Up on the Hill...

3181 Southwest Sam Jackson Park Road

Portland, OR 97239

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(503) 494-8311

* approximate times

ohsu.edu

So I'm staying at the Kohler Pavilion, which is the big new building at the top of the TRAM. (Note: Bldg #7 in the map attached below) It is a very nice facility, and houses the Phil Knight Cancer Center. My room is 14 - on the 14th floor.

Visitors are allowed, and the next few days are kind of a good time in that - while I'm receiving the treatment, the effects on my immune system are still a few days away. So I'm feeling pretty good so far, and will start to decline as the "therapy" takes effect. I can even go outside on the various plazas and causeways for the next couple days to get some fresh air.

The only requirement is that you be healthy - and over 18 - and that you wash hands thoroughly immediately upon entering the 14th floor.

Here's A MAP of the OHSU campus
(http://www.ohsu.edu/xd/about/visiting/directions/upload/ptcaremap.pdf)

The place is a total maze, but treat it as an adventure - like geocaching or a treasure hunt. You should probably check signals directly with me or Julie before showing up, just to make sure there isn't some grueling procedure that they need to take me away to the subbasement for.

The best approach is to drive up Sam Jackson Road, and when you see the campus at the top of the hill, take the first left and then an immediate right into Patient and Visitor Parking. Take the elevator from the parking garage up to the 9th floor, and walk down the long hallway with windows outside on your left. At the end of the hall, the tram is on your left and Elevator 1 is on your right. Take this elevator to the 14th floor, where you will have to call with the security phone and say you are here to visit Mark in Room 14 and the doors will be opened to you!

So this is the machine that I visit every morning to get radiation treatment. Pretty impressive eh? It is used for all kinds of radiation - but is customized for each patient with software that directs the beam and intensity of the rays according to specific parameters designed by the Radiation Oncologist, Dr Johnson.

The staff here are great - Dave, Matt, and Rhonda. Very competent and friendly.

A little background on my treatment

So this is me at Kaiser Sunnyside for my "FIRST" go around with chemo-therapy.

This was back in the fall of 2008 (is that right?). I was treated at this facility for non-hodgkins lymphoma using a comprehensive chemo-therapy regimen. This was effective and I weathered the treatment pretty well (memory is so subjective isn't it?). The facility and people at Sunnyside are terrific - I can't say enough about the amazing nursing and other staff there.

I gained complete remission and enjoyed getting my life and my strength back. Julie and I enjoyed a wonderful trip to France to celebrate, and I was happy to have that chapter behind me.

Then this last summer I began to notice a disturbing degeneration in my eyesight - mostly in the form of "floaters" that wouldn't go away. I visited an Optometrist, who recommended I see an Ophthalmologist right away. Soon I was biopsied (a surgical process that removes the vitreous fluid in the eye) and diagnosed with lymphoma again - the same variety as before. So I had relapsed. Treatment this time around included rounds of high dosage Methatrexate in the hospital, 4 rounds, as well as injections of the chemo in my eyes (yucky, but some how not as bad as you might imagine to be).

Ultimately, the treatment I'm facing at this time is to do a full Bone Marrow Transplant (BMT) up at Oregon Health Sciences University (OHSU).

My Team

I've got a team of doctors working on my case - which can be good and bad I guess. They are all brilliant and they are all doing the best they can to understand what is happening and to create the best "outcome" for me.

Dr. Mark Rarick - My primary oncologist at Kaiser. He has been managing my case since the first occurrence of the lymphoma.

Dr. Wayne Lo - Dr Lo is my Ophthalmologist and is the lead in managing and treating my eyes specifically.

Dr. Richard Maziarz - Maziarz (pronounced: May-z-Arz) is at OHSU and is the lead on the Bone Marrow Transplant process.

Thomas Harry Johnson - will be the Radiologist to perform the radiation on my eyes. Yikes!

Carol Jacoby F.N.P. - is my "coach" for the post BMT process and is in charge of my reentry to "normal"