Today I had my first visit with the oncologist after starting treatment. The doctor came in very cheerfully and asked how I was doing. I said, "Good, how are you?" and he said "Good - but you're really good!" He went on to explain that he hadn't wanted to tell me the last time, but my tumor markers had jumped up in January. They had gone from 114 to 156 - but he expected this, due to the fact that I was not yet on any treatment. Today, my blood test showed a reduction to 106! I was so happy to hear this news. In January, I wasn't feeling so hot (lot of aches and pains) and lately I've been feeling much improved. It confirmed what I already suspected, that the cancer had begun to retreat. He said I wouldn't need to see him for the next 3 months because I responded so quickly to the treatment, and he expects it to work for a number of years. He said to plan to be around for a long time and that I would be very successful in beating down the cancer. I walked out of there so happy! Of course, the perfectionist that I can tend to be, I would have liked for the tumor markers to be back down to 30 or less, which would be considered normal. But I told him that my challenge now would be to have this number down into the double digits by the time I see him at the end of May.
I've been looking into some new things to occupy my free time. I checked out meetup.com and found there were a few events of interest in my neighborhood. I've also inquired about singing with our church choir on Tuesday nights. I am having dinner with a work friend tomorrow night, which will be fun. I need to get back to putting emphasis on my life and living fully. A lot of what I do is wait for others to be available to do stuff with me - I can't wait for that any more. I need to get out there and meet people and start doing things. I don't want to waste the time I've been given just sitting around. It's going to take me awhile to figure out where my true joy lies, but I know I'll get there if I start looking. I want to spend less time on Facebook reading about other people's lives - I need a life of my own. It's time to have some fun and dig in to some real living. Everything to this point has been rewarding and beautiful, but life seasons change and we must be willing to change with it. I'm excited about the things to come, and look forward to posting about more than just my cancer journey - because, CANCER IS NOT THE BOSS OF ME. I am!
