Crusoe's Island, Part 2: The Cinque Ports Sails Over the Horizon But Friday Appears For Now.

After the bone marrow biopsy I found out that whatever it was is hiding out in my marrow. A PET scan revealed its general location but the machine conked out because some IT idiot had introduced a couple of lines of bad code into one of the 8 computers that runs the scanner so I had to come back for another try. An armload of radioactive sugar solution and a nap and I was ready.

All this revealed something called indolent malt lymphoma which I have probably had for years, it's incurable but it can be bashed over the head with chemistry and put back into its lair until it's time to do it again in three or four years. Medium octane chemotherapy has started and I feel a lot better after one session which seems to make me think all the time I was thinking I was lazy I was kind of...well....sick.

It's funny, I spent two days at a conference that would have put me to sleep a month ago but I was focused and I could see and hear better. A lot better. I was up on the 34th floor of the Ruan Building, they fed me very well indeed for two days, and the view from the windows was glorious.

You can see a lot of Iowa from there. I was easily distracted by some of the wildlife flying about, one of which was a pretty damned large owl. In the day no less.

So far the chemo is not too bad, a little anti nausea stuff and some prednisone for a few days and that's it until next time in three weeks. The prednisone makes some things like Coke and Zingers taste like piss and cardboard so I'll be glad to lose it in two more days for a while.

I did not get the red devil because they're not trying to cure me of something that can't be cured. So I have a pretty good idea of what will end my days on this planet at some unpredictable time in the future. The doctor's longest lasting patient is going on 24 years so far which is probably about as long as he's been in medicine.I've got five more treatments to go.

The red devil is doxorubicin and it is rough stuff indeed. Not for the faint hearted or sissies. I'm glad I missed it. I'm getting CVP and Rituxan  which together is R-CVP. I may lose a bit of my thinning hair for a while.