Stay back kids and gannies, daddy is going nuclear! Or at least I was, for a few hours. Went for a complete body scan again and man is it boring! Once they inject the radioactive isotope, you need to lie still for like 50min.. and you can't even read a book! Or play with your phone!! Aaargh! AD/HD kicks in after about 10min, so I'd say at 50min it's borderline torture. At least when you're done, you get to tightly sqeeze inside a huge tube and not move a muscle for another 30min! And all this while glowing like the skyline of Chernobyl of -86. But it's all for the good of my health so enough complaining.. Even the cannula went in on the first attempt. =)
Then I got some interesting results the day after (27/9). I already had a radiation therapy meeting set up for next week but -whooptidoo- change of plans! It seems my stomach wall has some issues with either the pills I've been eating (corticosteroids) or the cancer I've been having so that's what's next on the agenda of check-ups. It's unusually thick or swollen and needs to be checked for cancer just in case. Now how do they do that..? **drumroll and french horns** Esophagogastroduodenoscopy!! Or as us mortals prefer to call it, gastroscopy. Personally I feel like one endoscopy was quite enough and rather unenjoyable too (the lungs), but then again, better to be safe than sorry and it's all for the greater good and blaah blaah. So a little trouble in "paradise" after all. IF it really is lyphoma acting up, even though it's very unlikely, I'll be back on chemo by next week. If not, we can just call this a minor speed bump and radiation will be back on the schedule as planned. Oh and yeah, the tumor is quite tiny now
Edit: Wanted to add this picture here.. Seems suitable for the gastro. =)
6th time's the charm? Hopefully yeah, and also quite probable judging from the previous check-up. Blood tests went smoothly and all the values have been close to identical every three weeks so it's looking like Mike 6-0 Chemo. The last visit at the day hospital was almost bitter-sweet, almost.. 99% of me never wants to see that place again EVER, but that 1% of me got used to it and it felt somehow safe to be there, knowing that I'm getting taken care of. Even if it means having a god-damned cannula stuck in my vein. (I really hate those things by now!) And also it's the only place I ever read more than 20 pages from a book in one session. Now I'm never going to finsh the three books I have going. Anyway, if everything goes as in Strömsö, I won't have to go back in a long time! (Never say never..)
And then there was spirometry! I've honestly lost count but I have a feeling this is my 5th time.. Could be 6th or 7th if we count the failed attempts and multiple tests per day? However, because I'm a responsible adult and I tend to learn from my mistakes I managed to pull a Britney (Ooops I did it again..) and miss my Monday morning appointment (17/9)! Since I did make it to my second dermatologist appointment (3/9) I guess they thought Monday mornings are fine now somehow..? Well they're not! So after another earfull of bullshit over the phone I got it rescheduled to Thursday 20/9. This time I managed to get there, only about 10min late, since I went to three different places before I was pointed in the right direction. The spirometry and diffusion capacity measurings were done at the allergies-department now. Funny how they seem to have those machines on every floor at TYKS. The good news in all this mess was that my values in capacity, peak flow, diffusion and everything else were all back to normal (89-105% of reference values) compared to the 50-60% readings taken back in May. Lung volume alone went up two litres! So things are really looking peachy! Next stop, PET + CT!!
Wohoo I made it! 8.15 on Monday morning and on time! I would've NEVER accepted an appointment this early if it wasn't for me f***ing up last week, but guilt makes you do stupid things. But this time karma really got to bite me in the ass. I had to wait for at least 1h30min before I got to see anyone! I wake up at 7:30 on a Monday morning, drive half-asleep in chaotic, aggressive, crappy morning traffic, show up on time with my hat in my hand feeling ashamed for last week and this is what I get!! I think I got called in at around 9:50! Spank you very much! The best part is that all the rashes I was supposed to show the doctor had now disappeared and I felt kinda dumb (and royally pissed off) coming in there with nothing to show. Of course I do have about a million allergies and stuff so I had a long list of demands.. err suggestions on what I would like to have examined. But of course they can't start anything before all the other treatments are over so I'll have my prick-tests and such done in December some time (4 appointments!). Also the bite from the tick wasn't looking like anything was blooming in there so I guess the visit wasn't all for nothing.. Fun times.
