It's been three weeks since my chemo and radiation sessions ended, and I think I'm beginning to feel closer to my old self again. I still have a little way to go to be ready to do my old gym routine, but if there's anything I've learned in working out over ther years, it 's that no matter what you did in your lay off time, it'll take a bit to recover the old form. we'll see how this goes.
Yesterday I had my new baseline MRI, and had a chat with both doctors. The whole thing was as positive experience as I could hope for. It went very well and the doctors were encouraged. I saw the MRI comparison and from what they can see (certainly MRI resolution has its limits) there is no visible trace of the tumor, except for the artifacts of the surgery. However that's not to say that there isn't something there. A tumor about the size of an eraser head has about 30000 cells in it, so a few virulent cells could be present and invisible to the scan. It's not a perfect world, but the future looks bright... at least for the short term and medium time frame we know of, but that is also a double edge sword. It was made plain to me that since we can't know whether it's ALL gone, there always a 90% probability that it will be back... in time (one year, three years, who knows?). I'm hoping for the 10% side of things and can say good bye to it for good.
I am unbelievably fortunate though. Because of the location, even though this tumor is as nasty as they get, there is still reasonably good options for future treatment, should it ever come to that. Nearly all people with this type of tumor are not so lucky and can potentially suffer adverse results of additional treatment. No one is happier about this than I am.
For the future, I still have six months of off and on five day a month chemo treatments to deal with at twice the dose I was getting. The chemo actually hasn't been much of a problem. I take an anti-nausea pill 30 minutes before, and then the chemo drugs about bed time. I wake up with a bit of a bad taste in my mouth, but that about the extent of it.
MRIs will come at increasingly longer intervals and as long as I keep showing no new growth, it bodes better for me as the months pass. The doctors made it clear that they are not done with me and will continue to act aggressively if the need should arise. Now it's just a matter of monitoring myself and being sensitive to my normal behavior. I can no longer take glitches in my physiology for granted, but as long as I feel right, everything else is just as right.
I'm not sure how to pull this all in to a big picture, but for the moment it's time to relax and celebrate the current victory.
Thursday, June 15, 2006
Monday, June 05, 2006
Too much too soon
It's been a while since I posted here, and I know a few of my friends look here from time to time to see how I'm doing, so I thought I'd better write something new.
I went through six weeks of chemo and radiation therapy, finishing up a week ago. While it wasn't the worst thing to happen to me, it certainly put my constitution to the test. The chemo was taken at night just before I went to bed, and with the anti-nausea pill taken a half hour before, so the treatment wasn't bad. Over the six weeks I lost the desire for anything more to eat than I needed to keep me going, because I developed a bad taste in the back of my throat. It also constitpated me pretty bad, and took almost the six weeks to get that dialed in.
The drive to and from the radiation treatment was 50 miles a day, so that got to be a drag. But all in all, it was a long but uneventful six weeks. I'm glad it's over... sort of.
I've been free of the treatment for about a week now and I'm not snapping back like I expected. It's going to take a while, and I need to be patient with myself. I tend to push myself too hard and then I pay the price... like last weekend.
I put in a new slab and moved one wheelbarrow at a time of almost 2 yards of concrete from the truck to the slab during what turned out to be the hottest day of the year so far. By the time it was over, I had worked myself into a state of extreme heat exhaution, and spent the next two days laying low and drinking as much as I can to recover to a minimum level. Dumb, dumb, dumb. I know better, but obviously that didn't stop me from doing it anyway.
I need to take it easy for a while and let my body tell me when I'm ready to go to the next level again.
I went through six weeks of chemo and radiation therapy, finishing up a week ago. While it wasn't the worst thing to happen to me, it certainly put my constitution to the test. The chemo was taken at night just before I went to bed, and with the anti-nausea pill taken a half hour before, so the treatment wasn't bad. Over the six weeks I lost the desire for anything more to eat than I needed to keep me going, because I developed a bad taste in the back of my throat. It also constitpated me pretty bad, and took almost the six weeks to get that dialed in.
The drive to and from the radiation treatment was 50 miles a day, so that got to be a drag. But all in all, it was a long but uneventful six weeks. I'm glad it's over... sort of.
I've been free of the treatment for about a week now and I'm not snapping back like I expected. It's going to take a while, and I need to be patient with myself. I tend to push myself too hard and then I pay the price... like last weekend.
I put in a new slab and moved one wheelbarrow at a time of almost 2 yards of concrete from the truck to the slab during what turned out to be the hottest day of the year so far. By the time it was over, I had worked myself into a state of extreme heat exhaution, and spent the next two days laying low and drinking as much as I can to recover to a minimum level. Dumb, dumb, dumb. I know better, but obviously that didn't stop me from doing it anyway.
I need to take it easy for a while and let my body tell me when I'm ready to go to the next level again.
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