Sept 13, '24 - Chemo Infusion #6 of 6
- PSA: < 0.03, undetectable!
- Support: Laura is back solo and more help from good friends!
This time I’m not going to do a day by day accounting of the horrors of the cycle, for multiple reasons.
- It was a terrible cycle.
- I was lazy and waited till after memory of it has blessedly passed.
- You don’t want that anyway.
- It was a horrible cycle. (did I say that yet?)
Table of contents
Notes on the cycle
The cycle started just like any other, going to get the poison (chemo) infusion at the hospital on that Friday the thirteenth. By the way, I love that this ended on Friday 13th! It is my lucky day, usually things go well.
I got to ring the bell like you see in movies to celebrate my remission and completion of the final chemo session, and that was quite special to me. 
Fiona and I dined at Kati Thai again and had a great meal as usual. I came home and rested, then we got the kids and had dinner.
Nothing exciting except that we made the mistake of thinking Laura was going to come in at 11PM that night, so we were preparing to go get her while one of us stayed home with the kids who were trying to stay up till she arrived. Turns out she was coming in on a red-eye and meant 11AM the next morning. Glad we figured that out before a long drive to SEATAC.
Laura arrived tired I’m sure, but got no break from her excited sobrinos. They clambered over her like kittens over a momma cat, but it seemed like she loved it. The babysitters we had for the weekend were actually pretty useful. For one to let Laura take a nap at some point Saturday, and second to assist Laura with her goal of taking the kiddos to the Woodland Park Zoo on Sunday. I’m not sure she’d have been able to rangle two excited tikes all that morning on her own.
Monday the kids were off to school so quiet allowed Laura and Fiona to get their respective work done. Meanwhile, I wallowed in the misery of nausea that had started the previous day, but now was combined with the bone aches of Granix shots. The Tylenol was only somewhat effective this time, so I didn’t get away unscathed this round.
Each of the 5 days after were more of the same, with increasing levels of both nausea and bone ache. I simply wanted to crawl up in bed all week and try to sleep my way through the misery. A few of these days I managed to take a walk, even if a few of them were just to take/retrieve HB from his bus stop. Our driveway is a bit of a challenging climb, so I think this counts as exercise.
On Thurs or Friday (it’s all a fog now) I made the mistake of checking in at work and ended up doing a full day of meetings around the two projects I had going for this holiday release. Then on Friday even though I was assured I’d not be put on anything important or time sensitive, I discovered that one of these projects was both important and time sensitive.
I had to figure out SWAGS (Super Wild Ass Guesses) for estimates of the work remaining to achieve our code complete date of the following Friday and then negotiate having a colleague to put a hold on their own deliverable to bring this project into schedule. (Thanks Dani!) Spoiler: we got it done.
The love of friends
I have been fortunate to discover a wealth of friends in this process of battling this disease. Several of our daycare friends have lent a hand in giving us yummy shepard’s pie (thanks Daniels family!) and more healthy lasagna (Thanks Childersen’s!!) And my childhood friend, now a eye surgeon, who I added on to my medical charts so he could follow along and give advice from his own personal and medical experience with this disease. Thank you so much Matt for all your advice, support, and just inane conversations that cheered me up.
Thank you to the many more of you that gave doordash cards, greeting cards, letters, and simply called to talk to me to see how things were.
Thank you especially to my siblings for stepping up and flying out here to assist in this difficult time. You are in my debt.
Remission
Remission is such an odd feeling. I am not quite sure how to feel about it. On the one hand I feel like I have dodged a bullet, or been very lucky to have had this thing go back to the cave it came from. On the other, it is still in me, I am not cured.
One possibility is I will be taking $24,000/yr worth of hormone therapy drugs for the rest of my life. And this comes with its own obvious issues. The next possibility is that at some point this therapy will cease to be effective and these little bastards will rear their ugly heads again and I’ll have to go to battle once more. It is like having a ticking time bomb in you with a stopped clock. I will never be quite secure to relax about it.
Final words
I am so glad to be done with chemo, and to have finished with such a great result. I feel super fortunate, and am amazed how much I’ve learned about this disease in the short time I’ve had it. If you value your health, start eating better foods, non-processed as much as possible, and take the time to find out what tests you are eligible for (mammograms,colonoscopy,psa tests,etc) You need to catch it early.
Don’t let your doctor tell you “You’re too young”, or “we don’t have to rush on that”. That was what I, and many others I know that have cancer were told. Force them to do the test as soon as insurance covers it. Let those in your life know to do the same thing, it could save your life or of those you love.
Be well, be happy, and hug your pets.