Update - Why Not

Since I haven't added anything to this since October....not sure if anyone will actually read this :) But thought it was time. It might have something to do with finally catching up on a friend's blog and feeling particularily introspective over the last few days....which might have something to do with the genre of books I got out of the library last week....but that's not what I am going to write about.

I did have an appointment with my oncologist last Tuesday. It was just a regular three month check-up and everything seems fine. I feel pretty good...if not kinda tired in the mornings. Part of me thinks that this is just due to habit. I have been in the habit of moving very slowly in the morning. Steve brings me coffee almost every morning...except usually once on the weekends when I make a point of bringing him coffee. Really I am quite spoiled and we have had the discussion whether this has turned into a habit that neither of us know whether or how to break!!

My blood work was normal. Dr. McCarron felt my nodes, did an general poke around and had no concerns. I did have a bit of a scare around Christmas time when we were all sick. One of the nodes in my neck seemed larger to me and Dr. MacCarron saw me right away the week before Christmas. She quickly attributed it to how sick I was and gave me some antibiotics as she thought my cough was very deep. She re-scheduled my port removal to Dec 29th (was originally scheduled before Christmas)and told me not to get excited..."your nodes are supposed to do that when you are sick". Easy for her to say! Well last week she agreed with me that that particular node seemed smaller than in Decimeber...certainly no bigger and that on my CTscan from September I did have some nodes that were likely going to remain larger than they were before. It is pretty typical to have some node "scarring" with Hodgkin's.

So I will see her again in about 3 months and they will likely do a chest xray to have a look around my thymus. Dr. McCarron is very selective in her use of CT scans nowadays due to the increased risk from the radiation levels (1 CT scan is about 100 times the radiation from a chest xray) so she depends more on how the patient is feeling. I find this a bit hard as I forget what normal feels like. I might think I feel normal but I'm just not sure of when I last felt "normal".

I do know that when they weighed me in on Tuesday it was a bit of a shock and I keep saying to myself..."if there was one benefit from all of this...why couldn't I have lost weight instead of gaining!!" Well I'm now tracking what I eat (on my new smartphone...yes really...there's an app for everything!) and I do eat more than I think. Good news is that since I have been keeping track I am already a few pounds lighter....water weight I'm sure but it's still encouraging.

So the port came out December 29th and the taking out was much easier than the going in. Only one incision and they basically just had to "yank" it out of the vein in my neck...and the vein healed itself. I still have a bit of a "ghost port" from the scar tissue. I am hoping that it will eventually disappear. I orginally was going to ask if I could keep my port as a souvenir...but I forgot at the time...they probably would have said no and really what am I going to do with it? Put it in a scrapbook? Is it really the type of memory I want?....yeah glad I didn't ask!

So I took a break in writing the above to go to my weekly Zumba class at the local community centre. I am enjoying it.....even if I am in a constant state of not knowing whether I am actually doing it well or flailing madly to keep up.....a bit of both I suspect!

So after eating a bowl of greens with balsamic blueberry dressing I might just get a bit more exercise in front of the TV - playing Kinect. The beach volleyball....I think.....is particularily good and I work up a real sweat! A lot of people have been asking if I have made any life changing habit changes. I really haven't. I guess I have been partly sold on the information that suggests that Hodgkin's has not been linked with diet or lifestyle, but I am more paranoid abou letting my immune system get weak and stress. I DO want to take better care of myself and get more exercise and I have switched from Timmy's double double to regular (to cut down my sugar some)and actually like it better! I would like to eat more vegetarian again but it is so hard with the kids (and Steve!)...they love their meat!