The Great Cancer Adventure

November 27, 2017

As noted previously, I finished 28 radiation sessions on Friday 11/10 and six chemo sessions (this round, anyway) on Wednesday 11/8, and have now had two weeks in which to recovery, which frankly has been the most difficult part. Again, Betty and I are so very grateful we were warned this is a grind and that treatment continues to wear even after it’s completed.

Much of these last two weeks has been spent in managing side effects, of which I’ve had the vast majority of them. Spent a day or so in the hospital last week, for example, but apparently I am moving forward at least to some considerable extent, although I’m incredibly weak, having lost some twenty five pounds. My appetite is returning, which is a good sign, and my digestive system is more or less back to where it had been before all this started.

Even when I am back to my old self, all that means is I survived treatment. It doesn’t mean treatment worked. Having been warned the kind of cancer I have is difficult to treat, I’m fully expecting there will be a second round of something, but that’s to be determined in mid-January after more testing. Outcomes are out of my hand, but the means is up to me, and I must do my part to get as strong as possible for the next round, should there be one.

My great good thanks to my immediate family, including Betty of course, who has been with me every step of the way; Elizabeth, Sam & Ramona; and Peter & Nicole, along with brother-in-law Mike, who’s kept in close touch and who invited us for Thanksgiving Breakfast at Uncle Bill’s Pancake House & Diner, and many, many others, including niece Andrea and nephew Jonathan who visited us from Florida for a few days.

In a couple of weeks or so, Betty and I are headed to Houston for a Cast/Crew showing of “Illusions of Cyn”, made from one of my scripts. There, we’ll meet up with Elizabeth, Peter, and our friend Steve, Betty’s friends from college, Lynn, Jane, Alan and cousins Susan and John. We’ll also see the cast of the film and many of those working on it, whom Betty and I had met before. Clay, Carrie, June, Matthew, Bobby and Jeff, among others. These are all independent film people, mostly from Houston and the Gulf Coast, and the director seems happy with the results, so I am really, really looking forward to this. Life goes on. The adventure continues.

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