This was originally an email written to my family and friends on the date above. I decided to make these public in the event they may be helpful to someone in the future who is embarking on a similar journey to mine.
Hello All–
Yesterday I received my 10th FOLFOX chemo treatment – 10 down, 2 to go. So far this is progressing much like the previous treatments. I’m still on the reduced dose of Oxaliplatin and that probably will be dropped in treatments 11 and 12. My next PET scan will be at the end of September; and hopefully will also come back with no detectable signs of cancer. Ongoing treatment options are being discussed, but don’t include chemo at this point.
I’m finding my experience with the treatments to be fairly consistent with everything I was told to expect: neuropathy and cold sensitivity affecting the hands, feet and mouth and a general feeling of fatigue that increases with each treatment. I’ve also been able to do more during the treatments than the “normal” patient has, so that’s been good all around. I’ve gotten in around 15 rounds of golf this year, most of them after the diagnosis and recovery from surgery.
I’m not really able to work out at this point as I don’t “bounce back” the way I used to. As such I’m getting weaker and softer over these last few treatments. I’m looking forward to being able to exercise again to get and feel stronger come September.
I was in San Francisco last week to attend a conference for WordPress (the Open Source project my team and I do most of our consulting on). It was a lot of fun to catch up with friends and participate on a panel with other folks that run WordPress agencies.
To celebrate the end of this round of chemo, I’m setting up a golf trip to Myrtle Beach, SC. It will be Sept 13-15, with 2 rounds of golf Friday, 2 rounds on Saturday and one on Sunday. Then sleep, glorious sleep. Anyone is welcome, so shoot me a note if you’d like to join us (cost is ~$450 for hotel & golf rounds, does not include transportation).
Stay tuned for the next update, hopefully with similar drama-free content.
This post is part of the thread: Cancer – an ongoing story on this site. View the thread timeline for more context on this post.