Ready or not, here I come!

Well today was the last business day off so to speak. I enjoyed this last day of winter and last official day off freedom by burning my big bald head out in the sun!

I return to the real world on Monday by returning to work. I’m looking forward to it though, I think the steady schedule will help me feel like a human to tell you the truth. The last three months were brutal and it’d be good to dive into something to kinda forget about all of that.

I have one more major test coming up next month which will help alleviate that last bit of unknown stress. However for now I can focus on living again. Don’t get me wrong I will never forget what has happened to me. Not many people get the chance to face their mortality in such a long drawn out process. It actually should somehow make you feel better about those that go quickly….er, this is turning morbid.

I just wanted to say that you may see me more, and I’m taking that as a good thing. Watch out Beaver county I’m out and about again so deal with it!

I Can't Sleep!

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.

Something to Smile About

smileyI 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.

Undeserved

web_spikey_kindleEveryone has been so amazing throughout this journey that I don’t even know how to begin. You can see in the photo below the outpouring of cards, and well wishes from friends, family, church members, co-workers, and people we’ve never even met before. It’s amazing to see how many people are out there pulling for you. I can’t even begin to describe how uplifting each little sentiment is to me.

Someone ordered a Kindle off of my wishlist a few weeks ago and it showed up at my doorstep just a few days ago. Thank you so much!! It will really help those chemo treatments fly by, and already has! I took it this Monday and I was done with my treatment before I knew it. For those that have no idea what I am holding up next to my goofy mow-hawk; it’s an Amazon Kindle ebook reader. Think of it as an iPod for books. It can hold somewhere around 1,500 full books on it and they can be purchased wirelessly from anywhere in the US. So it’d be pretty hard to get bored and run out of things to read, no excuses! Thank you so much for the crazy people that got me this amazing piece of tech I really, really, really, appreciate it! I threw in some size comparison photos of it next to the book Sara is currently reading to give you guys some perspective on size. I’ll try to do a full review later.

But I really just wanted to say thank you to everyone. I’m going to speak for both of us when I say we can’t do it without you guys. This is a pretty crappy process and knowing that everyone has our backs helps us to get through it that much easier. So thank you so much!