I wanted to give a more positive update than my last few postings, in advance of my sixth chemo treatment scheduled for this coming Tuesday.

FEELING MUCH BETTER

I’ve been feeling a lot better since Thursday – I would say as close to 100% back to feeling completely normal as I can remember feeling in almost a month.  It’s been a rough stretch of time between the last couple of chemo treatments and being briefly hospitalized – and it’s really nice to be feeling nice again!

It’s allowed me to return to a normal diet, and the chance to eat all my favorite foods.  We’ve had my favorite breakfast (Huevos Rancheros) each of the last two mornings. I ate some Lamb Korma from Kashmir on Friday night when Luis and I went over to Jill’s house to celebrate her new amazing job with Breeders’ Cup and play cards. I had a deep dish pizza on Saturday for lunch. I even treated myself to a glass of Prosecco the last two evenings – a very, very rare adult beverage for me!

I’ve also been able to get out of the house a few times the last few days.  I had been cooped up for weeks, so it’s been very nice.  Like I said, we went to Jill’s place on Friday night.  On Saturday, Luis and I joined Mom & Dad for lunch at BJ’s Brewhouse. And both today and yesterday we took Marco to Cherokee Park for some play time at dog hill.

HOBBLING

However, I have been hobbling around for the past few days…  I still seem to be making my own obstacles from time to time.  This time, it came from stepping on a pair of upright tweezers, which stabbed pretty deep into my right foot.

A reasonable question would be: Why were there upright Tweezers?  Well – funny you asked – our upstairs tub drain doesn’t stay open, so for the last few months we’ve been jamming a pair of tweezers in the stop to let the water out after baths, never thinking this could be a potential hazard… but, it became a hazard on Wednesday night when I stepped into the tub while reaching for something on the other end…

It was extremely painful to pull them from my foot, and there was a massive amount of blood – and it hurt for 3-4 days (like a huge bruise on the bottom of my foot) but it’s all healing up nicely as I use the many leftover supplies I got from the ‘wound specialist’ from my thumb episode last month.

My goal is to make it through the rest of treatment without any more self-inflicted wounds!

TREATMENT #6

It’s scheduled for this coming Tuesday at 10am.  I was nervous about the last treatment, but I am full of optimism for this treatment.

I’m coming into this round feeling healthy and strong, fresh off the highest White Blood Cell count I have received since before treatment began back in January.

This will be the final treatment of Cycle 3, which means that we are AT LEAST half-way through if we need to do the full six cycles of treatment. Of course, I am still hopeful for less than that, but it will all depend on how the PET Scan comes back.

PET SCAN

We’re still at least a couple weeks away from my next PET Scan, tentatively scheduled for the week of April 4 (the date of my next treatment following this week’s round).

I’d be lying if I said that I didn’t have high anxiety over this.  As it draws closer, I find myself thinking about it more and more often.  And when I think about it, I almost can’t help but falling into the Google death spiral of looking up info about failed first-line treatments, ‘what are the odds of achieving remission with ABVD,’ etc etc etc.  Much of this happens around 3am.

I need to find a healthy way of dealing with the anxiety over the next few weeks – until we get the results and know how we’re moving forward, for sure.

FAMILY VACATION

My family has scheduled a big family vacation for September, and I am so excited!

We’re going to Myrtle Beach for a week in the middle of the month.  My Aunt Marilyn is renting us a BEAUTIFUL ocean front private beach house with a gorgeous pool!  THANK YOU MARILYN!!!!!!!!!!

Ideally, I’ll have been cancer free for several months prior to this trip. I can’t wait to spend a care-free week with everyone in the family!

Luis and I are also trying to plan our own getaway immediately after treatment is over — but we’re waiting on the PET Scan results before we book anything.

I’ll let everyone know how I’m doing after Tuesday’s treatment. Hopefully, it will all be good news!  Thanks again for all the continued prayers and well-wishes!!!!!!!

Much Love

Merv