4 Years of Living with Cancer

It's been 4 years already since the first heard the words "Follicular Lymphoma". On December 23rd, 2014, I was finally given my diagnosis. It had been hard during the limbo stage, not knowing what was going on, what I didn't realize was how hard it would be in the year to come, accepting that I live with cancer. 

For the most part, over the last 4 years I have felt ok. But my lymphoma seemed to find its way into my life when I lest expected it, like when I had to have my tonsil removed, and more recently when it kicked my butt this spring.

Through all of it, the 12 CT scans, the surgeries, the blood tests and treatment, it was sometimes hard to focus on life instead of being sick. 

I made a pact with myself to try and focus on what was really important. Starting by being more present, enjoying my time with my family, allowing myself to relax and play, and doing things I may have been too shy to do before, like jump around a trampoline park with my kids :) 

When I was very sick, simple things like doing the groceries and bringing Tucker for a walk turned into huge mountains that were very hard to climb. I am that much more grateful now to be able to be able to do all those things, and then some. 

After seeing my oncologist last week, and receiving good news, I am ready to march into 2019. If I bring anything with me it will be the realization that life, and health are fragile, and the importance of enjoying every moment. 

So take the time to be mindful, be present and enjoy the moment, before the moment is gone :) 

Shantay you Stay

Well the time has come for me to return to work! 

My treatments, Rituxan, started in May, i had one per week for 4 weeks and then had a month to rest after.

Rituxan is given  at the oncology treatment Center at the Moncton hospital. It is given in the same format as chemotherapy, by IV infusion over a period of several hours. The treatment room is large a clean and bright with 25 hydraulic chairs around the room. There are windows all around the room and a large nurses station sits in the middle to look over the  patients. There are heated blankets, televisions and volunteers come with snacks and lunch. 

My first treatment took 5 to 6 hours. Once my IV was set up I was first given a bag of benedryl through the IV. Since Rituxan can cause an allergic reaction the benedryl was given before every treatment. The side effects of benedryl are drowsiness and general loopiness so I was unable to drive that entire day. Then the Rituxan is hooked up in a brown plastic bag. It is slowly released the first time to minimize side effects. Because I did well the first time the following three treatments were only 2-3h each. 

After the treatments some of the side effects I had were fever, body aches, fatigue, mouth sores and eczema. I slept a lot, and for a while was afraid I would never feel better. I couldn’t do groceries some days, go for walks and simple things like laundry and cleaning became enormous tasks. I spent my time napping with Tucker and watching a lot of Rupaul’s Drag Race. Not many foods were appetizing, and because of this I was pretty much on an all chip diet, I have since recovered from this addiction (almost).

Soon after the forth treatment I started feeling better. The change was gradual, the naps were shorter, then a few days appart until finally I could do my regular life things again without it being exhausting.

I am feeling a lot more like myself, leaving my leggings and baggy sweaters aside I have started wearing real clothes and sometimes even makeup! I still have to take it easy some days and make sure to take the time to rest, but as long as I watch myself I should be fine :) I have started walking with Tucker again, something I wasn’t able to do this spring and which we both missed a lot. 

As far as any type of “remission” it’s hard to say. I have a CT scan next month and a follow up with my oncologist. Follicular Lymphoma is considered “incurable” as it will often come back even after “remission”. I don’t expect to never hear from it again, however I look forward to having many years of not feeling it.

I want to thank everyone who helped me out here and there, even if it was just a kind word of encouragement or dropping off a fantastic apple pie. These little things helped me enormously. 

Pretty soon I can go back to my life where I forgot I even had cancer ☺️

I'm back!

So I'm sure you havent noticed much happening on this blog, and for good reason.

For the last few years I have luckily been living like I don't have cancer at all! The watch and wait process was going well, and I no longer needed regular CT scans.

A couple of months a go however I got a new group of larger lymph nodes in my neck.

Over the last month I had a CT scan and recently met with my doctor to go over the results.

The size of the lymph nodes themsevles do not cause him alarm, however because the placement of them and the fact that I am having symptoms such as troble swallowing and fatigue he has recommended treatment.

The good news is  NO CHEMO! Chemo is very hard a difficult and at this time not necessary. I will be doing Immunotherapy, more specifically Rituxan. Although Follicular Lymphoma is considered incurable, Rituxan dramatic improvement in response rates, and survival rates for many forms of B-cell lymphomas. 

This type of targeted therapy is given as an infusion, which lasts several hours. This is done once a week fo four weeks. I will need to rest mostly and so I won't be working for a couple of months. 

I plan on spedning a lot of time in a chair at the beach or in the yard :D 

Here are some links that may explaine Rituxan more, I will be updating everyone on how it goes!

http://www.cancer.ca/en/cancer-information/cancer-type/non-hodgkin-lymphoma/non-hodgkin-lymphoma/follicular-lymphoma/?region=on 

https://www.lymphoma.ca/sites/default/files/images/fl_patient-guide-booklet-english.pdf