6-week checkup

Must be the caffeine.  Why else would I feel so happy and energized every day? I gotta say that I love eating!  The food obsession continues.  I’m finding joy in looking at food, preparing food, shopping for food, smelling food and putting food in my mouth. Swallowing is still a bit of a drag and I still suck at portion control.  Any plate of food looks like something I can handle judging by how hungry I feel, but if I don’t learn to stop eating I must face a gut ache and a time out.

I had a lot of anxiety leading up to yesterday’s appointment with Dr. Scott.  I expected everything to be fine (feeling so good and all) and yet I feared there would be a price to pay for my exuberant lifestyle.  If my good cells were digging on eating real food this much, perhaps my battle-worn, bedraggled cancel cells were enjoying the pick-me-up as well.

Dr. Scott had read my CT scans and played it a little coy at first, asking me if I had been coughing lately. (Answer: “not really, except when the food in my stomach reaches the scar tissue in my neck area.”)  But he quickly got around to telling me there was no cancer showing up in the 3D x-ray.  Fantastic (if expected) news!  The one thing that did show up on the scans looked like the beginnings of pneumonia.  He said it appeared like fluid in the bottom part of one of my lungs.  He listened to a few breaths with his stethoscope, which revealed little toward a diagnosis of pneumonia but he said he might have heard a little “pop” or two.  I have been feeling a little run-down at night. Am I in denial for being sick?

We talked a bit about the neuropathy.  He said if there was pain, there were some treatment options but I pretty much just have to live with the numbness aspects.  I must be careful on steps and rough terrain.  (I have bruises on my butt and knees to confirm that advice.)

He went on to do his usual palpations, looking for swelling in my lymph glands.  All seemed good.  My weight was up a little since the tube came out (a good thing).  Blood pressure was a tad high.  The “cancer markers” in the blood tests showed no cancer activity.

Dr. Scott prescribed me some antibiotics with a follow-up chest x-ray next week to wipe out and/or rule out the pneumonia.  I’ll be back to see him in two weeks where I’ll find out about the next span of normal life between scans.

Before he skated out the door, I asked him about how he would treat any recurrence of either cancer.  Would I do the same chemo regimen? He informed me that if it had appeared that we had “cured” the esophageal cancer, he would consider treating the lymphoma with chemotherapy.  It was only a part answer but it was the first time he suggested it was possible to cure the esophageal cancer.  Who knows for sure?

What I am taking: The small pill at the right is for cat allergies.  The bi-colored capsule is the door to the barn for which the horse has already left; acid reflux. The white horse pills are for the alleged pneumonia. And the three pleasantly earth-toned pills on the left are high-quality vitamins and minerals, courtesy of my friend Joel Van Kuiken who works at Amway and is setting me up in this department.  I'm not swallowing quarters.  It is there strictly for size reference and swallow sympathy.