Month: December 2021

Hi everyone!

Wishing you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! Thank you all for the well wishes and birthday wishes!

Just a short post to update on how things are going. Well…

I HAVE FINISHED CHEMO!

I, 4 days later, still feel like a pile of crap. Probably the biggest pile of crap I’ve felt since the first round. BUT I AM DONE. NO MORE!

I never want to go through that again.

Anyway, I suppose many of you have already seen my beautiful bride’s beautiful post with videos and pictures celebrating with the hospital nurses. I’ll post them here as well for those who may have not yet seen. See the bottom of this post for the video, and a bonus video!

Anyway, I’m more exhausted than I’ve ever been. I still had hiccups. Whatever. They will soon be distant memories!

What’s Next?

Next week I have another PET scan, then a follow up consultation with the radiation department later in the week. Hoping for very clean results, and also hoping for NO radiation. I am more than ready to get back to LIVING!

At some point my port will have to come out – so another surgery. Not sure what other things will have to happen – certainly some other follow-up testing. One thing I do know, this year will be the year of health. Looking at how I will grow to be stronger, and healthier.

There is a lot I want to write about. Quite frankly I enjoy writing, and it helps me to solidify my opinions. I believe this has been a great outlet for me during this cancer treatment. I am going to do more writing in the new year, on not just my health, but my work and things dealing with it. More to come! First, I gotta shake this chemo brain!

It is hard to believe that this has been going on since July of this year. This has exhausted me physically and mentally. Without the steadfast love of my wife, the enormous and unending support from family, friends, and neighbors, a renewed personal faith, and lots and lots of cuddles from Bella, I don’t know how I would have made it through. I wouldn’t have. No way.

Thank you all for the love in 2021. I hope that in 2022, I will be able to give back some good to the world, in turn for some of what it has done for me.

Happy New Year!

Signing the Bell and giving it a ring!

Joy to the World at Christmas Mass!

Hello everyone!

I hope you had a great Thanksgiving. It was nice for us to have a few extra days before the next treatment, so we were able to make our first solo Thanksgiving dinner. We had lots of food and everything turned out well!

Sorry that I didn’t write after treatment 6, so here I am making two posts in one after treatment 7. Only one more to go! You’ll hear from me again after Christmas.

Well not much new here with me, just the same old crap. So much for the medicine to help my hiccups! I had the worst hiccups yet after round 6, going on for three days. My throat is still feeling quite sore/strange. I made a bigger deal about this with my doctor, as I worry about any potential damage done to my throat/vocal cords. Probably nothing to worry about, but at least being so miserable from non-stop hiccups would be nice! So I got a different medication to try.

Well so far, the day after round 7, it doesn’t seem to help much. I’ve been in bed/couch most of the day, as laying down is the only surefire way to keep the hiccups at bay. I have been able to sing for Masses all Sundays of Advent so far, but it has been a stretch. My energy levels are overall very low. I even did a few tunings, which made me feel proud, but boy did they take every last ounce of power I had left.

I’ve said before that I have been feeling pretty tired. That more true this time than at the last post! It doesn’t take much to make me completely exhausted for the day. This won’t be a super long post just because I’m so tired and I find it hard to mentally focus for long periods. It feels a lot like one step forward, two steps back.

I have to push myself to not be a couch-potato, which I certainly have been. I’ve slept so much, and so well, lately, that I feel a lot less stressed. This is a welcome change, but paradoxically, I am still so tired. That’s ok – more cuddle time with Bella as the days get colder!

An uncomfortable change

Something else has happened, that hasn’t happened in over 10 years. I am now clean shaven! Most of my mustache and facial hair around my chin had simply fallen out, and the rest was looking like a high school boy trying to grow out what little peach fuzz he could. I decided, very solemnly, that it had to go. So, I cut my head hair down to a shorter length and went clean shaven. I HATE IT. My face is so cold now! But hopefully in a few months, it will all come back again.

My head hair is very thinned out now. Luyang affectionately calls me “Kiwi-head”, since it seems to her to look like the skin of a kiwi. Such love!

Next steps

I learned at the latest doctor appointment that I will have yet another PET scan in early January, after I’ve finished Chemo treatments. (Do they have a buy 2, get one free discount on these things!?) After that, I will have a consultation with the radiation folks. I hope I don’t need to do it, as it will mean another month or more of treatments, 5 days a week, but we shall see. They won’t decide until they’ve seen the latest PET results.

Anyway, one more chemo treatment to go! I can’t wait to be done.

Now it’s time for another nap…

Till next time – thank you for reading, and I hope you all have a Merry and Blessed Christmas!