Blog
The Great Cancer Adventure
November 02, 2017
- 1 min readWe met yesterday with the Oncology Doc managing the various elements of my chemo (his bailiwick) and radiation and everything else involved. Since I’ve been coughing a lot (apparently there is such a thing as Radiation Cough), he ordered a chest x-ray, I thought to double check to make certain I didn’t have pneumonia, which I’ve had, but really to make certain the esophageal cancer hasn’t spread to my lungs. It hasn’t and there’s no pneumonia either. It’sjusta cancer cough!?!
Having had 5 of 6 prescribed chemo treatments and 22 of the 28 prescribed radiation treatments, I’m at once in the home stretch and also heading into the very toughest part of this regimen, as the last week or so can be especially difficult, and for several weeks after then. Once again, I’m so very grateful we’d been warned this would be a grind. Sort of like in a marathon (of which I have run/walked 5 to Betty’s 48, but who’s counting, right?) when you hit the wall. It’s one-foot-in-front-of-the-other until you grind through those last several miles, whether you run or you walk.
Apparently, the chemo is meant to boost the effects of radiation, which does a number on the sternum, a prime location for the production of blood cells, and my WBC, RBC and Platelet counts are all low, and thus I got a WBC booster shot this morning with another one scheduled for tomorrow. Just before the Infusion Nurse pushed in the needle, she said this might make my bones ache. Ah, something else to look forward to!!!