Happy 2019! Apologies again for the mid-week update, but between the holidays and the most recent treatment I decided to take things as easy as I could. But here I am giving you an update on where things are.
The schedule of chemo really blessed me. I was able to enjoy both my birthday and the Christmas holiday on the "off" weekend, which has been helpful. I alluded to it the last time, but as we come to the end of this part of the journey, the cumulative effects of the chemo have started to take their toll. Nothing major, dear readers, but I haven't been able to bounce back as quickly as I did in the beginning.
Let's start with the visit to the dermatologist. If you recall, my oncologist had wanted to get a spot that I had on my leg for the past decade plus checked out, and it would serve as a chance to get my blooming eczema checked out as well. The dermatologist at Beth Israel was wonderful, had a great bedside manner, and oddly enough had a connection to Carolina Basketball. It helped give us something to talk about while he did the exam, in which he not only did a punch biopsy on the spot on the leg but scraped off a mole that I had...scratched a little too much.
Take a lesson kids, as much as it may itch, scratching usually doesn't do you any good. In my case, it turned a mole that he wasn't worried about into one that had to be biopsied. I'm still waiting on the results, but based on the discussion I had with the doctor it really isn't anything to worry about. I'm sure the holidays have slowed down the results, and soon enough I'll have confirmation that there's nothing really to worry about.
As far as the eczema goes, the doc prescribed a stronger ointment, one that you can't get over the counter, and it's regular use has done wonders. Thanks to its use, the itching has significantly subsided down to what it would normally be at this time of year. Completely manageable, and even refill available. It's fair to say that at least on that comfort level, life has been a lot better.
What hasn't been good is living in Boston when the weather has turned cold. Sure enough right around the time of the dermatology appointment, some sort of crud decided it wanted to settle into my system. Luckily, no fevers and no signs of the flu, just a ton of mucus that decided it wanted to settle in both my nose and lungs. The lungs were especially fun since it would bring random coughing fits that would last several minutes. Let me tell you, it's tough to get a full night's sleep when you wake up, even with NyQuil, at about 3 AM coughing for about five minutes straight and sounding like you're going to hack up a lung.
The hacking didn't impede me from my holiday shopping. I did everything on-line, but for Christmas we always host my best friend and his boyfriend, the same pair who so wonderfully host us during Thanksgiving. When we do that, my wife cooks an amazing chicken and andouille sausage gumbo, which requires a fair number of ingredients to come together. We also have biscuits, made for the second time with the White Lily flour thanks to one of my wonderful North Carolina friends, that I have for breakfast along with special bacon if I can find it.
Where does one procure a cajun sausage and special bacon? Why at this wonderful butcher shop called Savenor's. There are two shops, one in Cambridge and one in Boston near MGH. For the last few years I went to Cambridge, but this year the trip came up empty without any bacon and any sausage. Luckily, the Boston location had a full selection of the andouille sausage, and let me tell you, this stuff makes a big difference over the mass-produced stuff you can get at grocery stores. It's the closest we get to getting the locally made sausage you get down in Southeast Texas, and as a bonus they had a butch-cut bacon that included a cajun dry-rub. As an extra bonus, I happened to catch a package that had been weighed incorrectly, and was marked at a significantly reduced price.
Once we got to Christmas Eve, it was our first year where we didn't have plans in a long time. For the first couple of years we spent it with family, then once the realities of trying to travel this time of year hit we stayed home and would spend the evening with one of Kat's really good friends and her family. Well, she moved this year and we had to figure out a new tradition. Since we both worked, we decided to take it easy and come home, make some soup, and give each other a gift of a new book and chocolate. Her gift to me? Stuart Scott's Every Day I Fight. It is an outstanding book, one where you can absolutely read it in Scott's voice and one that connected to me in a very personal way. I can't recommend that book highly enough, even if you aren't going through cancer, because Scott is very frank in the way he talks about his feelings while going through the fight. He vocalizes a lot of thoughts I've had, while wondering if I was being selfish or thinking of myself too much. I finished that book in less than a week.
Christmas Eve also brought some wonderful gifts from my older brother and his wife. The best gift may have been this bracelet. It's been added to my right wrist where the #MAAGA and #KACA bracelet sits, and between the two I have a ton of motivation every time I look down.
