Stick a Fork in Me, I'm Done!

My last chemo infusion finished up about 3 hours ago. I'm a free man!

At least I'm free of the infusions. I won't be completely free of treatment until Sunday when I take my last dose of Drain Cleaner capsules they make me swallow.

When you're done with chemo, the Chemo department likes you to ring a bell in celebration, which also reminds the other patients in the room that chemo doesn't go on forever -- you can emerge on the other side of this ordeal.

 

Just after I got unplugged for the last time.

Ringing the bell.

And why not?  She suffered through this too!

Of course, there are always statistics to contend with as so poignantly illustrated by this cartoon.

That's why they call it a remission instead of a cure.  In my case, statistically there's a 50% to 80% chance MCC will come back in the same spot. Things working against me are sun exposure, co-morbid squamous cell skin cancer, and immunosuppression. Things going in my favor are my age (relatively young), the stage at which it was caught (no distant metastasis), aggressive treatment (surgery and RT and chemo), and diligence (I take a good close look at my skin nearly each morning).

I'll be followed very closely for the next couple of years with PET and MRI scans to make sure nothing grows back and will be dealing with side effects for the next few years, but other than that I can live a carefree, cancer-free life.

Swamp Draining

It's been mid-April since the blog has been updated and that was by my wife no less. I intended this to be a more or less daily chronicle of my cancer treatment, but as we say here in the South, when you're up to your [butt] in alligators, it's tough to remember that you're supposed to be draining the swamp.

Mid-April was towards the end of concurrent Chemo and Radiation Therapy and the energy and gumption were zapped right out of me. I was doing little more than sleeping.

The end of April, after my last RT, was when I hit bottom; Three and a half months later, that's changed. I feel almost normal now, though still tire easily.

You're probably wondering (you haven't?!) what I've been up to for the last few months so here's a short rundown of what's happened:

• Lost, then regained nearly all my voice.
• Lost my hair.
• Lost the ability to spit (It's important in some social circles!)
• Nearly lost the ability to swallow food.
• Lost 25 pounds (no, don't even think of trying this instead of Weight Watchers).
• Had a horrific skin breakdown where all the electrons kept bombarding me.
• Learned to appreciate the role of taste in keeping your appetite.

I still intend for this blog to be a guide for the novice cancer victim so he or she will have some idea of what to expect. Future posts will include these topics and more.

Unrelated side note: When I took typing (now called keyboarding) in high school, I was taught to always use a double space between sentences.  Now I've recently learned that good style requires that only a single space separate sentences (I love alliteration!). It's a hard habit to break, but this and future posts will adhere to this new rule.  What do you think? What do you care?