My Cancer Journey – Intermission

In real time, my journey through Chemotherapy has been over for a week. The plug was pulled on my port on March 15th and I got to ring the bell, much to the delight of the nurses and fellow patients at the infusion center.

But the journey is not really over.

According to my Oncologist, I will be checked quarterly for the next year to make sure that the treatment has been 100% effective. My Oncologist did not say how often I would be seeing her after the year is up, although I imagine that I will likely be seeing her (or one of her minions) regularly for some time after that.

In the short term, though, I will be gathering my notes and putting them together to create a book. This will happen at about the same time as I polish up three stories I have neglected in the past six months.

There were a couple of things popping up today – one of them being the news that Kate Middleton, Mrs. Duke of Wales, had cancer when she underwent abdominal surgery earlier this year. It was reported that she would be undergoing preventative Chemotherapy just as I had just finished. After posting a comment on a friend’s posting of Kate’s impending journey, I was answered by a woman whose husband successfully underwent Chemo but later took his own life because of the aftereffects.

A sad story, but not totally unexpected. Chemotherapy is rough on a person. Yes, there will be some lingering aftereffects. I’ve had a few myself. I believe, though, that the worst of the aftereffects will be gone in another 6-8 weeks – in time to go with the better half to our special retreat in what I refer to as “Near west Texas” to snag some serious time in a hot tub.

I hope that Princess Kate will do the Chemo thing and do it with flying colors.

Anyhoo, during the meanwhilst, it’s intermission time here in my little corner of the DFW Metromess. More dispatches about my experiences will resume in a couple of weeks.

Be Seeing You!