Christmas itself couldn't have gone better. Kat and I gave each other new headphones to use with our phones, mine being AirPods, hers being a good pair of Bose noise cancelling headphones. They work well for each of our tastes, hers being too big to lose and mine being small enough to fit in my pocket and easily used by just opening the case and putting them in your ear. Kathleen also surprised me with tickets to see BC play UNC! I'll still be doing radiation then, but there isn't any reason to think I can miss the game as the treatment will be earlier in the day. I was also far enough away from my last treatment that I was able to enjoy another Christmas treat: glass bottle Cokes with breakfast. Man, there is no other taste like that Coke that comes out of that bottle. I don't drink them regularly cause of the cost but for Christmas, I always treat myself.
The rest of the day was wonderful, a mix of relaxing and scurrying around to get the apartment in a presentable shape for our company. Kathleen's gumbo was wonderful as usual, and the home made cornbread added a great touch to the meal, and we spent the evening just laughing life away, enjoying each other's company, and watching SNL skits that we hadn't seen in ages. It was a great way to celebrate the season, and while the Cancer talk did come up, it was another day where I got to forget that I was fighting a fight and instead just...be with friends.
All good things must come to an end, and sure enough not only was Christmas over but it was time for the next treatment. While the biopsy results are still pending, I did get good news with the other test I did when I went to BI the week before. As I mentioned, I also had an appointment for a CT scan of the chest and pelvis. The point of the scan was to look around and make sure that, again, the cancer hadn't spread. All the numbers had been good but you don't want to go into your last cycle with signs that the cancer had entered into other areas of your body. The great news from the scan was that the cancer, again, appears contained to the rectal region, and not only that but the lymph nodes that had been enlarged from the last scan were actually reduced in size. Those nodes are the reason why this cancer is stage 3, and that they are starting to shrink while not spreading to other areas is a good sign that this round is working.
As the title of the blog would tell you, there's also a big moment coming up: the last chemo. Last Friday marked part one of the last cycle, which means January 11th will be the actual last treatment. It's getting real folks, because I have an appointment with the radiation oncologist on January 16th to start talking about that portion of the treatment.
I'll have more information about what I'm facing then, but it looks like my original timeline may have been a little off. It's looking like it'll be six weeks of a Monday-Friday treatment, and starting around the first of February. Following that timeline, and assuming I don't miss any days, I'd be finishing around the ACC Tournament. I'm hoping that the actual meeting results in a slightly different timeline, as that will be an...inconvenient six weeks. The sooner I can knock out the radiation, the sooner I can focus on recovering for the surgery.
Honestly, the biggest thing has been the fatigue. It was really bad on Monday and Tuesday, to the point where I slept a good amount of Monday just so I could be up for the New Year to hit. As I was so close to a treatment, I couldn't have any champaign but Kathleen went to a local gourmet store in Harvard Square and found me some wonderful sodas that I could use to celebrate. We were able to enjoy our traditional Rotel queso for dinner, and thanks to the naps I made it to midnight. As for New Year's Day? I barely moved, except right at the end of the day when I grabbed the food for the traditional New Year's dinner.
I figured since last year didn't go so well I needed to change up how we did the pork, black-eyed peas, and cabbage. I also knew I wasn't going to feel like doing a ton of work because of the fatigue. Luckily, King's, the bar-b-cue place in Kinston where my grandparents are from offers a delivery service. Using that, I was able to get some good Eastern NC pork, some well-cooked peas, some fine cole slaw, and even some Brunswick Stew for my lovely wife who loves the stuff despite never hearing of it till she moved to North Carolina. I thought I had ordered hush puppies as well for the cornbread part, but either they were forgotten or I just didn't see them in the box. No bother, though, we have a great cornbread recipe that's easy to make and, in the end, it's probably better to have eaten the real stuff instead of the fried pieces.
Today has been better, and if the pattern follows as each day passes I'll get closer to normal. I'll have to do it next week without Kathleen as she plans to head down to Texas and meet her nephew for the first time. There shouldn't be any issues as the week of a treatment is like a normal week for me, and she'll be back in time to celebrate the last chemo. In the meantime, life rolls along.
So, once again, thank you for everything you did in 2018. Without your love and support, I don't know if I'd be able to be as positive as I am now. I only hope that it continues in 2019, and by the end of the year I'm thanking you for your help in making me a cancer survivor. So to you and yours, Happy New Year!
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