Some of you may remember my post last fall about water being bad for you. It was intended as a joke. I had bought myself a Fitbit for my August birthday and in order to meet my daily water goal had pretty much replaced coffee, soda and beer with water. Quite a bit of water in fact, that resulted in frequent trips to the bathroom. About a month later my plumbing quit working and I found myself in the emergency room the Thursday before the Baylor game, but I did make it to the game. Anyway I eventually had surgery to open up my plumbing. That was a success, but unfortunately the doctor found cancer. I found out about it in January.
The surgeon thought he got it all, but he went back in to make sure and he found more. He diagnosed it as bladder cancer, which made no sense at all to me as that is something typically you get if you are a smoker. It was going to require complex surgery which needed to be done in Iowa City or at the Mayo Clinic. I choose the Mayo Clinic. The Mayo urologist looked at the CT Scans and tissue samples and declared it not to be bladder cancer, but prostate cancer. That didn't require surgery. Chemo and radiation was the plan.
My last hurrah before treatments began was my trip to the Big 12 tournament. Chemo started that next week with a blood test and preparatory training on Monday and chemo on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday in Cedar Rapids. Three days a week of 4 to 5 hours chemo sessions comprised one cycle. Three cycles were prescribed with two weeks off in between cycles. The last session of the first week I listened to the first half of the UAB disaster while getting chemo, but made it back home to watch the second half. I guess with all that was going on in my life at the time, the loss didn't hurt quite as bad as it should have. The chemo wasn't too hard on me, but I was glad when it was over. It does set you back a bit. But I never lost my appetite. During chemo, your immune system is weakened so avoiding sick people is very important. I avoided going into the office and worked from home.
After the 3rd chemo cycle plus two weeks recovery time, I began 8 weeks of radiation treatments at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN. They give you one treatment each work day, but each treatment takes very little time at all. Once they align you, the radiation takes 3 minutes for the first 25 treatments, then 2 minutes for another 5 or so, then just 1 minute for the rest of the planned treatments. I stayed at the Hope Lodge near the Mayo Clinic during the week and worked remotely from there. I am so thankful to my company, Rockwell Collins, for giving me the flexibility to work remotely for over 4 months.
The 39th and final radiation treatment was yesterday (Monday) and today was back at work. It has been a lost summer. But once the chemo was behind me, I have felt great. The radiation doesn't set you back like the chemo does.
I won't know what the longer term implications are until maybe 4 months from now when they re-scan me. I am a little worried because they say it's an aggressive cancer, but I should be good-to-go for football. Where did the spring and summer go?
Maybe the next time I tell you folks water is bad for you, you will believe me.
The surgeon thought he got it all, but he went back in to make sure and he found more. He diagnosed it as bladder cancer, which made no sense at all to me as that is something typically you get if you are a smoker. It was going to require complex surgery which needed to be done in Iowa City or at the Mayo Clinic. I choose the Mayo Clinic. The Mayo urologist looked at the CT Scans and tissue samples and declared it not to be bladder cancer, but prostate cancer. That didn't require surgery. Chemo and radiation was the plan.
My last hurrah before treatments began was my trip to the Big 12 tournament. Chemo started that next week with a blood test and preparatory training on Monday and chemo on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday in Cedar Rapids. Three days a week of 4 to 5 hours chemo sessions comprised one cycle. Three cycles were prescribed with two weeks off in between cycles. The last session of the first week I listened to the first half of the UAB disaster while getting chemo, but made it back home to watch the second half. I guess with all that was going on in my life at the time, the loss didn't hurt quite as bad as it should have. The chemo wasn't too hard on me, but I was glad when it was over. It does set you back a bit. But I never lost my appetite. During chemo, your immune system is weakened so avoiding sick people is very important. I avoided going into the office and worked from home.
After the 3rd chemo cycle plus two weeks recovery time, I began 8 weeks of radiation treatments at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN. They give you one treatment each work day, but each treatment takes very little time at all. Once they align you, the radiation takes 3 minutes for the first 25 treatments, then 2 minutes for another 5 or so, then just 1 minute for the rest of the planned treatments. I stayed at the Hope Lodge near the Mayo Clinic during the week and worked remotely from there. I am so thankful to my company, Rockwell Collins, for giving me the flexibility to work remotely for over 4 months.
The 39th and final radiation treatment was yesterday (Monday) and today was back at work. It has been a lost summer. But once the chemo was behind me, I have felt great. The radiation doesn't set you back like the chemo does.
I won't know what the longer term implications are until maybe 4 months from now when they re-scan me. I am a little worried because they say it's an aggressive cancer, but I should be good-to-go for football. Where did the spring and summer go?
Maybe the next time I tell you folks water is bad for you, you will believe me.
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