Being a cancer survivor, I want to stay cancer free.

In Nov 2003 the Dr. found that I had Uterine cancer and I had a total hysterectomy and then 5 days a week had radiation for the next 4 months. It was found that my body was over producing estrogen and I had never taken estrogen as a medication…it just was me. My high blood pressure which took my eye out was found to be from the high estrogen several years earlier. When I was getting better I found that I had problems with diarrhea and constipation which had never before been a problem. The Dr. told me it might be a life long thing of taking Immodium. When reading a cancer site one day I saw that someone had written about intolerance to lactose and I was using cream in my coffee and drank a lot of milk. I quit. I decided I had to try to find the reason and now I have no problems. I feel so lucky to have read these things and have had the most wonderful doctors in the world as far as I am concerned. I wanted to say this so that if others have problems, they might try this. I drink soy milk now on cereal, etc. Better than being sick.

I feel I cover the activities in other goals, and I am cancer-free after my colon surgery over 5 years ago.

Also, to quote Des, I hope never to have to open this one again!

My nurse practitioner called me on Friday and left a message right before the 3-day weekend, something about, “this isn’t life-threatening, but call me right away. Your lab tests showed a problem.” Charming.

So, I called back today, and she said that my liver tests are slightly elevated. They could be caused by one of three things: (1) my cholesterol medication is irritating the liver; (2) too much alcohol (more than 1 drink a day or 7 drinks per week); (3) too much Tylenol. Since it couldn’t be #2 or #3, we decided to cut back on my cholesterol meds by one-half. I’ll be taking another lab test in about 3 weeks to see where I am at that point.

I wanted to add: (4) too many M&M’s, but she didn’t give me a chance.

I just talked with him this morning. We’ll talk once a week about how I feel and what I’m doing.

It feels strange to check this off. But I chose a milestone – well, two actually – my 7 year checkup, and 500 cheers. All of you 43Ters came through on the cheers, and my checkup appeared clear. I haven’t received the labwork report, but usually if there’s a problem they call right away. They mail the test results if there’s nothing exciting, so I figure I’m clear.

So I’m done. I don’t have a huge shadow over me any more. I really and truly believed it would come back by now and it hasn’t. It’s just a little shadow now.

I have a bit of “survivor’s guilt” this week, too, because I just found out that a friend of mine with breast cancer had a recur. She’s looking at another year of chemotherapy and likely no cure, just an ongoing fight. I really hope they can prolong her life because she still has such young kids, younger than mine. I know what she’s facing and it’s truly terrible. I marvel that I’m not the one in her place.

So thank you, everyone, for your cheers! And may I never need to re-open this goal!

...errrr, as soon as I get 500 cheers for it. :)

That is, providing my tests all come back normal this time, and I’m assuming they will. It’s been 7 years now. The first year doesn’t count because I was undergoing treatments. The second year doesn’t really count either because the protection of the treatments continued for a while. So I’m figuring I’ve been “on my own” for 5 years, and although there’s never a point where I can say I’m “cured”, that’s as good a milestone as any. More importantly, I don’t feel like a cancer patient any more. I feel normal again, at least as much as I can outside of the annual checkups. Cancer is no longer a major driving factor in my life, and I think that’s the real measurement of this goal.

I would like to think I’m doing all I can. I’m using sunblock, sun hats, trying to stay away from smoke, and taking supplements. Attitude is one area that could use some improvement.

this one is with the Lab. The doc said I should wait three months and then get my labs done. It’s on the calendar for the beginning of next month.

As of today, I have been free from cancer (as far as I know) for 7 years. If I factor in the year of treatments and the additional year of protection those treatments likely gave me after they were completed, I figure I have gone 5 years without a recur. For many types of cancer, 5 years means “cure”, but my type doesn’t have an official “all clear” timeframe, because the risk stays high basically forever. Still, this is as close as I’m going to get, so I figure it’s worth a little celebration. :)

Well, not really “upon me.” Those OsmoPrep pills are upon me. The procedure is tomorrow.

I read a really funny column in the San Francisco Chronicle a few weeks ago, about a woman telling her doctor that she couldn’t possibly have a colonoscopy. “I don’t have any friends,” she told him, hoping to get out of the procedure. You see, someone has to take you and drive you home. I loved that!