The Road Ahead

Well, the good news is my daily cardio has been keeping the barfing at bay and yesterday, I just completed my 10th radiation session.  Two weeks done!  Only three weeks of chemo and radiation left.

I still feel happy about being on the chemo pills instead of that bottle setup.  Life is much better and, since I only have radiation Monday to Friday, it means I don't have to take the chemo pills on the weekend.  Oddly enough, the bottle was 24/7.  Likely due to it's complexity of unhooking and reattaching it.



The road ahead won't be nearly as much fun as this. 
Likely no motorcycling for me this spring.



A weird occurrence at radiation yesterday.  I finally got a morning appointment but they were about 45 mins late on my 8:20am time slot.  One of the radiation girls noticed me leaving the washroom and asked me if I still had a full bladder.  Nope.  "Well, it's a requirement."  What????

I've had 9 sessions of 25 and apparently, I had to have a full bladder to minimize damage to my bowel.  Wow.  I was really disappointed to find that out now and I thanked the girl for noticing and bringing it up otherwise I would have gone the full 5 weeks without knowing.

It's really too bad because my whole treatment was delayed one week as they didn't like the CT Scans I did in that department.  The reason: I didn't have a full bladder.  Please tell me!  I've done many tests during December as this cancer was fully investigated and I've prepped accordingly.  It ain't too hard to drink half a litre of water beforehand.

There's a trick to having a full bladder in the waiting room while your appointment is either on time or half an hour or an hour late.  I don't know what the trick is yet but I'll have plenty of opportunity to refine the skill. 

Once three more weeks go buy, I rest and, contrary to what I thought, radiation keeps acting on the affect parts.  I don't have a surgery date yet but it'll be about 6 to 8 weeks after the last Feb 17th radiation.  Once I have surgery in April, I will get a colostomy.

The bad news is, our 2nd opinion consultation happened on Wednesday, Dr. Boushey from the Ottawa General, and the 2nd opinion is the same as the 1st opinion.  My colostomy will be permanent.  Dr. Boushey also alarmed me by saying that means no heavy lifting.  That really bothered me.  Images flashed through my head instantly of pulling a dirt bike out of the mud, waterskiing, carrying a canoe and packs on my back, doing weights at the gym.  I'll have to research this and maybe the limitations won't be that bad or I can work around it.

This whole cancer thing has been disappointing.  I haven't had any "Why me" moments, but disappointment is probably the best way to describe it.  I don't drink, smoke or even drink coffee.  I've been a vegetarian for 23 years.  I exercise and, although I've been 10 lbs overweight for the last 10 years, I've stayed pretty fit.  The last two years my cardio has excelled as I changed jobs and fell in love with bicycle commuting daily, rain or shine, from April 1st to late October.  The morning pedal included pedalling up a 15 storey hill (I thought it was only 8 stories until a friend measured it).  I think it's pretty obvious--bicycle seats cause cancer.

The idea that the colostomy will be permanent adds to the disappointment but I temper that with the fact that at least it's me with the cancer and my wife and kids are okay.  I'd much rather have it than them.

After surgery, I will have the PICC line reinstalled and I'll be back on the chemo bottle but it looks like it'll only be for two days of bottle every three weeks.  This plan will be refined as we get into May or June but right now I'm told I'll be on chemo for five or six months.  That will bring me to November or December 2012.  This whole year will be filled up with cancer treatment.  I truly hope to be back at work by early December for my 42nd birthday but we'll see what the year brings.