a (long overdue) health update
I have been waiting for some piece of good news to use as a hinge as an update on the condition that my condition is in.
I got a c/t scan yesterday, and the report indicates that the Hodgkin's is on the run. Medical science's efforts to smoke it out of its hole have been successful. If all holds, I will be wrapping up chemo at the end of September. This is good news.
This also means all the bad times of the past few months have been worth it. Essentially, I have good weeks and bad weeks. A bad week starts with an injection on Monday morning. That experience is fine and the place I am going for treatment is a comfortable and nice place to go. The day following, I have a fake okay day that is edgy and weird. The whole time, starting the morning of the injection, I am on anti-nausea meds that make the whole thing bearable. I must be very careful with what I eat and drink, as each action has a consequence during this time.
On Wednesday, the darkness descends. Life in a fog, memory issues. Fatigue. Lots of fake sleeping where your mind just goes through things and you get up and feel like you have gained little to nothing from the past three hours of restless eyes-closed blech. I also stop taking the nausea meds at this point. As my stomach comes online, I am still not doing too well. I am sensitive to smells and can get stuck on bad food thoughts/nausea wave. Nothing tastes right and you are not hungry but you gotta eat. I may never be able to eat hummus/drink Gatorade again when all this is over.
Although each time the symptoms have gotten slightly stronger, I am usually returning to kind of normal by Friday or so, although this past weekend I was still having trouble on Saturday during a trip to DC. While there, I ran into one of the drugs I am having injected at the Botanical Gardens in plant form. You just need about three tons of it, dried, to make my medicine. Always something there to remind me...
Anyway, then I have a good week where I can live life pretty much like a normal dude. I don't have any tell-tale signs of my condition (my hair, for example, is thinning but not gone), and people tell me I am looking good. I get a little bit bent on eating well and enjoying not-nauseous times during this week, needless to say.
So, that has been the pattern for the summer, which has flown and crawled by. Madd props to all who have been supportive in any way. Every conversation, interaction... anything big or small has helped. No worries if we haven't had time together. I know I am in your thoughts and prayers.
Next up... a school year to navigate, injections move to Fridays... and what about radiation? It's all coming up this Fall season on the Hodgkin's Lymphoma Variety Hour. You'll love it!