Health Update Revisited

February 10, 2015
I'm sitting in a hospital waiting room -- waiting for my oncologist to visit me.  My thoughts are all over the map. 

I'm back at work after six months of chemo plus another two and a half month safety/recoup net. So my thoughts are of work, family, faith, IV, blog, fellow sufferers and then some.

I tried to hotspot my phone to my iPad to get some work done. Failed. I tried to purchase a day of Internet here at the St. Catharines General. Failed. Shouldn't there be a free internet perk for cancer patients :) ?

Maybe it's a sign that I shouldn't be working. The problem with my line of work is that as a consultant solely responsible for my domain, what I don't get done on a day like this doesn't magically go away -- it'll be waiting for me when I go back to work this afternoon.

Blood pressure is high. I can't figure out if that's a systemic bad thing or an occasion-specific thing (I don't have a pick line so I have an IV every time I get a chemo infusion. This causes me all kinds of anxiety because sometimes it takes 3 pokes at which points the nurses get rattled).

Okay. Enough whining. 

One reason why I'm posting is because occasionally I hear about people reading my blog which is both cool and humbling. It also makes me think: I shouldn't leave people hanging. I should give them an update and then move on to positing about other things for hopefully a long time.

Here's the update: after 6 months of chemo, I had a CT scan that showed a near total remission (not total because, until there's an actual cure, follicular lymphoma doesn't go away). I stayed remarkably healthy during the chemo and managed to go to the gym, eat well (too well :) ), read the last 4 Game of Thrones books, play XBOX NHL 14, not think of work and live well. 

I am currently transitioning into a 2 year period of maintenance treatments. Once every three months, I will come in for a one and one half hour Rituxan infusion. Hence today. The goal of these maintenance treatments is to keep me in remission longer.

Okay. That's it -- I'm hoping that I won't have to blog about lymphoma for a while!

Thank you to all of my family and friends who have supported me through this difficult time.  

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