Tomorrow marks my final chemo infusion and the end of my active treatment – a final update (for now).
My time at home following my third inpatient stay has more or less followed the same pattern as the previous ones. For the first few days, my energy levels were still quite low and I felt quite “medicated”.
However, ever since, my energy has been picking up steadily. Since I did not receive any anti-thromboses injections during my last hospital stay, my doctors recommended that I move around as much as I can. My way of doing this has been to incorporate afternoon walks into my routine as of this week.
I definitely still tire more easily than I usually do. I started with short walks and take regular breaks. The weather has luckily been rather pleasant this week where I live, making it a delight to read outside.
Overall, it is fair to say that my condition is quite remarkable for someone who has just completed three full cycles of BEP chemotherapy. I have lost neither my taste nor my appetite, maintained my weight throughout, and not experienced even the slightest degree of “chemo brain”.
As a result of the latter, I have actually been able to get a lot of stuff done that I’ve been meaning to get around to for ages but just never found the time for. Most of this relates to my digital life. I’ve fully made the switch to a Linux OS on both my main PC and my laptop. I have also changed a whole bunch of services, including email, calendar, and cloud storage, from US providers to privacy-focused European alternatives. And I am finally working on a new personal website.
I have my final outpatient appointment tomorrow morning. One more dose of bleomycin (a.k.a. The Lung Buster) and I’m done. After that, I have four weeks off to recover and let the final cycle fully do its job. My oncologist has scheduled a blood test and a CT scan for mid-October, meaning we will know the results of all of this shortly afterwards.
It’s been quite the summer. This experience made me reflect on a lot of things, although probably not the things readers of this blog may have in mind or not in the way one might expect. Truth is I was already facing a personal crossroads before all of this happened. This just gave me the free time to stare some of these questions in the face.
However, I am perhaps the least important person in all of this. Over the past few years, I have been most fortunate to meet and befriend some of the best people life has to offer. And during this latest misadventure, all of them came through for me in ways that truly made me quite emotional at times. I consider my friends to be the greatest treasure in my life and this summer has been the ultimate proof of that. Sincerely, thank you all. I love you.
I do need to single out one person in particular at this point. Iris, what the hell would I do without you? Make do somehow, for sure, but be much more miserable doing so. You accompanied me closely throughout the whole thing, scheduled visits, came to see me as often as you could, shaved my goddamn head…! And all of this while being in a super stressful period of your life yourself. I realise that by now there are few compliments left that I have not already given you at some point. But just know that I cannot think of myself without thinking of you. Thanks for all you do – I’ll repay you in this life or the next, when we’ll both be crows hunting for some peanuts.
Dear readers, I believe I’ll leave this series here for now. I will of course provide an update once I know the results of the treatment, but until then I’ll give the topic some rest. I hope you have found these posts insightful. My goal was twofold: provide updates to those who know me personally and document my experiences for anyone who might be in a similar situation at some point in time.
May all of you, wherever you are, be happy and healthy. I wish you nothing but the best. Until next time.
just thoughts 