here we go, part 2

Well, I promised my faithful readers I would update this more often than I have in the past, but a month has gone by and I'm way overdue for an update. The second cycle of chemo treatments that were scheduled for mid-June was postponed a week because of a low platelet count, and postponed another week due to low white cells. Those little buggers finally got themselves aligned with "normal" and I started the second cycle on Monday. That was an all-day deal, eight hours, followed by four hours today and four tomorrow.

So far, no nausea and no obvious (to me) impairment as a result, except having to get up every hour during the night and having to recover from Benadryl, which knocks me out for a couple of hours when the session starts. I still have my appetite, which is good. I lost a lot of weight last Fall when all this started and the idea of food didn't sound good to me. I think the loss of appetite was a psychological problem. For the first several weeks, I was in (but fighting) the "woe-is-me" mode, struggling to accept the fact I had cancer, the Big C, the death sentence, and then realizing that, no, it is treatable. A wonderful word, treatable. A life-saving word.

The oncology clinic is a wi-fi zone, and I can take my lap-top and my iPod Touch. I can also take my brand-new Kindle, a surprise gift from my in-laws, who decided I'd much rather take a Kindle that weighs mere ounces instead of a dozen or more heavy books to read when I go into captivity - I mean, the hospital - in August. It was a wonderful gift. I have wonderful in-laws. I've mailed them old-fashioned written thank-you notes stuffed with photos of our three grandkids.

So now I'll have a couple of weeks to recuperate, and in mid-July I'll go to Moffitt Cancer Hospital in Tampa for three days of testing of my vital organs. Barring any ugly surprises, I'll enter Moffitt in mid-August.

And I promise to keep you up to date more often than I have.

here we go again

My half dozen regular readers already know this story, but I'm overdue in updating my optimistic report about my cancer treatments. It seems I was overly optimistic.

So now it's back to Square Two in my fight against lymphoma. I had a cycle of chemo treatments in Clearwater on May 26-28, and will have another cycle on June 16-18. Then, testing at Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa to see if my vital organs can withstand what I'll call the Neutron Bomb treatment. If so, they'll harvest stem cells from my blood stream and I will get that treatment at Moffitt in early to mid August. I will be in the hospital at Moffitt for one to three weeks while the stem cells work on repopulating the bone marrow, then must find a place to live in seclusion within 15 minutes of Moffitt, with a live-in companion, for another 30 days or so. When I get home, I must avoid the office and people for another month or so, which brings me down to October before life will begin getting back to normal. I may be susceptible to infections for months afterwards, so if you find yourselves asking "who was that masked man?" - it might have been me.

All of this seems to have coincided with baseball season and the Rays are doing exceptionally well, so I am looking forward to watching the Rays becoming the Boys of October and winning the World Series this time. I am very happy to have gotten my travel "bug" adjusted, having seen all of my beautiful children and grandchildren at least once over the past three months.

As I said to a friend from high school who is going back for treatment for prostate cancer to see if it spread elsewhere in his body, getting old is not as much fun as they said it would be!