I realized that when I have not been feeling well I do not go downstairs to my computer and end up not writing much. I did not realize that it has been so long since I last posted something. I should have known as when there are no posts the number of emails and texts increase significantly. Over the last couple of days I have had a lot of people from the hospital and university reach out to me to see how things were. It was nice chatting with everyone. I have also had quite a few visits from friends. We hang out in the backyard and I rest in the hammock with blankets. I enjoy the visits with friends.
On Monday I had an appointment with my doctor and he said that we are done treatment. We are not going to go with more chemotherapy sessions and at this point I am quite glad. I did not expect the last round of treatment to be so difficult, so I appreciate the break. If he said I had to start again in a couple of weeks I think I would be all right as I would forget how bad this was. Chemo by itself was manageable. I will be getting scans every 4 months now for the next couple of years to check to see if it comes back somewhere. If it does it is not a great sign as it is in the vascular system and spreading. We can deal with those issues if they are an issue later on. In two weeks I have opponents with my other oncologist as well as my surgeon. It should be super fun.
For the last couple of weeks I was losing around 5lbs a week. I managed to drop my weight to 168 so I have very little fat and have lost a lot of muscle. I was only eating 500 calories for a bit as it hurt to eat but I am over that now and have been increasing my caloric intake by a couple of hundred every couple of days. Yesterday I was at 1600 and today my goal is to see if I can reach 2000. I talk to my dietician a couple of times a week and it is great. I have been adding whole milk powder to things to add calories. It is interesting as it makes things taste extra milky. It is getting easier to eat and I think I can manage to get over 2000+ calories soon. I need to start training for the Olympics. My only shot at Olympic gold now is in curling. The only small hurdle is that I have never curled and need to enter some competitions in order to qualify. After the last six months it should be a piece of cake. I plan to start working out again to gain some muscle in a couple of weeks. Xavier starts hockey next week and I need to increase my activity so I can take him. Right now I take less than 500 steps a day or in that range. I get fatigued when I go up and down stairs. Once my caloric intake is above 2000+ I am going to increase my activity. I have continued working as vacation is for suckers. By Friday though I am quite tired and fatigued so I try to make sure I do not have too many meetings where I need to think on that day.
Happy to see you are increasing your daily food intake. So the calory increase should help you gain weight. I am thinking of you daily even if I don’t reach to you often. I’ll continue sending you good vibes and hope it helps with your recovery. Good luck and faster recovery.