6 months out

Last Friday I had my 6 month check up. Hard to believe that almost a year has passed since my diagnosis. I'm 15 lbs lighter than my highest point and my BP was 140/90 (they never comment about that; seems high, no?) Met with my Onc and he did the once over. This consists of feeling for enlarged nodes in all the suspicious areas. Nothing jumped out at him, bloodwork is normal and my lungs sound fine. I have been really anxious about intermitent thoracic aches and have experienced some stomach pain. The tough part about bringing it up is that it could be some passing virus or maybe an ulcer has developed from the anxiety of remission; could also explain the high BP. The Onc says, "If you have pain lasting more than a week, let me know. If you have relapsed the treatment doesn't change. We would most likely perform a bone marrow transplant and run another round of chemo." He also said, "Some people never go into remission and the first round response was excellent."

So despite a few coughs and some passing bouts of suspicious pain, I seem to be getting back to a normal state. I've managed to abstain from processed sugar since early June; eating lots of fruit which is easy in Michigan during the summer. My cancer well-fit class from July thru September was just what I needed to get moving again and wake up some dormant muscle fibers. The basement weights are once again thumping and clanging a few times each week. All in all, things are coming along.

We scheduled another CT scan for the first week in December unless I want to do it sooner to ease the aforementioned anxiety. Stay healthy.