Sometimes I feel like I’m on a roller coaster. I have days with lots of energy and days I mostly sit on the couch. There are a bunch of things all colliding at the same time. As I quickly recover from back surgery, the nerve damage persists. Meanwhile, chemo is starting to take its toll on me. In all, it results in a wild ride.
It’s good to have a checkpoint once in a while to put it all in perspective. Yesterday was just such a checkpoint when I met with my infectious disease doctor. When I mentioned the ups and downs, she quickly reminded me of where I was just a month ago. I came into her office in a wheelchair in intense pain, with a lemon sized tumor in my spine and a severe infection. She reminded me that just a month ago I had undiagnosed fast growing lymphoma. She reminded me that in just this four weeks, I’ve done incredible things to get to where I am today.
At yesterday’s checkpoint, she reminded me that now I am able to walk into her office on my own (which is a miracle in itself). My tumor has been removed. My infection is gone. I have started chemo to eradicate the cancer. (Not to mention that I survived coding out on the operating table.)
It was refreshing to get this reminder to put things in perspective.
In other news, she removed me from IV antibiotics (a sincere thank you is owed to my dear wife for injecting me daily for the past 6 weeks). I’ll just be on oral antibiotics from here on out. She also said, for as large an incision that I have (10 inches with 26 stiches), it is healing very well.