Wednesday, April 30, 2014

Last Round!

Glorify the Lord with me;
let us exalt his name together.
Psalm 34:3 (NIV)

So I’m sitting in a chemo treatment chair for my last round of chemo!  By the time you read this, two major surgeries and twelve rounds of chemo will be behind me!  In fact, it sounded weird to hear the oncologist say, at our meeting last Friday, that “this is the last time I’ll see you for three months”.  It feels exciting, since it feels like it’s been a long, hard road even though it’s actually been less than a year.  Unfortunately, it’s hard not to be haunted by the fact that 1) the probability of recurrence within the next five years is 60-80%, and 2) my Mom’s cancer came back within three months and took her quickly after that, but for now I am looking forward to a period of health.

Note to self:  if you’re determined to live through a stomach bug, avoid doing that over a chemo-recovery weekend!  Yes, a stomach bug went through our household over the last couple of weeks, and, maybe due to reduced immunity, it got me just as I was going down with chemo.  Usually I get my chemo on Wednesday and then start to fade out late Friday and come out of it Sunday.  This last time it was like someone flipped a switch Friday mid-afternoon.  I was working and then a sledge hammer hit me and I was in bed.  For the next several days it was all I could do to crawl the commute between the bed (or my chair) and the throne, which I had to do numerous times daily (occasionally numerous times hourly).  It wasn’t until the next Thursday that I finally started feeling better.  Needless to say, that was one of my worst recovery times since the beginning of this journey.  Anyway, I’m optimistic that this time will not be that bad.

Since then I’ve been feeling quite good, and I anticipate a couple of good days, then chemo-recovery (which typically consists of a whole lot of sleep), and then things will start looking brighter again, hopefully for many years to come!

And to celebrate the end of chemo, our family is going to try to scrape together our pennies and take a short road trip to the coast.  Coincidentally, the May long weekend marks a year since our family has gone on any kind of trip together, and for those of you that know me, you’ll know that’s practically an eternity.  Our vacation plans for last summer fell through, and we may not be able to afford a “real” vacation for a while yet, but I’m determined at least to take a long weekend away.  I’m hoping and praying it will be a good weekend of family time and time to acknowledge how God has taken us through this last year.

So, I’m sure I’ll send more updates in the future, but it may not be quite as regular.  Until next time, God bless!

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