Getting better

I could wail and beat my breast. But I won't. This has been a tough two days. The second immunotherapy treatment kicked my ass and it should only get stronger and worse as my body absorbs the cumulative dose the next three weeks. 

This is powerful stuff and it reverberates throughout my body.

Nothing too serious, nausea, minor pain, constant urination, but this infusion has certainly been no walk in the park. It is intense but worth it.

The reality is that BCG has caused my stage 4 cancer to revert to a low level cancer on three occasions now in the last 38 years. I was a goner.

Honestly, it is a lifesaver and I probably wouldn't be here living with you on this planet without it.

You have to keep things in perspective. I got a call today from an estate liquidator. She needs to move a collection fast. I looked at the pictures and couldn't help wonder, how could a man sell an exquisite collection of fine glass, that took a lifetime to collect, in a week? what possessed him? It is highly unusual.

There was a long pause on the phone. The collector has cancer, no more than six months to live. His brother is picking him up next week and moving him back to Ohio to take care of him during his last days. 

I suspected as much, made an appointment to see him before my next treatment. Collectors don't sell off their lifelong treasures so easily unless there is a real good or bad reason like this. 

And it makes me doubly grateful that I have a path to better health. As discomforting as it is, my stage 4 is in remission and I just need to hit my body with this atomic bomb of immune stimulant from time to time and I should be okay. I was lucky enough to have a way out of my ill fated disease. Many are not so lucky or they waited too long for diagnosis and treatment.

Get regular mammograms and colonoscopies and pay attention to what is going on with your body. Maybe we all can stick around a little longer.