Today was hopefully the last day for chemo. It was hard to imagine back in April with three chest tubes in me, hospital gown on, hooked up to multiple feeding tubes that this day would ever come. Dr. Myint says that this should be it, that I should put the champagne on ice so that when I take my next scan all the tumors should be gone and then I can pop the cork. Things are looking good, but I still feel a bit nervous and cautious. I know that this will be my hardest week for nausea, hiccups, getting sick. And next week will be my lowest blood counts I have ever had, so I will be tired. Then I will have to drink the bad tasting liquid so it can highlight any tumor cells in my scan. But deep down I feel so lucky and thankful. Thankful for the wonderful friends I have who came over to the house yesterday evening to keep my mind off of the battle. Lucky that in reality I could have suffered a lot worse and not have such a good prognosis upcoming. This past Saturday Bev and I saw the movie My Sister's Keeper. It was about a girl who was raised to provide parts for her older sister who had cancer. Being a parent, and a cancer survivor, I could relate to both sides of the movie. It was funny in parts, sad in others, described reality throughout. I would recommend it to you. The reason I bring it up was that when I walked into my chemo for the last time today I saw a child, maybe 8 or 9, bald, playing with their siblings with their parents close by. All I could hope and pray is that this young person not suffer and have a good prognosis as I have. Cancer knows no age limit, race, origin. Those of us who have it, and those that support us can only fight it with determination, faith and love. I have been so lucky to have had the support of family and friends throughout my battle. As the final act plays out, it is the support of these people that keep me going. It's now the evening of day 1 of this round, and the hiccups have already started. Hopefully they won't last all week this time, but if they do, I know I can survive them. And I can survive anything the last of the cancer is going to throw at me. Thanks to all of my supporters.
Congrats goes out to my son in law Mark in Chicago. He reached his goal of raising funds for Team in Training and is training hard for his upcoming triathlon. We are so proud of him. But he could still use more donations. Checkout his website at: http://pages.teamintraining.org/il/chitri09/mkaufman
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Ken, I pray that God will bless you with a less physically enduring challenge while you recover from this last treatment. You are truly blessed to have come this far and to see the light at the end of the tunnel. I am training with Team in Training for the first time. Here's my webpage:
ReplyDeletehttp://pages.teamintraining.org/il/chitri09/lsivov
I am overweight, a little slower than I'd like to be, but, I completed my first sprint distance Triathlon on 7/19/09 in Waukegan (Harbor Lights). I finished 3rd to last, but I finished! Here's a link to my pics:
http://www.asiorders.com/view_user_event.asp?EVENTID=49409&BIB=816&LNSEARCH=1
I thank God every day that I am alive and strong enough to accomplish this. Now I am pushing through one more month of training for my moment of truth at the Chicago Triathlon on 8/30/09 when I will do the Olympic distance. This will be an enormous accomplishment for me.
I am doing this in honor of my father, Nikolai Sivov, who passed away on 2/11/01 from pancreatic cancer. While Team is raising money for blood cancers, not pancreatic cancer, I feel that a cure for any cancer is a step towards a cure for all cancers.
In honor of my father, you and all other cancer patients/survivors I will keep you near and dear in my heart and soul as I push through the hardest moments of my race!
Thank you for sharing your story and for continuing to stay positve as you push through and stay strong during your fight with this ugly disease.
Best wishes and my positive prayers for you and your family!
Lucy Sivov