D2PC (or, Day 2, post-chemo)
Well, chemo is over. While I still have the hole in my chest, it is no longer attached by a thin tube to a bag of poisonous crap on my hip!! 17 weeks and 6 days with my little "friend", and I'm over it.
I had a CT scan on Monday as part of the restaging of the cancer, and I am happy to report that according to the doctor, I'm cancer free. Of course I will still have a PET scan in Sydney over the next two or three weeks, but the oncologist is confident that we've knocked it on the head. You bloody little beauty! (please note unrestrained joy not possible to convey in writing - just not good enough at it).
When I asked him whether this meant that I was cured, his response was along the lines of: "with cancer, you're never cured until you die of old age". I can live with that.
Another appointment in a month to (a) have my portacath flushed out, and (b) to ask him the hard questions about how we are going to monitor things to ensure that - should the cancer recur - it doesn't become as advanced as this time before we discover it. Or maybe my new reality is that I will live on tenterhooks around this for the rest of what will be hopefully (and I hate using that word) be along and fruitful life.
In the meantime, life continues on. I am feeling better by the day, although this morning while out on my walk with Oskar the Dog I tried to jog a couple of times and knocked up very quickly - and I'm paying for it now. Paul Craft says I should be back to a very unfit "normal" in one to two weeks. Can't wait. Although I went for a long bike ride with my sensei yesterday and held up okay - a 1200cc engine will do that, tho.
There are some learnings from all this which I intend to out down at some time in the not too distant future. The most obvious is that Cancer is not necessarily a death sentence, although everything we "know" as a society tells us it is, and we certainly respond in that way when told we have it. Another is that there is very big industry out there flogging quack cures and approaches. The give-away to these is, appropriately, that they don't give them away - you have to buy them. Warning: NEVER buy a book which details the unique approach to survival of a wholesome young cancer sufferer. Wait till you can pick it up from the estate of some other idiot who bought it, tried (or didn't) the "cure" and died. And don't get sucked in. Also, do your research: type cancer quackery into Google, and read the discrediting of most of the popular approaches, from the Gersson diet approach to the power of positive thinking as espoused by the very expensive Ian Gawler.
That's enough for now. More later.
Yeayyy!!
Friday 19 October 2007
Wednesday 10 October 2007
Getting close to the end, now..............
Once again, weeks have passed since last time I posted but not a lot has happened, although chemo moves inexorably on. I am now just one pump change and eight days from formally ending chemo. Today, then, is C6D13.
The last couple of weeks have not been particularly kind, as each major hit has impacted me a little more severely, and for a longer time. As an example, in the early days I used to be back to "normal" by about Tuesday after the big hit, but the last two have hung on longer, until this time its been just the last day or so that I've felt in the slightest bit "normal", and even then things are pretty relative! I've also noticed additional side effects as the process has matured, such as chest and arm pain, some shortness of breath after the tiniest exertion, some minor ear-ringing, a little facial numbness and an ongoing low grade headache. And of course the mucousitis which I wrote about last time. But compared to others I see in my weekly visits to the hospital, I'd rather be me (at least in the short-term!!).
Over the next couple of weeks, the plan is to restage the tumour/cancer. Next week sometime I'll organise a CT scan, then I'll have a biopsy on the cancer site by the gastro-intestinal guy (Thommo, remember?) and go down to Sydney for another PET scan. This last will have to wait a couple of weeks, as apparently the chemo interferes with the readings and throws up false positives - wouldn't want any of those, now, would we?!
One odd thing that I've noticed lately is that cancer and other serious illnesses are everywhere amongst my near contemporaries. One friend and close colleague has developed a nasty bowel condition over the past couple of months (diverticulitis?); another had a nasty and potentially fatal twisted intestine, while a third announced yesterday that he has aggressive prostate cancer and his future is uncertain. What is happening to the world?
And to add to the stress levels, the house is on the market prior to our shift later this year to Queensland. For those who are interested, we're no the web at allhomes.com.au at 32 Hawkesbury Crescent in Farrer ACT. Lots of photos which do the house absolute justice! The problem is that we're on exhibition twice a week for three weeks, and I am under extreme pressure to keep the house tidy. Not easy for a little grot like me! Luckily my real area of responsibility is the garden out the back, and given that we've deliberately designed it to be easy care, then its ............. easy.
I'll post next after the restaging process, with news about the future.
The last couple of weeks have not been particularly kind, as each major hit has impacted me a little more severely, and for a longer time. As an example, in the early days I used to be back to "normal" by about Tuesday after the big hit, but the last two have hung on longer, until this time its been just the last day or so that I've felt in the slightest bit "normal", and even then things are pretty relative! I've also noticed additional side effects as the process has matured, such as chest and arm pain, some shortness of breath after the tiniest exertion, some minor ear-ringing, a little facial numbness and an ongoing low grade headache. And of course the mucousitis which I wrote about last time. But compared to others I see in my weekly visits to the hospital, I'd rather be me (at least in the short-term!!).
Over the next couple of weeks, the plan is to restage the tumour/cancer. Next week sometime I'll organise a CT scan, then I'll have a biopsy on the cancer site by the gastro-intestinal guy (Thommo, remember?) and go down to Sydney for another PET scan. This last will have to wait a couple of weeks, as apparently the chemo interferes with the readings and throws up false positives - wouldn't want any of those, now, would we?!
One odd thing that I've noticed lately is that cancer and other serious illnesses are everywhere amongst my near contemporaries. One friend and close colleague has developed a nasty bowel condition over the past couple of months (diverticulitis?); another had a nasty and potentially fatal twisted intestine, while a third announced yesterday that he has aggressive prostate cancer and his future is uncertain. What is happening to the world?
And to add to the stress levels, the house is on the market prior to our shift later this year to Queensland. For those who are interested, we're no the web at allhomes.com.au at 32 Hawkesbury Crescent in Farrer ACT. Lots of photos which do the house absolute justice! The problem is that we're on exhibition twice a week for three weeks, and I am under extreme pressure to keep the house tidy. Not easy for a little grot like me! Luckily my real area of responsibility is the garden out the back, and given that we've deliberately designed it to be easy care, then its ............. easy.
I'll post next after the restaging process, with news about the future.
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