Although I escaped radiation this time, I have no illusions that I may undergo radiation treatment at some point in my life. It's important to remember that every patient's response to treatment is different, every patient's tumour is different, and although I have the co-deletion, which is considered favourable, it's simply not as black and white as that. No one with cancer gets off easy. And I know that there are people out there who are worse off than me, and that keeps me fighting.
Quite simply, I'm not out of the woods yet. I'm thankful and hopeful that I have a favourable diagnosis, because like I said, there are other people out there fighting a tougher battle. But as my oncologist said yesterday, cancer is incurable. Although this post may sound negative, I also have to be realistic and face the music. Of course, I only hope for the best. That Temodar will do its job and kill relatives of FigNewton the III. But chemo is it's own battle. And the more cycles of chemo you undergo, the shittier you feel as the levels of toxicity in your body rise. I'm undergoing 12 cycles of chemo. I also don't do vomit. At all. So I'm hoping the anti-puke medications are strong enough. Plus, they don't hand out gold stars for toughing through it. There's also the concern about my white blood cell count. My oncologist has to monitor this every month before I can get approved for the next cycle. Common immune system, we need to hang in there! Need to show this cancer who's boss and hold the line.
So even though we're all breathing a sigh of relief, I'm not going to get too excited until March when I have my 3 month MRI. I can't relax yet. And when the 12 cycles of chemo are over, and I have my first "clean" post-treatment MRI, I will declare victory. That is my Everest.
