CHEMO ROUND 10

Round 10.  I have been at this for twenty weeks now.  This is hard to believe.  Yet my first chemo treatment was way back on May 9th.  Chemo Round 10 marked a significant change in my treatment.  We opted to stop using Oxaliplatin in the cocktail of drugs I receive during my bi-weekly treatments.  This is an exciting change for me.  It means I may begin to be able to drink cold drinks again and in a few weeks I hope to be able to feel my feet again.  The drug has worked wonders but the side effects have been rather hard to deal with.

My oncologist is thrilled with my progress.  During my last visit I asked, “We are in a different place than we were the day we first met in the hospital?”  He quickly said, “Yes, you are in a much different place.  Your body could not have responded any better to the treatments than it has.”  It is nice to hear those words.

I have had an easier time this round.  My energy level has been rather high and I have not felt as weak or weary as I have in previous rounds.  My hope is that in changing the cocktail we are using the treatments may become even easier to manage.

I have two more rounds of treatment to go in the initial 12 we set up with my oncologist.  The reality is that I will not miss a beat and will go into what they call maintenance chemotherapy.  I still am a little unclear as to what that means.  I know we will drop the one drug, like we did this last round.  I am hoping there will be a couple other changes that will help me gain more strength.

Maintenance chemo is one of those things which will continue for a long time.  Last Sunday someone asked me, “When will you be done with chemotherapy?”  I chuckled and said, “When I am healed.  When science progresses to the point they have a cure for my type of Cancer -or- God decides to touch me and heal my body from this disease -or- God calls me home….either way there will be a healing, and that is when my maintenance chemo will stop.”

It was one of those times I spoke with my new found clarity that may have been a little to clear for some people.  We talked some more about my hopes for healing and what it means that we can have hope for healing even as we walk through “the valley of the shadow of death”.

I am excited to enter this new season and to see how Nancy, Rayann and I adjust to this new round of treatment.   I have been spending more time at church and have been able to focus on those things which will help facilitate growth and transformation.  I am hopeful that I will be writing this blog for many, many more years.

It will be interesting to see how God works and moves in the midst of the journey.

God is Good All the Time…All the Time God is Good