I am now officially cancer-free! Boy, what a great thing. It's such a relief to know the cancer is in remission, and the doctor doesn't even expect anything to come up again, ever. It's because the cancer such a quick and great response to the chemo-therapy, that they expect it to stay away. There's always the slight chance of it coming back though. Something like 1-5%. I'll take those odds. It's been such a journey. My good friend, Blaine, told me about 2 Cor 1: 3-4. Boy was he right on the money with that one. No sooner did I read that, then one of my co-workers, who's in his 60s, found out he has lung cancer. One of the things he told me though was that he thought of me and how I persevered through my cancer, and it gave him a good bit of encouragement. So, we talked for about half an hour about it all, and he felt a lot more comfortable about what to expect. He has stage 1 cancer, which is good (relatively) because it's in it's beginning stages. He has a much higher chance of surviving with a great outcome. So, to be able to share my experience with him was a good thing for me also. It always feels good when you can comfort someone who's going through the same thing you went through and have the experience.
Other than that, my strength is coming back, slowly. I can tell the chemo is finally getting out of my system, and things are getting back to normal. And food is starting to taste normal again! What a great thing. But I still have the occasional chemo-brain thing happening. (Chemo-brain is slang for the side effect the chemo has on short-term memory). I can be thinking about doing something, and literally within 5 minutes I will completely forget about it. I didn't normally do this before. Not too much anyways. But that's starting to get better too.
So, this Christmas is going to be a little more special to me, even though I'll be by myself. The good Lord keeps reminding me of what I've been through, and it just puts a smile on my face to know that I came out on the other side just fine, with His right beside me of course. And I'm really looking forward to 2008. I think things are going to be good for me. We'll see what happens!
Sunday, December 9, 2007
Tuesday, November 6, 2007
Long Overdue Update
First, let me apologize to everyone for not keeping up with the updates. At the end of September, I moved to a new apartment, and couldn't get internet for almost a month. Now that I have it, I will try to keep the updates coming more regularly.
Well, a lot has happened since last time. I had my last chemo-therapy treatment on Oct 31! Thank God that's over with. I have my next PET scan on Nov 26, but the doctors are 99.9% sure it's going to be clear, seeing as how the last scan was clean. That means the cancer is officially in remission! Although I am very fortunate that it wasn't worse than it was, it wasn't a walk in the park. All that time of being sick, upset stomach, being extremely tired, and the little bit of hair loss. Feels like it's been going on for a lot longer than 6 months. But here I am, getting over the last little bit of nausea and fatigue, and looking forward to getting on with my life. Things sure have changed for me though. I definitely have a different outlook on life, which I think is a standard for almost anyone who has survived cancer. I'll go in to details about that later. But when you hear those words "you have cancer", that's one of the most fearful things there is. And it will change your life, whether you like it or not. Lord knows the millions of thoughts that ran through my head. I was scared beyond anything I'd ever felt before. Sure I've been to Kuwait and Saudi Arabia when I was in the military, but there was always some measure of security and safety in that. But with the cancer, you feel completely helpless. Sure there are good doctors and medicine, but that stuff doesn't always work. It was the first time in my life that I ever felt completely defenseless, and it scared the hell out of me. One of those thoughts was that "this is it. My time is up. I guess I've had a good life. Wish it could have been longer though." But that was one of those thoughts that I HAD to get rid of, or else the cancer would have won. And I eventually did. Now looking back, I know that with the grace of God, I have overcome a tremendous hurdle, and that I DO have more life to live. Now's my chance to really make a difference, really make something meaningful of my life. I'm still trying to figure out the details of it all though. What exactly do I do now? What do I strive for? I know a lot of "good" answers, but not the one that's for me. For now, my new goal is to do a charity bicycle ride for the "LiveStrong" foundation. There's going to be a few charity rides in 2008, and that's what I'm focusing on starting now. I know I have a long ways to go, fitness wise, but my goal right now is to do one of those rides. I'll update everyone on the details when I get a better idea of exactly when and where that will be.
Thank you from the bottom of my heart to all of you who have prayed and supported me through all of this. I know I haven't been in contact with everyone as much as I would like, but please know that I continually think of all of you, and give thanks for you being my friends and providing support. It all really means more than you could imagine. I will make a conscious effort in the next few weeks to get in touch with all of you. God bless every one of you.
Well, a lot has happened since last time. I had my last chemo-therapy treatment on Oct 31! Thank God that's over with. I have my next PET scan on Nov 26, but the doctors are 99.9% sure it's going to be clear, seeing as how the last scan was clean. That means the cancer is officially in remission! Although I am very fortunate that it wasn't worse than it was, it wasn't a walk in the park. All that time of being sick, upset stomach, being extremely tired, and the little bit of hair loss. Feels like it's been going on for a lot longer than 6 months. But here I am, getting over the last little bit of nausea and fatigue, and looking forward to getting on with my life. Things sure have changed for me though. I definitely have a different outlook on life, which I think is a standard for almost anyone who has survived cancer. I'll go in to details about that later. But when you hear those words "you have cancer", that's one of the most fearful things there is. And it will change your life, whether you like it or not. Lord knows the millions of thoughts that ran through my head. I was scared beyond anything I'd ever felt before. Sure I've been to Kuwait and Saudi Arabia when I was in the military, but there was always some measure of security and safety in that. But with the cancer, you feel completely helpless. Sure there are good doctors and medicine, but that stuff doesn't always work. It was the first time in my life that I ever felt completely defenseless, and it scared the hell out of me. One of those thoughts was that "this is it. My time is up. I guess I've had a good life. Wish it could have been longer though." But that was one of those thoughts that I HAD to get rid of, or else the cancer would have won. And I eventually did. Now looking back, I know that with the grace of God, I have overcome a tremendous hurdle, and that I DO have more life to live. Now's my chance to really make a difference, really make something meaningful of my life. I'm still trying to figure out the details of it all though. What exactly do I do now? What do I strive for? I know a lot of "good" answers, but not the one that's for me. For now, my new goal is to do a charity bicycle ride for the "LiveStrong" foundation. There's going to be a few charity rides in 2008, and that's what I'm focusing on starting now. I know I have a long ways to go, fitness wise, but my goal right now is to do one of those rides. I'll update everyone on the details when I get a better idea of exactly when and where that will be.
Thank you from the bottom of my heart to all of you who have prayed and supported me through all of this. I know I haven't been in contact with everyone as much as I would like, but please know that I continually think of all of you, and give thanks for you being my friends and providing support. It all really means more than you could imagine. I will make a conscious effort in the next few weeks to get in touch with all of you. God bless every one of you.
Wednesday, August 8, 2007
Great Test Results
Well, I got the results from the PET scan today. As far as the scan shows, all of the cancer is gone! I couldn't believe it. Not one single spot of cancer, anywhere. But the doctors want me to continue the chemo-therapy to get all of the cancer cells that the scan may not show. Just a "better safe than sorry" type thing. Which is fine with me, I don't want to go through this again. So, thanks to everyone that was saying a prayer for me. Things are going ok, had chemo today, and the nausea is already hitting. It use to take a couple of days, but this time and the last time it hit only a few hours later. The doc gave me a new nausea medicine, so hopefully it works good. I'm just happy the cancer is gone, seems pretty amazing to me that only 3 months ago things were looking not-too-good. Thank God things went/are going as good as they are. Thanks again to everyone that has kept me in you prayers and memories.
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