After a delay so I could enjoy the Thanksgiving weekend, I was supposed to start chemo on Monday, December 1st. The chemo educational class was scheduled for the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, where I learned, among other things, I would take one chemo agent by mouth and the rest infused, including an immunotherapy agent, Keytruda.
My voice has been impacted in a significant way, beginning when I had trouble swallowing in July. The sound was a bit hoarse at first, but over time my voice became monotone and lacking the usual inflection and emphasis I typically give to words or phrases. The breath behind my speech was somehow reduced, so […]
Allow me to digress for a moment. It’s good therapy. I was reminded this week of my passion for music. At around 10-12 years of age, my parents agreed to buy me some drumsticks, which I used to hit on the lids attached to large-sized, empty Shedd’s peanut butter jars my mother bought at Ft. […]
The PET scan was done this week. It was about 20 minutes longer than CT scans I’ve had, with a bigger tube, and I planned with my primary care physician to have a mild sedative to address any claustrophobia I might have – it worked! On Friday, I met with a surgeon/oncologist at the Georgia […]
This week, I had a PET Scan appointment on Tuesday, which the oncologist ordered to make sure we understand the extent to which the cancer has spread or not. So far, the cancer appears limited to two lymph nodes. If confirmed, then surgery would be the solution, preceded by some chemotherapy, to removing the lymph […]