Diagnosis: Afterparty

• Round 3 of chemo is in the books! (Sort of, I’ve still got my at-home chemo crossbody bag, lovingly nicknamed The Goblet of Poison, connected to me, so round 3 officially done tomorrow when I go to take it off)
• My CEA levels, the tumor marker I was celebrating last chemo round that went from 46 to 9.7, has gone down AGAIN, and is at 4.6- which is now considered NORMAL. A 90% drop in my tumor marker this quickly is absolutely insane, in a miraculously amazing way.
• And to top that good news off, my liver (who we’ve been keeping a close eye on, considering how much is compromised by Krang’s offspring) AND my kidneys (who are now tasked with the highly important job of flushing dead cancer cells out of my body- which could easily overload them) are functioning perfectly as well! So not only is the chemo working, but it’s not overloading my organs in doing so- which is about as important as getting rid of the cancer itself.
• I’ve been learning SO much about cancer, about cell division and recreation, the genetic mutations that both lead those cells to become cancerous, why and how that happens, and most importantly- how the mutations in my tumor’s DNA can make my Stage 4 colon cancer an entirely different beast to conquer than someone else’s Stage 4 colon cancer; even without considering the metastases. With just 48 days of absorbing every piece of information I can about cancer, I’m pretty much a scientist now. I’ll likely write an entire post about this soon, because I find this all so incredibly fascinating. A quote from a book I just finished sums it up perfectly, “Cancer is a powerful adversary, and we should have as much information about it as possible if we seek to be victorious over it.” -Jonathan Stegall MD
• The only bloodwork number causing a small issue is that my iron was a bit low, and I’m technically anemic now, so I’ll be getting an iron infusion tomorrow when I get The Goblet taken down. Not a huge deal, and a super easy fix, per my oncologist.
• We’ve now made it to the quarter-way-mark in my initially planned chemo treatment (at least for now, that could change in either direction), time really flies! Only 3 more rounds until my next set of scans, then my oncologist brings my case back to the tumor board to reevaluate.
• I’m finally starting to experience the dreaded chemo brain! Which is basically brain fog, but with a medical excuse. It’s not terrible, and I’ve been writing down any thought or idea I want to remember, so easily rectified.
• My hair has started thinning a bit too, but also not too much more than I’m already used to; about double the strands post-shower. The specific drug that I’m on doesn’t necessarily cause you to lose all your hair (the way for example, the way the different chemo drugs that they give to breast cancer patients does) so it looks like the worst of that problem is going to be a lack of volume- I can definitely deal with that!
• Despite chemo, I’m still getting faster at running. Still not where I want to be (which to be fair, is a place I still would’ve considered slow a few years ago) but the fact that I’m still progressing during this time period is wild in itself.
• If anyone out there plays Animal Crossing, in my downtime I have finally 100%’d my KK Slider collection, flower hybrids, and am only 3 fish, 3 bugs, and 2 paintings away from finishing my museum. IYKYK, this is just as exciting as my cancer marker going down.
• My first really busy weekend lies ahead with 1 thing to do each day: a DJ gig, a wedding to go to, and a colon cancer walk! All involving people and a whole lotta possible germs. I’m fully ready to be masked, be as normal as possible, and get a heck of a lot of good sleep in between.
• And lastly, I’ve been getting a lot of compliments on how well I’m taking all of this, and how positive and strong I’ve been. And while it sure does look like that from the outside, and I surely feel that as well, I don’t think this is about positivity and strength on the surface. If I had to teach someone to walk in my shoes, I think the building blocks have more to do with tenacity and adaptability over anything. Once you’re determined enough to make the adjustments necessary to make daily life as normal as possible, the positivity and strength are just byproducts of the calmness that normalcy cultivates. And the dramatically dropping CEA doesn’t hurt either 🙂

And don’t forget! March is: