The Road Ahead

Some time has passed since my last update (The Big C) and many things have happened. With the help of my friends, professors, and the administration, I was able to complete my spring semester. It was certainly difficult, but nowhere near the hardest part of the last several weeks.

Let me tell you, chemotherapy is one of the most unpleasant things you can experience on this earth. My specific regimen is called dose-adjusted R-EPOCH. Essentially, it is a cocktail of drugs that require me to check into the hospital for 5–6 days at a time. My schedule is also accelerated, one less week between sessions compared to the normal rate. This treatment is aggressive, but so is my cancer. All these factors lead to an accumulation of side effects that is diabolical.

Nausea, headaches, fatigue, heartburn, the list goes on. It is already hard enough to sleep in a hospital, but these chemicals only make it more difficult. On top of this, the drugs have been causing some more severe side effects that may or may not be permanent, so look out for that. Hell, these drugs make my cancer seem benign.

However, at the end of the day, I know that this medicine is saving my life, just like it has for thousands of others. And this is where I get to the good news. Before my third chemo session, I went in for a PET/CT scan to see how the treatment was progressing. All of the cancerous nodes and the tumor in my chest did not respond to the radioactive sugar. This suggests that the cancer is dying! Additionally, the tumor has shrunk to less than half of its original size. Truly one of the best possible results.

With this in mind, my remaining three chemo sessions should be all that is necessary to place me in full remission, at the current rate of treatment. After that, I would just have to go in every couple of months to have checkups. The future may still be uncertain, but at least the road ahead has cleared.