Can it be?

by nemerson

Yo, Adrian! A clean scan!

Good news for Team Nate!  My scan yesterday showed no active cancer!

The most recent flavor of chemo seems to have worked really well.  It hasn’t been easy to tolerate, but God sustained me through four 3-week cycles.  I actually think the white cell booster – Neulasta – was bothering me just as much as the chemo.  It’s an effective and necessary medicine that allows me to continue my chemo schedule, when a normal immune system would break down and catch bubonic plague or something.  But, it has it’s drawbacks.  Neulasta sends a signal to my bone marrow, demanding that it work overtime to produce those precious, protective white blood cells.  The old body has taken alot of abuse over the years and really starts to complain about it.  So, we’re were pretty excited to find that, strangely enough, taking Claritin with the Neulasta – per the advice of a growing number of Internet testimonials – made a big difference.  (I’ll be happy to give you the details if you or someone you know is ‘doing chemo’ and having trouble with Neulasta).

But, I digress.  The big news is the clean scan.  It’s been few years since I’ve had one of those.  As sophisticated as scans are these days, cancer can still exist undetected by any scan at the cellular level.  So, true to our past experiences, the doc suggests two more rounds of chemo to really wipe out those sneaky buggers.  While I’m not looking forward to more chemo, it helps to have an end in sight.  Then, I’ll be able to go chemo-free for three months before my next scan.  It will be nice if things will work out for me to be feeling well when my family converges on a South Carolina beach this summer.

Have you seen Nate lately?

The other interesting bit lately is my red face.  Think Bob the Tomato with a troubled complexion.  I like to call it one of the “fringe benefits” of prednisone.  Thankfully, it doesn’t feel uncomfortable, but it reminds me of that old joke…

”Does your face hurt?”

”No.”

”Well, it’s sure killing me!”

I’m trying to slowly wean off the prednisone, but haven’t been able to just yet.  Whenever I lower the dose, my breathing gets difficult due some radiation damage to my lungs.  But, I’ll gladly put up with a red face in order to breathe!  I might try a prednisone alternative in the near future.

So, hopefully I won’t be bothering you for another four months or so.  By then, we’ll all be enjoying the summer sun ; )

Nate, Jill and Grace