Recent and Decent

It has been over a month since my last post, and I have been getting a lot of questions on my health update.

Since my last round of chemotherapy I have had a few developments in my road to recovery. Here are some of the most significant.

I went in to get my first PET scan post-chemo (which shows if there is cancer in the body).  The results were not immediately available, so I had to wait a few days.  Fast forward a few days, and I was on the phone with the insurance company, when I saw the hospital calling me on the other line.  I couldn't click over in time, and ended up missing the call.  As I was still on the phone with the insurance company, my phone beeped indicating there was a new voicemail.  Once I finally was able to get off the phone with the insurance company, I sat there with my phone in my hands for several minutes just trying to brace myself for how that short ten second pending voicemail was going to have such a significant effect on my life (or at least the next few months).  I held down the number #1, and after listening to my annoying voicemail message say

"You have one new voicemail message"..."Press #1 if you want to hear the message, press #7 if you want to delete the message,"  There was a quick moment where I wanted to press #7 and forget all about it, but of coarse I pressed #1.

The Doctor's message was very short, but informative.  It went something like "Blah Blah Blah, no signs of cancer, Blah Blah Blah".  VICTORY! -Johnny Drama

I will have to continue to have these scans performed for the next several years, so I figure I better get used to the nervousness the anticipation of getting the results that the PET scans causes.

As a result of have a "clean scan", the doctor told me to go ahead and schedule to get the catheter removed from my chest.  I was glad to be able to part ways with the catheter, it always was a nauseating visual reminder.  No matter how good I was feeling inside, the catheter forced me to remember the agony of laying in those stupid hospital beds with tubes and drugs going in and out of my body.

So last Friday I went in for surgery to have the catheter removed.  It was a quick twenty minutes under anesthesia, and I woke up feeling pretty lucid.  I didn't have the same crazy reaction as I did when getting the catheter put in.  No singing "You can't keep a good dog done" or any of the other shenanigans from before.

I am still recovering a bit from the surgery, the recovery time is about week before I can start getting back into fighting shape, or triathlon shape (I am training for a triathlon in Las Vegas in October)

Other than the scar on my chest, the immediate nausea from the smell of alcohol wipes, and my inability to eat any more Cutie oranges, I would say that I have come through this ordeal unscathed.

Thats the news from Wes 2.0