Good News

There are too many patients, and not enough doctors!

My appointment today was for 1:30, but we didn't see Dr R till 3:00PM. Come to find out, he had 5 patients scheduled for 1:00 and 4 more scheduled for 1:30! Wow! That is just too many people for one doctor to see. Someone ought to deliver a stern lecture to the people who make these appointments. They shouldn't pile people up like that.

While we were waiting, I tried to get Lou to play patty-cake with me to that old rhyme "Oh Mary Mack Mack Mack, all dressed in black black black, with silver buttons buttons buttons all down her back back back..." and the results were so hysterical that a couple of nurses came into the exam room to see what we were laughing about. Then I tried to do it with both nurses, but we all remembered it differently, and no one could get it going right. That helped the time pass.

When we finally saw Dr R, we got GOOD NEWS that was worth the wait!!!

• No new spots were detected. Yahoo!

• All the spots in the lungs stayed the same. Yahoo!

• The spot in the psoas muscle, as usual, stayed the same. Yahoo!

• The spot in the pancreas shrank from 4.9cm x 4.7cm to 3.9cm x 3.9cm. Super Yahoo!

That is a lot to be happy about. I am really happy that the spot in the pancreas shrank, and I am really happy that chemo is over.

We also talked about cryoablation. We're going to wait and see what happens in the August scan before making any decisions.

Dr R was lukewarm about cryoablation because he says that there is no benefit shown to having three tumors in your lungs versus six tumors, but he did say that he would encourage me to go forward with cryoablation as long as I wouldn't be quitting chemo mid-stream to pursue it. I can understand that.

I guess you've noticed that I haven't been blogging lately. I've been so happy that chemo is over, I just haven't wanted to think about cancer. So I'm going back on cancer vacation. I'm not going to think about it, talk about, or blog about it. The only reminder will be when I put a hat on every day, and I can live with that.

So this is goodbye for 60 days.

See ya mid-August!

Strangely Calm on Scan Day

Today is Scan Day.

I am supposed to get blood drawn at 1:00PM, and then the scan at 2:00PM. So, I'll be going to work for a half day first.

I am strangely calm. Usually, I am a bit worked up for the week before Scan Day, because I spend a lot of timing worrying about worst case scenarios and hoping for a miracle.

But not this week. I haven't been worrying or hoping at all. It's sort of strange. I'm like, "Whatever happens, we'll deal with it."

I wonder if part of my calm isn't because I know that there is some cryablation in my future. Nothing like the promise of really killing a tumor to give you a cheerful outlook.

I also wonder if this good mood isn't because of all the walking I have been doing. I am in my second week of walking every morning before work. (Okay, I missed one day out of the last eleven days.) I've been getting up at 6:00AM so I can get out there before it gets too hot. I've been walking 2.2 miles fast (alone) followed by 0.4 miles slow (with dog). Last weekend, I walked a much longer route, but I haven't measured it in the car yet to see how far it actually was.

When I started walking, it was really hard. I was so out of breath on the hills. But as of today and yesterday, I finally am seeing a huge improvement in both speed and breathing.

They say that regular exercise can have a huge impact on your mood and outlook. So maybe that's why I am cool this week.

If so, I'll just keep walking! Being cool is much better than the Worrying/Hoping Rollercoaster.

What else can I tell you? I am still wearing a hat, but I have a lot of peach fuzz and hope to be hat-free in a month...

I'll get my scan results tomorrow at 1:30PM. So tomorrow night, I'll post again and let you know what happened.

Restless Legs

It has been quite a week.

I have been struggling with post-chemo problems, but the whole time I have been reminding myself that I took the last dose! It's over!

This time, there was a lot more skin-crawling restlessness. I couldn't sit still. Imagine having "restless legs" for your whole body and brain. At the same time, I was barely functional, so mostly I wandered around the house in my PJs, moving things around like a zombie obsesed with tidiness. Luckily, after 15 to 30 minutes, the restless period would pass and then I would sleep. (This was worst on Saturday and Sunday.)

I knew I was finally getting better on Wednesday when I could not sleep during the day at all, even though I was tired. During those times, I read.

Now, I am still easily tired, but I am feeling pretty good. Yesterday I worked for 4 hours from home. Today I will go in to the office for 4 hours.

Our phone came back on Wednesday morning. It was probably a good thing that we had no Internet access during the worst part of my chemo insomnia, so I could not surf the web and shop late late into the night.

Last night I saw my friend Carolyn, and she reminded me that she and her husband visited me in the hospital on the Friday of Chemo Weekend 5 (the one before this last one). I had forgotten all about it, but a lot of the details came back to me once she reminded me.

I want to thank everyone for all the York Peppermint patties! I got several bags! And they worked great, although by now I am sort of sick of the minty goodness. When I left the hospital on Saturday, I gave one completely un-opened bag to the nurses. The lucky nurses were the ones on the first day, who always got the Girl Scout Cookies.

On my way to work this morning, I have to stop at the doctor's office for some bloodwork, so I had better get a move on.