Its hard to think its already 2012! So many great things to look forward to this year, including but not limited to the end of days in about 12 months from now. Might I suggest everyone get out their lawn chairs for a front row seat for the rapture!
Im hopefully going to wrap up several topics into this one blog post, so here we go.
As a result of my illness, I have been considered permanently and totally disabled as far as the IRS and SSI are concerned and as such I no longer work full time in an "office". Not to say one day I won't, but for now - no work for me. I assume it would come as no surprise to any of you that my days become, at times, monotonous and extremely boring. Summer is different, but as anyone from Dayton can tell you, the winter months are just abysmal, with very little to do. (I will say the above average temperatures have made my breathing a lot easier!) With all that said, I finally decided, with the approval from my physicians and my parents, that I would go back to school. Nothing particularly fancy, I don't think I should take a full load at first, I want to gradually get back into the swing of things. Therefore I'm currently just taking one class. I was lucky enough to also find it available Tuesday nights from 6:00 - 9:15, so I don't have to worry about getting up early which we all know I loathe, but more importantly, I won't have to adjust any of my medical appointments because of class and vice versa. Im excited because this gives me the opportunity to regain a little of my life outside of my house, gives me a feeling of doing something that 'matters'. I enjoy Wright State's campus, since all the buildings are connected with the tunnel network, and the buildings on campus are all extremely close together - it makes walking (which can sometimes, when its cold out, be an overwhelming task). Just being able to get out of the house and do something that has purpose to it, is a great feeling.
Chemotherapy...
This is extremely late and I apologize for not explaining in detail what is happening like I said I would.
On November 28th, Dr. Nanda and I had our usual "pre chemotherapy" appointment in which we were to go over the results of my staging scans. Just so you understand, throughout a patients treatment plan different types of tests and images are taken along the way to guide the Oncologists in the appropriate direction for your treatment. I get lots of blood work done all the time, and different breathing tests and cardio-pulmonary tests etc. but the staging scans are the 'pictures' which show if, ultimately, the tumors are shrinking.
It should be said, since my diagnosis on 12/02/2008, never have I had a staging scan (which is given at 3-4 month intervals) that came back with a finding of "nodular consolidation" - or shrinking, but I've also never had an increase of the tumors either, I've always had "findings are stable and similar, with little to no change from previous scan". While I don't get amazing news that they are shrinking, I don't get bad news that its not responding. Status quo for me! If Im being honest, it used to bother me, to the point I would sometimes shed a few tears, but it was more because in my naivety, I thought it meant the chemotherapy wasn't working and in actuality the chemotherapy is keeping my tumors from grown larger.
So with that said, about 6 months ago Dr. Nanda wanted to try to increase the duration of time between my cycles to see if there was any change. So we did, every cycle got a little longer, which was great for me especially over the summer! She monitored me closely and this series of staging scans I was to have the results for on the 28th would be the tell tale factor, either my body would have succumbed to the tumors in some capacity, or they would have stayed the same and according the results of the staging scans, my results were no increase in nodular diffusion, similar findings to previous scan.
This is good news! So the long and the short of it - she told me she was comfortable DC (discontinuing) the chemotherapy to let my body rebound. Im sure most of you know 3.5 years of non stop chemotherapy is not the typical scenario, its usually six cycles and you're done. She explained to me she thought my body was strong enough now that I could (at least for the time being) keep the tumors from growing and as a result of not being on the chemo, the immune system that has been annihilated and subsequently suppressed since then, will have an opportunity to rebound and replace itself.
Im not going to lie - its scary. I remember once upon a time a few years ago when a specialist at OSU: The James decided to DC my chemo and everything came rushing back and I ended up back in the hospital for three months. But I realize my body is stronger now, and Im in a different place health wise now, and above all that, I trust Dr. Nanda. I know, from the bottom of my heart, she would never jeopardize my life, or my wellbeing so Im comfortable. Im scared, but comfortable. So - here we are... The first week of January and no chemotherapy. I get staging scans every 2 months now all year, assuming I stay off the chemo, so she can monitor my lungs very closely. So Im hoping for the best!
Im going to break this update into a few pieces so - for right now... this is the end of part 1, ill update part 2 shortly!
-Ryan
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