Team Madonia Going Strong

What's up Team Madonia! Sorry for the lack of updates, I have been very busy getting back to work after surgery and trying to train this new puppy my wife and I just got, aka she is always napping on me and I can't type while she does! A lot has happened since my last post so let me fill you all in.


Surgery Results

Surgery went very well. This was the third time I had this surgery on my lung and this was by far the best recovery experience I have had. I guess practice really does make perfect! The surgeon was able to locate and remove a very small tumor in my lung. The pathology was consistent with synovial sarcoma, meaning that this tumor was another metastasis from my original tumor in my foot. The recovery has been great, I was able to leave the hospital the next day with very minimal pain. I was also able to return to work 12 days after surgery!



Chemotherapy

Before surgery my doctor and I were unsure if I would try chemotherapy following surgery. In my meeting with him last week, we decided to go forward with chemotherapy to try and make sure that I remain cancer free for good. This was a very hard decision to make for many reasons. Doing chemotherapy right now does not guarantee me anything, other than a whole lot of bad side effects. At this point, I have no measurable cancer in my body. After every surgery, my tumors have all been succefully removed with clear margins (no cancer cells in the surrounding healthy tissue). Unfortunately they have also come back each time as well. So the chemotherapy will be used to try to kill any cells that are undetectable and may be causing my relapses in my lungs. Unfortunately there is no good research that says that this does or does not work for people with metastasized synovial sarcoma. In theory, it is a good idea but is very hard to decide if the possible benefits outweigh the risks. The chemotherapy I will be doing is high dose ifosfamide, which has a wide variety of acute and chronic side effects. So why did I decide to go forward? Well, I am young and strong still, so I feel now is the time to hit this hard while my body can handle it. So, although I know this will be hell, I can only hope that this will give me the best chance of beating this disease once and for all. I am also quite tired of having pieces of my lung cut out, I think three times is plenty!


Team Madonia and Strength Fights Cancer

If you ordered shirts they should be arriving shortly. They are absolutely awesome! I attended the Rock and Roll Throwers Meet in Lancaster, NY this past weekend and I was overwhelmed by the number of throwers that were sporting their shirts in support of Team Madonia. Not only were a bunch of Buffalo native throwers supporting Team Madonia, but the RFA throwers and their families were all sporting their own custom RFA Track and Field Team Madonia shirts! I was very proud to  see my name and the Team Madonia logo being worn by so many great people in the track and field community.


I also want to thank Nate Harvey for recognizing me in the newly renovated University at Buffalo weight room. Nate has been a great coach and friend of mine since he started coaching at UB and he knows how much the weightroom and athletics has helped get me through my battle with cancer. For him to put my picture up in that weightroom was more of an honor then I can explain in words. To be on that wall inspiring his athletes to work hard everyday and chase their goals feels amazing and I am so appreciative to be a part of that.

I hope that everyone will post a picture to the Facebook page of them in their shirts! It would be awesome to have an album of all our supporters sporting their awesome shirts! I know Steve plans on opening orders up again soon so if you haven't gotten one yet you will get a chance to snag one in the near future. Also, I will let Steve do the announcement, but he did tell me how much money we have raised for Roswell Park and I really can't believe it. That money will go to Roswell to help support research to cure this terrible disease.


Help the Fight


I also wanted to give a reminder that there are plenty of ways to help in the fight against cancer. I can tell you as an oncology nurse that one of the most helpful things you can do is to go donate blood and platelets! I can not tell you how important this is! Every morning on my 9 bed unit alone, we hang multiple bags of blood and platelets, and at Roswell Park, almost all that blood is donated right at Roswell. We run into shortages all the time so if you really want to do something to directly benefit the care of those battling cancer, please go donate! By donating you are literally helping your neighbors who are fighting this disease stay alive and continue their fight. Hit up the website below if you have questions too.
https://www.roswellpark.org/donor-center

Time for Surgery...Again.

I will be having my surgery tomorrow morning. I am scheduled for 11 AM but will be having a needle localization done at 8 AM. A needle localization is when they mark my tumor with a wire under CT guidance. This is probably my least favorite part of this surgery. It is not very painful but it makes me very anxious. I will be awake for this part and all I can tell you is it is very strange watching someone put a needle and wire into your lung while you are wide awake! This is very important though because it marks the tumor so that it is easier for the surgeon to find it.

The surgery I will be having is called a VATS (Video Assisted Thoracoscopy). This will be the third time I have had this surgery, all of which have been on my right lung. Basically the surgeon makes three incisions in the side of my chest that he can put cameras and surgical tools through those "port holes." This is much better for me then a thoracotomy, which would involve making one big incision between my ribs. After they make the three incisions, my lung will collapse, the surgeon will find the tumor which was marked with a wire and then cut out the tumor and the surrounding tissue. They will look at the tissue under a microscope on site to make sure they have "cleared my margins" which is fancy talk for saying they removed all the cancer from the surrounding healthy lung tissue. That is done by a pathologist, who is a separate doctor in a lab in a completely different building. Contrary to what you see on Grey's Anatomy and House, it is not just one doctor who does everything! The second worst part about the surgery is I will have a chest tube for a day or two. This helps re-inflate my lung and drain fluid and air from the space around my lung. It is extremely uncomfortable!

Having done this twice before, I know what to expect. However, each surgery I have seems to be a little tougher. This will be my 7th surgery and the 6th one related to my cancer. Sadly this doesn't even compare to other people out there fighting this disease. Cancer sucks my friends, it really sucks! With that said, my spirits are still really high. I am very confident the surgery will go well, and I am looking forward to rehabbing myself back into shape and coming back strong. I can't wait to write about my recovery and show you some pics of that process. I have gotten pretty good at rehabbing due to the plethora of times I have had to do it! I will find out what the next step is later this month. I have discussed the option of doing chemotherapy after this surgery with my doctor, but no decisions have been made yet.

I hope everyone had a great New Year. 2013 was quite the roller coaster. I have learned that every year is filled with it's own share of stresses, both good and bad. The fact is that if your stressed, you are alive, and that's a good thing! So bring it on 2014! I welcome all you have to throw at me, and if cancer wants to show it's ugly face again this year, Team Madonia will just have to kick it's ass again!

 I will do my best to write updates during my recovery. I should be in the hospital for 2-3 days. Until then, thank you for all the support and thank you for the donations and support of Roswell Park from Team Madonia. I hope everyone posts some pictures of themselves to Facebook in their Team Madonia shirts when they come in!

        I watched this clip hundreds of times during track season. 

   Still applies to this battle. Rocky gets me every time!