Here I am nearly 5 months later after my first CT Scan came back clean. I took a beating this year with Cancer chemotherapy and came back from it stronger than before. My hair is growing back in now, I’ve even had to get one hair cut already, and will need to get another one soon. I still get my port accessed and flushed once a month over at the Markey Cancer Center to make sure they can still draw blood from it. My next scan comes in December. It will be my 6-month scan, followed by my meeting with the oncologist. The doctor thinks I can get the port out next year, or the year after if things keep going the way they have been. I’m on 3-month checkups for signs of cancer re-occurrence until the end of next year. The good news is that my long visits to Markey are behind me, but I still have to go for regular check-ups. I still have to carry a card in my wallet if I go out of town traveling or wear my bracelet that says I have a port. This is so they can access it if I was in an emergency. I’m back to working full time again. That started almost immediately after I finished chemo. I work 8 hours a day and drink lots of water at work.
The fear I had of going out and being around people is gone. Since my immune system is fully functional again, I am getting back to a normal life and not the sheltered one I had to embrace while on chemo. I went to a wedding a couple weeks ago and was able to get out and dance with my fiancé without having to worry about getting sick and dying if someone I met was ill. I’m able to go see movies in the theaters again in the evening, when more people are around without having to worry about again getting sick.
There were a lot of things that my fiancé, my parents and I had to give up while I was on chemo so that I could make it through the day. I went to a big Star City Games Magic Gathering tournament a month after my last chemo treatment, and had a good time meeting people and playing Magic for the first time in 6 months. I didn’t do well at the tournament, but the results were less important to me than hanging out with a group of people and just having fun. if this tournament had taken place while I was on chemo, I would have been forced to stay home out of fear of getting sick. I’ve slowly made my way back into having an active social life. Just last month, I went to a UK football tailgate and had a chance to see some of the people who had written me cards during the chemo treatments. I only go to 1 or 2 UK tailgates a year, so this one was perfect. It was cold. Good football weather, right?
I’m starting to go back to the gym and get myself on a healthier footing because I need to do that. I’m working on cardio mostly because I noticed some problems while on chemo. My heart rate was way too high, around 100 beats per minute even when I was lying down. I’ve also been working to get my legs and arms in shape because I know I can’t just do cardio all the time at the gym. I know I was sitting down and kind of letting life run me over until this year. Now, I am taking back my life trying to prove to myself and everyone else that I can do this, and I’m going to be a better person because of it. Heck, now that I beat cancer getting myself healthy should be easy, right?
So here we are 5 months after my first clean Cancer scan and nearly 10 months after I was diagnosed with testicular Cancer. I am finally in a good place in my life where I’m getting everything sorted out and making it to a point where I feel I’m really able to live again. I am motivating myself to get into a healthy routine. I’m slowly finding my motivation to study again for certification exams, but that has been harder. I will blog about my journey through it all and what follows. In a future post, I will lay out my exact plan to improve myself in 2019. For me, this is the first step to where I need to go to get that part of my life on track.
Thanks for stopping by and reading. A big shout out to Rebekah Eden for suggesting I make this post
Jason