Me and My Cancer

I won’t keep you all in suspense with the blog title; I’m feeling good, my cancer had not returned. But, I’ve been having some trouble getting a good night’s sleep lately despite the medications that have worked so well up until now. I seem to wake up at 2:20 AM each morning and then have difficulty falling back to sleep. This morning at 2:20 AM I started thinking of that old song sung by Perry Como, “Me and my Shadow.” It’s a sad song and just like my shadow, the cancer never seems far away. Sometimes it’s there, sometimes it’s not. And, even when it’s not there, I know it will return.

I’ve mentioned this before, but feel it worth repeating. My current status is “no evidence of disease (NED)” and I’ve been in this status since October of 2007. I think they used to call this remission, but now it’s NED. Remission will begin when I’ve been in a NED status for two years straight. At the 5 year mark, they considered you cured. For me, that would truly be remarkable!

Since I’ve been feeling well, I’ve been enjoying myself with visits, friends, family, and even some short trips. In July I took my 2nd plane trip in 19 months; the 1st plane trip was early this year and left me in bed feeling ill for weeks after I got home. This compares to a before cancer state of traveling about twice a month. Not that there is any question (or any choice), I’d take the before cancer state every time.

For those of you that follow Leroy Sievers periodically at the NPR website, http://www.npr.org/blogs/mycancer/, he’s been having a tough time of it. It sounds like he is having trouble moving around the house, getting rest, and is thinking seriously about hospice care. My best wishes go out to him, his family, and support network.

Enjoy yourself. Life is short. Take care everyone.