Red Right Blog |
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Rants, Rates, Slags, Slates. Manic-depressive posts from Red Wright-Hand. Because there are thousands of worthless blogs out there and who am I not to add to their number?
Total US troop deaths in Iraq to date (09/01/07) since 03/20/03: 3739
From 05/02/03 through 06/28/04: 718 Myeloma (etc.) Blogs
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Saturday, April 28, 2007
BEYOND UPDATE: Well, it's only been ten months. However, I'm logging in to clear away the cobwebs here a bit. You know there's really no one reading your blog when you announce you've been diagnosed with an incurable form of cancer, and nobody (well, nobody you don't already know) e-mails you to say anything. There was also the undeniable fact that as I began my myeloma treatments, I realized I really didn't want to share this information with the general world. Even if I wasn't too tired to post regularly, I decided that even I would be bored with entry after entry along the lines of "I feel terrible today" or "I feel scared" or "I feel a little better today than yesterday." Who needs it? So for the past several months, whenever I felt like marking a milestone in my treatment, I simply and directly e-mailed the news to those friends and relations whom I felt were truly concerned. I didn't want my medical history online for general consumption, or, worse, for the provocation of boredom. All that being said, here's where I am since June of last year: My peripheral blood-stem-cell transplant (PBSCT), the thing that used to be called (because it was) a bone-marrow transplant, was a success, and I am now officially in remission, per my oncologist. Admitted to Hospital of University of Pennsylvania on June 20, discharged July 12. Of major interest was the bout of typhlitis I suffered for about a week after July 4, proving that if I hate my own guts, they hate me right back, but the good doctors and nurses got me through it, hallucinatory fevers and all. Then about three weeks of recuperation and pampering at my older sister's house, then back home and back to the office by early August (working part-time at first). Regular trips to the oncologist (weekly to begin with, but we're down to every 3 months now) were always encouraging, as blood and protein levels gradually leveled out and back to normal levels. By the very end of December last year, and my first post-transplant marrow biopsy, my onc checked the box on my file form that says "remission," (though I believe it gets post-dated to day of my transplant, so today I can say I've been in remission for the past 10 months). Found time in September to do a little fund-raising for the Leukemia & Lymphoma [and sort-of Myelmoma] Society; it's amazing how people shell out when they know you have (had?) cancer. And in the past several months have had opportunity to enjoy my renewed health. In December I traipsed around NYC like a visiting college student :  ...and the next month booked a long-desired Carribbean trip, destination: Anguilla, where I spent a week in late March. Perfect. The only real difficulty has been in attempting to adjust to the "normal routine" of the pre-myelomatic life, which, as I've been discussing with fellow cancer patients of whatever stripe, is not simple. Okay, that's the update. Hope no one's been terribly bored in the interim. |
