in Seattle were crazy. Everywhere we went the fan heckled you, but that didn’t work because we won! Which is one of the few wins that the Chicago Bears had in the 2009 season.

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Just a short & quick update for February 2010. All the tumors are stable!! One grew about 5%, but that is still considered stable!! WOO HOO!! Keep up your Prayers! Thank you Jesus!

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While I was in Kansas City it was fun to listen to my Dad’s stories about his career. He looked back on his career while we were eating a very peppery steak in a restaurant that rotated on the top floor of the hotel.  He talked about sleeping in hotel rooms that didn’t have heat and he talked about hotel rooms that were so small he couldn’t really move in the room.

Dad's Retirement

The most interesting part of our conversation was when he explained how he got in his career. Throughout my Dad’s life he has been a paperboy, janitor, printer, business manage,r and more.  Fort years ago my Dad worked in a printing shop just like his father.  My Dad was the office manager/salesman of all trades at the printing shop and he became very good friends with the lead salesman.  While working at the printing shop my Dad became friends with my mom who at the time was the phone operator. Although my Dad hung out with my mom and her friends a few times, at first my Dad was interested in my mom’s friend. That later changed and he fell in love with my mom and they were married for over 35 years before my mom passed away.

The printing shop also was the catalyst of my Dad’s current job. His manager friend, Claude, left the printing shop and started to work with a few non for profit organizations. Later on he recruited my Dad to come and work under him again. My Dad learned the ropes of the businesses and became best friends with Claude. Both of their families become close to the point that I called Claude “Papa”. When I was little Claude passed away and my Dad stepped in Claude’s footsteps at the office.  However executives allowed my Dad to be the interim boss and later hired someone other than my Dad.  Then my Dad was let go from 2 of the major non for profit organizations, but he still was employed by a few smaller organizations.  He then moved the organizations offices into our own home.  My Dad worked at home for over 10 years now it is time to relax and experience new things.

One of the organizations that has been there for my Dad felt that they should acknowledge my Dad at their annual lunch meeting.  They gave him a nice plaque, a Garmin GPS, & a free flight on American Airlines.  I think all of that beats a gold watch!

I’m proud of you Dad and I’m glad you asked me to come to Kansas City to celebrate you accomplishments and celebrate your future! Of course being the vlogger that I am, I video taped the luncheon and his speech.

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On December 22 I got my results from my CT Scan.

3 out of the 4 “big” tumors have not grown and they are stable!  The 4th tumor which is the biggest tumor has SHRUNK!!!

So this chemo is working ! DUH!!!

I’m going to continue training, take my vitamins, & watch what I eat.

Keep of the prayers! Your prayers are working! Thank you Jesus! I LOVE YOU ALL!

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So, during the summer I was taking a clinical trial oral chemotherapy.  After taking that chemo everyday for 6 weeks the Dr.’s saw that the tumors were still growing. Although they did have another trial open for me. They called me the day before I left for Portland and told me to come in and sign the paper work to start another clinical trial.

The trial is 2 chemotherapies. The 1st one is an iv chemotherapy that is an insulin growth factor. The 2nd chemotherapy is just like the oral chemo that I took during the summer. I have been looking for an insulin growth factor since May of 2008. It has been hard to find this chemotherapy because of the limited amount of people who can been on this trial. Finally, I’m on the insulin growth factor chemo. Dr. Rushing from Indiana University has been talking about this chemo for a long time. I’m sure he is just as glad that I’m on this too.

Chemotherapy schedule: IV chemo every 2 weeks at the University of Chicago. Oral chemotherapy taken twice daily.

I’m not really sure how long I will be on this, but I’m just happy that the University of Chicago has given me this opportunity. They have been extremely helpful on getting me the treatment that I need on a timely basis.

Just one step closer to killing these tumors!

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