Author: ben

I feel bad that I haven’t been nice enough to update everyone on my status after that brief posting I gave two weeks ago. Since then I’ve made it through another treatment and even a small cold. The cold knocked me out this entire past weekend. I spent it on the couch. I had high hopes to work on the basement and you know, feel semi-normal, but my body didn’t get the memo. It made me a little nervous, because I can’t imagine how I would feel if I got really sick. I guess that’s why they tell Sara to rush me to the E.R. if I’m having a fever.

It’s annoying not knowing what the new day will bring. Everyday something rears its ugly head and makes me miserable in some fashion.  I’m not trying to be pessimistic either, I just have to admit how completely wacked out my body is right now. It’s scary feeling so out of touch and out of control of the form you are trying to live in.

Tomorrow I go in for a CT scan in Cranberry. This will be the first true test to measure if my enlarged lymph nodes in my neck, armpits, back, and pelvis are receding. During the Steelers victory win tonight I had to drink some of the contrast junk in about 16oz of juice before going to bed. It must be pretty nasty if it had to be masked by that much juice and the fact that the juice didn’t really taste like juice afterwards. What’s even more fun is that I get to do it again in the morning before we head out to the test. At least there is a Denny’s breakfast to look forward to with my honey!

I’m not sure if it’s that junk that I drank, but it’s 2:45am and I can’t sleep!! Hello people I have to go to work after that scan. I hate not being able to sleep. It’s been less lately especially with the cold, thankfully that’s dissipating.

I met with my ENT (ear-nose-throat) doctor last Friday to check out my incision and just see how treatments are going in general. He seemed pleased with how I looked and felt, but it’s very hit or miss with me right now, he must have caught me at a good hour. He did check for lumps in my neck/trap area and said that he couldn’t really feel anything out of the normal range. So that was a good thing to hear! Let’s hope the scan tomorrow confirms that! We’ll go over the results next week before my treatment with my oncologist.

Thanks again to everyone that leaves me comments, sends me cards and emails, and attempts to hug me at church! I sincerely appreciate it, I can’t say it enough. Time to attempt some shut-eye.

I feel like absolute crap today this week. (Make that 7 words)

I felt pretty yucky the first week after my last treatment. I took a few days off because there were a bunch of sick people I should be avoiding at the office. Last week wasn’t so bad though. I actually was able to put in a full work week which was great! I needed to get a lot of work done.

If you didn’t notice it yet, I got my braces off a few days after my last treatment. I get to binge on chewy candy and other tough to eat food again and have! Dr. Kingas did an amazing job in such a short period of time. I only had them on for eight months. Not only did my teeth get all lined up, but my overbite got corrected. Which is pretty amazing because I used to have a severe overbite that I never thought I’d get rid of.

Tomorrow Sara and I meet with the oncologist for the first time since before my treatment started. I’m not really sure what we will be going over, I guess just how I’ve been handling the chemo treatment. Maybe we’ll schedule my next CT/PET scan to see if the cancer is retreating. After we meet with him I’ll get my third treatment. This is another long one where they add the Rituxan to the mix. I’m a little nervous because the last treatment knocked me on my butt pretty hard for the first week. Thank you everyone I’ll let you know how it goes.