Long Busy Day

Today was a long and busy day, so there is much to write about. I’ll try not to get too wordy.

We were on the Bear Creek trail by 6:30 for my morning walk and Jon’s run. I felt strong this morning so I made it past the 2.5 mile mark before turning around. The only problem was that I miscalculated time. I had to run part way back in order to have time to make it to my first appointment at 8:40. Keep in mind that “run” for me right now is barely a jog - slightly faster than running in place. Anyway, it felt great to be able to move a little quicker.

First appointment of the day was a blood test (and we made it on time with a coupe minutes to spare). Almost everything was back in normal range and those that weren’t were in expected lower ranges. Kudos to my hard working blood!

Our next appointment was with the medical oncology PA, Rachel. We had a good meeting. She confirmed our suspicion that there is another scan coming.  We will need return in mid October for a PET CT scan that will reveal if there is any new cancer occurrence and if the current tumor is "dead".  If they were completely successful with radiation and chemo we may get a "pass" on surgery! We won’t know this for sure until after the mid October scan. Regardless of whether there will be surgery or not, there will be monitoring (with various scans) for 5 years. Because my cancer is rare at least the first two years will be on a more aggressive (frequent) schedule. Gaining more understanding of the longer term plan helps take some of the anxiety away.

Chemo was next on the schedule. Yuck! It was pretty uneventful…but long. I had about 60 minutes of all the pre-stuff (saline, steroids, and anti-nausea meds), then 2+ hours for the first chemo drug, and then 60 more minutes for the second chemo drug. The downside is that because they filled me with so much fluid I had to pee every 20-30 minutes, which meant unplugging my IV pole and wheeling it to the bathroom with me. Thus far I’ve made through the day with no nausea.

I’ll finish the post with some photos.

Morning walk on Bear Creek Trail.

Afternoon walk also on Bear Creek Trail.

So now I understand why it’s called a “medicine” cabinet!

I was sitting on the couch tonight and felt all these eyes looking at me. It looks like the angry ghost was getting ready to throw a fireball at us! I’m glad I looked up when I did.