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.
Hi Everyone–
I’m quite glad that today is the start of my last scheduled treatment – hopefully the last one for a while. I will have another PET scan on the 16th, and we’ll be meeting with the doctor the following week to review the results (likely the 24th). Hopefully we get another clean scan – we will see.
The last treatment was somewhat surprisingly the most difficult for me to take. With one of the drugs out of the mix, I had expected it to go a little easier. Turned out the fatigue was the worst it has been, keeping me in bed for about 3-4 days without the ability to focus and work during that time. The neuropathy side effects are still hanging around too – not a big fan of these.
This treatment we are dropping the Avastin from the mix as well because my kidney levels are slightly elevated. This is the last treatment for a while, so however this one hits me I will deal with it and be glad that I don’t have another scheduled for 2 weeks from now.
I will have to come back to the hospital every month to get my port flushed – since it has healed over well, I don’t plan to remove it just yet. We’ll see how I feel (and what the scans say) in 6-9 months.
I’ve got a pretty full travel schedule for Sept. and Oct.:
Sept 12-15: golf trip to Myrtle Beach, SC with 8 buddies to celebrate chemo being over
Oct 2-8: conference and weekend vacation in Maine (with Heather and Caitlin)
Oct 17-19: conference in Phoenix
Oct 25-27: client weekend in Vegas
All trips I’m really looking forward to! Assuming I survive them all, the rest of the winter should be pretty calm – staying in the greater Denver area and getting in some quality family time. Hopefully we’ll get some good snow sports time up in the mountains; we’re going to try to get Caitlin in ski lessons this winter.
Cancer has been a “sharpener” for me. Instead of a trough full of things I’m casually interested in doing, there are now two clear buckets “do it now (or ASAP)” and “no effort towards these”. I’m applying this to my many work-related ideas as well as personal goals (things to do/experience, places to see).
Next spring (April-ish) I’m looking at an extended trip that Heather is calling “The Walkabout”. I’m looking at a several week trek looping around the south and east coast (tentatively hitting 15 locations). I plan to visit some digital agencies that I am friendly with, do some sightseeing and photography, enjoy some live music, see some ballparks and play some golf. I’ll send out details sometime this winter as I firm stuff up, but **I’d love to have some folks come out and join me** for sections of the trip that they find interesting. Something to keep in mind as you’re making your spring plans.
I’m tackling some projects on the work side that I’m really excited about too. My team is doing well and making it possible for me to take some risks on new ideas; to invest time in projects that should help build our reputation and in turn lead to more interesting potential projects and clients coming in the door. We’ll see how it all works out.
I’m quite looking forward to being back on a “normal schedule” at work, being able to start working out again, and generally trending up on the “how I feel” chart from labor day on.
Thanks to everyone for all of your support, calls, notes, cards, visits, prayers, kind thoughts, etc. during this time. I really appreciate it.
This post is part of the thread: Cancer – an ongoing story on this site. View the thread timeline for more context on this post.