Although it’s been a while since I’ve added anything to this page, it doesn’t mean that I’ve been idle. Let me catch you up.
Back in the first of August I had an MRI, which was good, and on October 3, I had another MRI, which was also fine. I commented to my doctor that even though I’ve been off of the chemo since May, and for that matter everything else as well, things have continued to look great. We are both encouraged by this fact. The longer I go with no problems, the better things look that we have beaten this thing. Although I can’t relax for a while, I listen to stories from people like Lance Armstrong and others, and hope that my success can be added to theirs, of people that have looked death in the face and survived. My doctor also made it clear that my situation is extremely rare, and I have multiple options for future treatment that others in my situation don’t have. How lucky can one guy get? Not much I think.
During the last couple of months I have gone through some sort of cold or flu malady. This was really a major pain. Throughout the last year and a half, while going though all the chemo and having my condition and resistance in a less than optimum condition, I never once got sick. Now that I’ve been off that stuff for a while, I seem to be more susceptible. How weird is that?
About a month and a half ago I picked up some sort of bug, missed a few days of work, and felt funky for about a week with it. What followed though, was another month of feeling less than normal. My upper respiratory system was aching most of the time, I had a lot of sinus headaches, the lump of crap in the back of my throat never seemed to go away, and my energy level was continuously in the pits. I felt worse than when I was on the chemo, and it dragged on and on. I was beginning to feel like I was never going to feel normal again. I continued to try to work out and play racquetball (my son Aaron kicks my butt no matter what anyway), but the extra activity taxed my system, and I usually paid for it later.
The only consolation was that I wasn’t alone. All around me at work, you could hear the same sort of coughing, hacking, and sneezing I had been going through. Most of the time, they sounded even worse than I did. Some of the people around me got it before I did, and were still struggling with it even after I was more or less back to normal. My workmate, who sits in the next cube from me, got the same thing. He was out of work for an entire week, and spent the next month or more sounding worse than I ever did. Some people are still struggling with whatever it is, and it’s been at least three months or more since this whole cycle of sickness started. Actually, by the time my part was over with, I felt like I had done better than most, but one thing began to become clear, it was the environment we were working in that was the culprit for all of our combined misery.
I had read somewhere that some working environments were responsible for perpetuating health problems, but it hasn’t been until lately that realized that we were spending most of our working day in one of them. We spend more of the working day breathing the same air, in cloth walled and carpeted cubicles that were probably a breeding ground for dust and bacteria. We were all adding to it by showing up to work partially sick and spreading our germs into the air, but all of this woven material was soaking it up and keeping it there for us to rebreathe every day thereafter. I looked forward to getting out of the building at lunch, just to get a little fresh air. A lot other people feel the same way, but we are just one time voice in a large corporate machine, so our opinions count for little, and no one listens anyway.
I’m taking vacation now with Sue. This is the first real vacation we’ve taken since we moved back to the USA from Korea, back in January of 2005… and it feels fantastic. It’s funny though… here we are back in Seoul and loving every minute of it.
It is particularly liberating for me. Could feel the stress melt away the moment I got on the plane. Singapore Airline was always my favorite, but they have even gone up a couple notches from there. They have upgraded their planes and service since I last flew with them, so it is even nicer than before, and the twelve-hour plus flight was as nice as it could possibly could be. Flying first class would be the only improvement I could make, but coach now with Singapore Air is the best I’ve experienced.
Here in Korea, I am as relaxed as a body can be. I have no cell phone, no watch, no worries, no money (Sue has that), no timetable, and no interest in changing the status on my busy (NOT) schedule. This is a true vacation, and a total brain-break. The only way it would improve is if I had no reason to go back. Of course that’s not going to happen, so I’m taking full advantage of the current situation.
I hope you’ll excuse the length of this. I’m just feeling… well, relaxed.
