After 12 rounds, the winner is...

ME! Got the good news today from Dr. Shorty that it appears I'm cancer free. Look at me, I'm so superstitious that I don't want to come out and say that I am cancer free, but all signs point in that direction. The CT came back AWESOME and now I need to get set up for a PET scan in about 6-8 weeks. Mort and I will part ways this year since I've already racked up mondo insurance. You've been a dear, Mort, making blood draws almost effortless.

But it's not all sunshines and rainbows - I have to see another doctor for my alleged hemroid/fissure. FUN. And, I have to be careful about infections - FOR LIFE. So kids, if you have a fever, STAY AWAY FROM ME. Over 101 degree temp and I got to call Dr. Shorty. She said it's a quirk of those with HL, that our immune systems are slightly different. The debate is whether we are born with this quirk and thus predisposed to HL or if HL causes this quirk. My doc thinks it's the born with it theory. But, what it means for me is I'll still have to be careful when I get sick and avoid you sickos out there. :)

Other than that, I am good to go. Now I've got to figure out when to schedule this port to come out.

I am officially out of the Thunderome. But that doesn't mean this blog is dead, per se. I'll still update it when necessary and maybe with random non-cancer items (like how much fun home renovations are).

Thanks everyone for your thoughts and prayers. You've been awesome, but not as awesome as me, because I beat cancer. ;)

Cold

I'm not sure if chemo messes with your body temperature, but I am always cold now. Well, not always, but more than usual. The fact I lack hair doesn't help. I find myself wearing a winter hat around the house, and it's not even that chilly inside. I've actually turned on a space heater today while I work. I just thought of the idea, wish I had a few hours ago. I have on a sweater, hoodie, with the hood up and a scarf. And I'm inside a house that is 67 degress. It's going to be a long winter. :P

Scantastic

I called the doc's office today for the results of my scan and she said they were good results. However, my appointment was pushed back until next Tuesday so I won't know for sure until then if I need any more chemo or what my next steps are. So for now, good news. :)

I'm going to give everyone a tip I hope they don't have to use: If you ever find yourself needing a port, ask the doc if you can get a power port. I don't know why they are called power port, but all I know is you can have dyes and other things injected into the port. I can't with my regular ol' port. If you have bad veins you'll find this handy. Had a little trouble getting a needle in me yesterday and it's those days I wish Mort had special powers.

Light the Night

Yesterday was the Light the Night walk at Victory Field. It was a beautiful night, not too cool or hot, but a little windy. We had much better weather than our NYC teammates, who had to walk in the pouring rain!

We met at 6:30 but the walk didn't start for nearly an hour later. There were speakers, but I couldn't really hear them. It was nice and overwhelming to see how many people showed up to walk in my honor. Redteam kicked butt and raised more than $2,500 I believe! Way to go!!!

But when you have about 30 people there, it can be a challenge to speak to everyone. I have to admit I was somewhat stressed out last night, which I wanted to avoid. I just wanted to go and walk, but instead, I wanted to make sure I walked with and spoke with everyone who came. I'm not sure if I was able to accomplish that. And when you have that big of a group, it's impossible to stay together. I really didn't get a chance to take in the scenery and everything of people walking because I was too busy trying to find people in my group to talk to. It is what it is, but I still had a good night.

The best part of the night to me was when I was walking back into Victory Field with my friend Maryann and we look on the jumbotron and there's our picture!! Perfect timing! TheLLS asked people to submit photos and Maryann did. It was quite fitting and I loved it. We just happened to come in when the J people were being recognized on the tron.

I've got some pictures, and I know others took some too, so I'll try to post a few here and if you took any, can you e- mail them to me? Thank you again to everyone who came out to support me and/or raised money. It was well worth the little bit of stress from last night. Now I've got to figure out where to store the redteam banner with all your messages! :)

Afterwards, mis amigos and I went to Scotty's. I decided tonight was the night I'd have my first adult beverage since early April. After debating back and forth between beer and wine (and I was to only have one drink for the night), I went with beer. Why? Three reasons - It just sounded better, lower alcohol content, and there were $10 pitchers that night.

I must admit, the reunification with Bud Light was so-so. The first few sips took getting used to beer again (my it tastes like bread!) but after a while, I was kind of over it. I can't say I've really ever craved the beer since I couldnt have it, but I am looking forward to be able to having a cold one or glass of wine with dinner or friends every once in a while. As cookie Monster would now say, "Booze is a sometimes food."

I have my next CT scan Tuesday and get the results Wednesday. I'll learn my next steps after Wednesday, depending on the scan.

Take that cancer! Last round in the thunderdome

I finally finished my physical battle against cancer! After 12 rounds, and cancer throwing its cronies of nausea, constipation, diarreah, swelling, pain, low WBCs, hair loss, and all the other crap, i'm done!! I had the last chemo yesterday and so far so good. I'm still in bed recovering but I don't care. I'm just happy that hopefully in 2 days I'll feel good again and won't have to worry about this anymore!

Because of my delayed cancer, all my tests have been pushed back a week, but I still should know by Christmas or my birthday whether the cancer is gone. huzzah!! Still have to be careful about things, avoid smoke and drinking for now, but i may be able to have an adult beverage in the next month or so. huzzah!! :)

What a strange week

The latter half of my week was just random, strange, and stressful. You are already aware of the bad blood draw, the redraw and then the low WBC count. Then there was the incident with my port being clogged but not really so I wasted a trip to the doc's office. You, loyal reader, are also aware that I've had to have the shots again to try to boost said WBC count and hope I can have chemo monday.

Cut to thursday evening. It was a very stressful day for me. I initially wanted to take the day off because it was going to be my last chemo, but then it turned out too many people were busy in the office so I pretty much had to help at least in the morning. It was probably for the best workwise that I didn't have chemo that day because it ended up being a very busy day for us. And for me, trying to balance work, two blood draws, a port flush, and workers at the house.

If stress can mess with your WBC count, then no wonder if was low on thursday. I was in bed by 9 p.m. if that tells you how crazy of a day it was for me.

So, I'm getting ready for bed and putting on my pjs and my left ankle is swollen up like a canckle! Didn't hurt, didn't twist my ankle. Unexplained canckle. the right ankle looked ok, maybe slightly swollen. I thought, maybe it's my shoes, as I was wearing new shoes all day. I called the doc next day and came in just to be sure. She ordered an ultra sound because the swelling (which had gone down considerably overnight) was up in my lower calf area too. But the ultra sound tech didn't see anything and the doc never called me, so again, just some random swelling. the tech told me she gets a lot of chemo patients who experience the same thing. I just think my body is like, wth is going on??

I'm in chemo limbo, or chemo purgatory for all you Catholics out there. I am so close to getting through the gates of heaven (no more chemos) but yet I wait. and wait. and wait. I know I won't get sent to hell (many more chemos) so I wait to have this one, elusive chemo treatement. I just want this to be over with. I guess all my "this hasn't been so bad, i've been lucky, no major setbacks, blah blah blah" has been shoved to the last treatment. :P