Diagnosis: Afterparty

• Ironically, it was only after chemo finished and my immune system was completely back online that I picked up a nasty respiratory bug. Throughout much of June, that resulted in an ER visit, every test under the sun (swabs, X-rays, CT scans, blood cultures… you name it, they tested for it), and a few weeks of coughing. While the mystery illness still has no official name, thankfully there was no pneumonia or blood clot. Albuterol knocked it out, and I’m back to feeling 100%.
• As a fun bonus, one of those CT scans suggests the largest liver lesion may have continued to shrink during my chemotherapy vacation!
• My bi-weekly bloodwork continues to show my CEA remains undetectable, so the fear that Krang would wake back up & start to spawn again during chemo vacation is completely gone. It’s funny how one of the most exciting markers to watch during this journey has turned into the most boring, ungraphable graphs imaginable.

• The rest of my bloodwork, especially the liver markers, continues to look excellent as I prepare for surgery. Sometimes I wonder if drinking all that rail vodka in college was actually training my liver for this moment. There’s at least eight (if not more) tumors on this thing, and the entire time it’s just been like, “Yeah… so?”
• I’ve been working hard at “prehab”: staying active, prioritizing protein (my future tiny liver will appreciate the extra building blocks), and staying injury-free. I even squeezed in a quick physical therapy visit to remedy a minor hip issue; I’m going to need my legs at 100% after surgery.
• Just one more “faux chemo” (hydration & bloodwork) visit left before surgery, which would’ve been my 12th and final chemo infusion, had we not paused at 8.
• My pre-op anesthesia appointment is next week; looking forward to getting some small questions answered, and some extra details about surgery & my future hospital stay.
• The planner in me has been absolutely thriving. Shopping lists, packing lists, hospital visitation sign-ups (hit me up if you want the link!), family playbooks, surgery itineraries… they’re all ready to go. At this point, the only thing left I could possibly do to prepare would be to go to medical school and perform this surgery myself. Short of that, I think I’ve officially reached the end of my to-do list.
• And lastly, I’ve just been focusing on squeezing every bit of summer out of these next couple of weeks: hitting the pool, DJing, and saying yes to as much fun as possible… until summer comes to an abrupt—but very welcome—halt on July 27.