Happy St Paddy's !

I'll be going to the oncology center next week and we'll see where the road leads from there. It's been a long and winding journey since May of last year. Thanks to all for the supportive emails and comments!

Tomorrow is March 17th and everybody is Irish for a day.

May your best day in the past...be your worst day in the future!!!

February

Well, here it is February and Spring will soon be here. I haven't posted since last month's post follow-up and just a quick update today.

The 3 things that are still causing me problems are neuropathy, fatigue and short-term memory loss. I find that I need to write things down more often. The neuropathy is better, but I do notice that it is a slow process and may take several more months to completely abate. General fatigue is touch and go. I have good days mostly, but some days I just end up falling asleep with naps or early at night.

I haven't been to a dentist since last January (2008), and I have a tooth that's bothering me, so I called my oncologist and he said it was fine to go for dental work. I called the dentist this morning and have an appointment for a cleaning and exam on Thursday (day after tomorrow). They insist on this before doing any other dental work. I'll bet my gums are going to bleed worse than usual. I'll blame the chemo!

Thanks for everyone's support and I'll update next month after my next follow-up when they flush the port, check bloodwork and I have my exam.

First Follow-Up Today

I just got home from my 1st chemo follow up and it went pretty good. My bloodcounts are better, but still on the low side.

I told my oncologist about the tightness in the chestport area, the ongoing neuropathy and my short term memory loss problems. He said it's typical for a chemo patient after finishing the folfox treatment of chemo.

The tingling in my fingers is still pretty bad, but he said it might take from six to nine months before that goes away, but it WILL go away! They flushed the implanted mediport with saline and heparin (both sides - dual port) with both needles at the same time!

If I play guitar for a few hours, I have to skip the next several days because of the neuropathy in my fingertips from bending strings, so I play keyboards :)

So, my next follow-up is in 2 months, March 24th, then I'll have another two months from then and next will be be CEA bloodtests, scans and colonoscopy. All in all, he said that I'm progressing very well :)

"Fighting Cancer is a lifelong deal"

The title above is a quote from another cancer fighter whose blog I've been following. You can see a link on the right side (Rotorhead's Cancer Blog).

Charles is a military chopper pilot and keeps an interesting blog.

It's been 2 1/2 weeks since my chemo ended. I'm still having a lot of neuropathy and tingling/numbness in my fingers and feet along with gasto-related issues. I have my first follow-up visit on January 21st.

We've been getting snowfall just about every weekend since the new year started. I'm starting to envy the people who are in warmer climates.

Anyway, I'll update after my follow-up visit and we'll see what the next steps of the journey will be.

Happy New Year

I'm hoping that everything will be fine in oh-oh-nine ;)

It's a great feeling to not have to go in for chemo treatments this upcoming week. I'll be going in on January 21st, for my first official "follow-up".

After that, they will continue to monitor my bloodcounts and bloodwork, flush/maintenance on my implanted mediport. It's a dual port Bard model, so that means TWO needles at once in the chestports (but NO chemo!). I refilled my prescription for the lidocaine today. I hope that I don't have to use it too often.

I'm feeling about as well as expected. I made the mistake of trying to clean some snow off a windshield without gloves and now I'm typing with one hand for a few days.
The neuropathy is probably the worst part, followed by the digestive tract "issues" and the occasional skin rashes and mouth sores, but it will now start to get better, although slowly, but I can deal with that.

I do hope that everyone enjoyed their New Year's Eve and best wishes to make it fine in 2009!