That is what my chemo nurse called me. She is a lot of fun and we joke around a lot but she was referring to how well I am doing – outside the normal expectations.
This last treatment, my ninth, I had a consult with two docs – the oncologist (Dr. Thomas) and the integrative care doc (Dr. Mike, protégé of Dr. Block.) Several days earlier I had CT scans done. Once again the news was good. The scans do not reveal any tumor regrowth, one lymph node is reduced in size to normal and the other two are unchanged (slightly enlarged). There are a few other things like my tumor marker number is slightly up (from the precipitous fall of the previous reading -- that does not alarm the doc, scans are much more important) and this round I'm getting the booster shot for white blood cell count, which I have not needed for the last four times. These things just let you know I'm not a total freak.
I asked each doc to rate me on 1 to 10 scale. Thomas gave me an 8 and the Mike a 9. Dr. Mike remarked on how good I looked, “I see cancer patients all day, every day, but if I didn’t know you had cancer I would not see it. You look the best of any patient here.”
It was a good day. Can you believe how very blessed I am? My support team, led by the best wife a man could ever hope for, deserves so much credit.
Number 9 means I am 3/4s of the way through the first round. After that I go into a maintenance cycle. I had naively hoped that meant chemo was over. No such luck. I will actually continue chemo for another year. That is the bad news. However, there is good news. I will be dropping the drug that is the most toxic. This will dramatically reduce the side effects that are the most bothersome. In fact, Dr. Mike said that patients report to him that they feel nearly normal. Given how well I’ve done thus far I’m hopeful for that close to normal state. I look forward to an energy return, which will be nice.
So much to be grateful for!!
Tomorrow marks one year from the day we received the fateful call that Nathan had taken his life. It hardly seems possible that he has been gone a year already. How are we doing? Sad, yet peaceful. Memories of Nate as a boy bring us joy as we think of his zest for life and variety of life experiences that he enjoyed so much – from playing basketball in the inner city to enjoying small town adventures (and misadventures) with his cousins in Wisconsin. But adulthood mental illness made life so very, very difficult. There is a peace in knowing he no longer suffers.
We are so blessed with family and friends who have stood with us, prayed, encouraged and helped over these years of challenge from one thing to another. Your gift to us is beyond words of appreciation.
Thanks to Eric Metcalf for passing on this quote:
Thanks to Eric Metcalf for passing on this quote:
“If anything matters then everything matters. Because you are important, everything you do is important. Every time you forgive, the universe changes; every time you reach out and touch a heart or a life, the world changes; with every kindness and service, seen or unseen... nothing will ever be the same again.” William P. Young in The Shack
