I had my six month check-up last Friday and am still "Cancer Free", the name of this blog. Two more six month check ups and I will hit that special five year mark, successfully beating back the caner and its not returning. Then, a check up once a year as I am pronounced "cured". I am always reminded of a Franz Kafka Novel when I visit the "Cancer Center", almost any novel he wrote but specifically, "The Trial" about a guy on trial who isn't allowed to know the crime he committed. That is how it feels on the first visit to these centers: why me? what did I do?
Hodgkin's Lymphoma has a high cure rate if you catch it before it spreads, close to 90% with as little as six chemo treatments. Mine spread, a lot. Known as "stage four" it was in my spleen and spinal column and affected all of my lymph nodes. I was in for a train wreck which I have described earlier on this and another blog. I had 12 chemos, all pretty much made from left over WWI Mustard Gas (really!) and here I was, in for a check up and seeing new arrivals, waiting for "the procedure"!
You wonder as you are waiting, is it better to have the doctor find nothing or find something early?
I still don't know that answer and I hope I never do. I left having passed the physical, the blood tests, and all of the pushing and prodding. Nothing found...good for another six months!
Hodgkin's Lymphoma has a high cure rate if you catch it before it spreads, close to 90% with as little as six chemo treatments. Mine spread, a lot. Known as "stage four" it was in my spleen and spinal column and affected all of my lymph nodes. I was in for a train wreck which I have described earlier on this and another blog. I had 12 chemos, all pretty much made from left over WWI Mustard Gas (really!) and here I was, in for a check up and seeing new arrivals, waiting for "the procedure"!
You wonder as you are waiting, is it better to have the doctor find nothing or find something early?
I still don't know that answer and I hope I never do. I left having passed the physical, the blood tests, and all of the pushing and prodding. Nothing found...good for another six months!
