So, here we are on the one month anniversary of my cancer diagnosis! Today also marks the one week anniversary of my return home from the hospital. I have probably seen more doctors in the past month of my life as I have seen in all 38 years of my life. Without question - life has changed forever for me. Amazing what one thing can do to completely alter so much.
My first week home was filled with lots of time spent on the couch in front of the television. The eye patch came off on the 2nd day, and it was the first time that I got to see what my eye looked like after the procedure. It's not pleasant to look at, but I was expecting far worse. As each day passes, I see more and more whiteness returning to my eye. The swelling is going away as well, and my eye is more or less centered by this time. I still have some progress to make before returning to my pre-surgery look, but I am happy with my recovery so far.
One damper on my recovery has been the fact that I ended up coming down with bronchitis. How depressing is that? Because of this added affliction, I don't get a great sense of how quickly I am really bouncing back. But, I'm on antibiotics and should be knocking this infection out within days. I guess the radiation and surgeries really wore down my immunity, which is not surprising. I would have much rather preferred to only deal with one thing versus two. But...hey....I'm off work, what else do I really have to do?
I've spent a lot of time researching what my future treatment might look like should I come back as having a Class 2 tumor. This is the worst case scenario, and means that there is a high risk of metastasis in the near future. I found Phase 2 of the clinical trial that I am currently enrolled in at the Cleveland Clinic. Upon learning the results of my biopsy, I may have the option of enrolling in this additional treatment plan. Essentially, the idea behind it is to prolong or even prevent the time before metastasis. It involves two rounds of chemotherapy followed by 6 months of injections 3 times per week to interfere with the production of certain cells within the body. The treatments themselves do not sound like a walk in the park and the side effects are those that you would expect with aggressive cancer treatment - fatigue / nausea / hair loss / depression / weight loss. My current thought is that I want to go to see Dr. Singh armed with information. The only surprise I want to come my way is the actual result of my test. I have to prepare for the worst case scenario. I do not have to prepare for good news - I have to prepare for bad news. It's the only way I can think of to get through this without going completely crazy. You know.....you hope for the best, but expect the worst.
I really look forward to returning to normal activities - running, my gym routine, work, Happy Hour with friends, dinners out with Graham, visiting places that aren't medical centers, living a normal life!!!!
A sick reminder of my disease returned to me yesterday, which I strangely take as a sign that my eye is healing from the surgery. Those fun and pretty little flashing lights which were the final sign that drove me to see an opthamalogist have returned. I may never get rid of them and I knew this going into the treatment, but after a week passing without any sort of lights show in my right eye - I was a little surprised to see their return. But, again...to me, this means that my eye is healing from the trauma of the surgery and is getting back to its good ole self, fancy light show included!
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