It has been over a month from wondering what I have on my neck to being diagnosed, and passed off to bigger and better doctors, but here I am, finally starting the healing process. When it was first discovered, I think they were hoping it was something else, it was so large. Upon doing a biopsy that showed it was thyroid cancer and a big one, over 9cm wide, I was passed off to MD Anderson, a name synonymous with cancer, as far as my limited knowledge about the subject was, I had always heard it was the best place for treatment. Never looking into it, mostly because we don't really have cancer running in our family, I assumed that cancer was an automatic death sentence. It is certainly one of the scarier words to hear associated with oneself, it brought me to my knees and had me crying at all sorts of times during the day until I was told by these new doctors that they deal with people in my situation all the time and not to worry.
When I first started dating Wife, in high school, it seemed every other year they were dealing with yet another member of the family in the final stages of some cancer or other. But these were grandparents that were already old, I convinced myself, until one of her aunts who worked for the local paper and everyone knew and liked also got it and passed away, leaving her cousin, a classmate of mine without a mother way too young, maybe we had just started college, early 90's timeframe. That was my association with cancer, but times have changed a lot. I have heard a ton of stories of people beating cancer, my son's fiancee's grandma is fighting it for a fourth time and she showed me pictures of her having the time of her life in Vegas just recently.
Anyways, I got my pills in the mail last night (Wednesday) when I got home from work, but waited until Wife got home to take them, around 7:30 pm. I had this built up worry since the side effects of the pills are an increased blood pressure and 100 possible side effects, such as diarrhea, and bleeding from any orifice, to name a few. I took my blood pressure before bedtime and it was a few clicks higher, went from 137/74 to 149/83. Wife was worried, I could tell, she wanted to sleep with me downstairs, we sleep in separate beds because I used to stay up until midnight screwing around, and she has to get up at 5:20 to be out the door by 6:00 am. I told her I would be alright, she needs to rest too, I don't want her getting poor sleep and then being tired during the day. I made it through the night, this morning my pressure was 148/98, so the bottom number is still rising, but I was also given blood pressure medicine to counter that. I am sure I'll be told to take it either today or tomorrow. I am only doing this chemo drug for a few months to shrink the tumor and then hopefully it can all be removed and I can go about my life normally.
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