Update

Met with the Onc yesterday for yet another 3 month check-up and it appears that Lymphoma is still on hiatus or a permanent leave of absence. Excellent news! I should probably bring you up to speed on a couple of issues that reared since my last entry. Several weeks ago, I started to feel a dull, 30 second ache/pressure in my chest several times each morning. After a visit with my GP, complete with a normal EKG, he suggested that we start medication to bring down my BP and expressed concern in my overall LBs. I started taking the meds and my skin started to itch. I took every opportunity to find relief, Baloo-style, within the doorways around the house. I was scheduled for a stress test which required IV contrast in order to see my heart sonograms clearly. For those unfamiliar, they take measurements of your heart at rest with a sonogram, put you on a treadmill which increases speed and incline every 3 minutes attempting to get your max heart rate. The contrast pic line was hanging out of my arm during the test and I was instructed to let them know about 1 minute before I was "done." This seemed odd because I didn't know what the criteria for "done" actually was so they suggested a heart rate of 170 bpm. They asked that I not jog but rather walk as fast as possible. This was a comedy as I fought back guffaws during the test. I met with a cardiologist a week later and she said my heart was perfect, no issues. I mentioned the itching so she prescribed an alternative explaining that it may cause some swelling.
I started to perform some cardio and lifting routines from Tony Horton and purchased a DVD set of "Insanity" because I like a challenge. Insanity arrived in the mail and I knew immediately that this would be trouble.
After a week of the second medication, my feet and legs looked like sausages and my skin was stretched to the limit with the swelling. This couldn't continue. I stopped the meds and continued the Insanity work outs. The itching and swelling are gone. My BP has been below normal w/o meds and my sinuses are still clear.
Back to the Onc visit -- before escorting you to the examining room, they always take your blood, BP and weigh you in. My BP was 154/96 and my weight was 6 lbs higher than my last weigh in. Demoralizing. It has only been a couple of weeks but given the amount of sweat on the basement floor, I would have expected to see some improvements. Here's to health...