5 years, cured!
I recently had my last check up at the Tom Baker Cancer Center. It marked my 5th year post-treatment. The results were perfect and I can now relax. I am done with this disease and I hope to never face it again. I sometimes thought that this day would never come. Now that it has, it feels surreal. I look back and remember a lot of extremes but they seem dulled by time. I want to move on and have an amazing life from here…
2 Years!
Well, yesterday was my 2 year check up. It actually hasn’t been two full years but I guess each of my appointments has been a bit before schedule. I don’t really care though, I’m 2 years cancer free! Looking back I realize that the memories of my experience are beginning to fade. I don’t think about what I went through as much as I should. I’m taking life for granted again. I feel like the only thing that I’ve really taken from this is compassion…
+16 Months
My chest x-rays are clear, my blood work is perfect and the physical exam was good! I was a bit nervous before this one, but it seems like I shouldn’t have been! My next checkup will be in October.
+16 Month Tests Delayed
My next visit was supposed to be June 5th, but it was delayed because Dr. Blahey is on vacation. I’m going in on June 12th, next Tuesday, instead. This time I’m getting a chest x-ray, bloodwork and a physical exam. I guess those PET scans cause too many false positive scares. I’m very thankful for that because I don’t know if I could handle another one!
A Year Later…..
I’m still clean! Sorry this is a bit late, I’ve been a bit busy with everything. I took on a couple contracts outside of Nortel to make some extra money and have simply run out of hours in the day. I now switch to checkups every 4 months instead of 3. My next one is just a chest x-ray and bloodwork in June. I’m pretty excited because the chances of relapse fall quite a bit after the first year has passed. Hopefully it will stay…
+9 Months – Clean!
I have no idea why the last one showed activity but my +9 month scan was completely clean. No cancer!!! I must have been excited or something for that last one I have decided that these scares are going to be no fun in the future so I hope to have few of them. I think it’s time to start enjoying life again, I was starting to get a bit down there. Bring on the ski season!
Waiting…..
I had my +9 month PET scan and now begins the longest week ever waiting for the results. I get them next Tuesday (Novemeber 7th) along with my bloodwork results. I still don’t know whether I’m optimistic or not, I come and go. I really just want to know what the deal is and get on with it.
New condo!
My next scan will be on October 31st. Yes, that’s Halloween, I think I might dress up. That is probably going to be the most important scan yet because it will confirm or deny the activity shown in the last scan. Keep your fingers crossed! Last weekend I moved in to my new condo, here’s a couple shots for everybody:
+6 Months
Well, I’ve been delaying making this post because I really don’t know what to say. I got my results last Tuesday (August 22nd) and my PET scan shows 2 nodes with metabolic activity in it. So basically there are two options here: 1. It’s just an infection/cold/whatever which is causing these 2 lymph nodes to do something. 2. The cancer is back. I have to go back in 3 months and have another PET scan. If that scan comes back negative, then it’s back to…
+3 Months
Well, it’s been 3 months already. I went for my first post treatment check-up and it went pretty well. I asked about diving again and Dr. Blahey said that it would be best if I never dove again. I guess it’s time to start forgetting about it. My veins should start to get better after about 6 months. The main vein in my bicep used to be big and soft and it has now turned into a little, hard, brown wire running up my arm….