I'm a survivor

It's over!!!
Free!!!
Cured!!! Well mostly.
No more chemo!!!

The day has finally come. I've completed my sixth round of chemo. And believe me, it's felt like years rather then months. As mum said an earlier post, we had this round in the transplant room, which is behind 2 doors, with little to no smells, Which left me with barely noticeable smell sensitivity. Although I still asked mum to eat hot meals in the other room from about day three dinner onwards, just to save any possible troubles.

On Monday, a couple of nurses and one of the patients put on a morning tea for patients in the lounge. It was lovely, I wasn't in a great mood for eating after having a bit of a rough morning, but it was nice just to sit there and chat with other patients. While chatting, I found out that having trouble getting a diagnosis of cancer is more common then I had realized. One lady got several diagnosis' including saliva stones and viruses before she finally got a diagnosis of lymphoma and leukemia. It made me appreciate how lucky I've been with a reasonably quick diagnosis and fast treatment, so many people are having to continue chemo for another 6 months or more, or having to follow up chemo with radiation.

One thing I have to say in this post, is a HUGE thank you to all the nurses on ward 25. They work soooooo hard, taking care of everything, from simply helping someone have a shower, so trying to follow the plans the doctors have written up for the patients. Also to the house surgeons and registrars, of which we ended up with three teams one after the other, thanks for making sure all my anti-nausea drugs were prescribed and settled all my fears over side effects and other things like that. Finally one last thank you to Dr Jameson, for all the work you've put into my plan, but if your reading this, you haven't gotten rid of me yet, we still got the follow-ups to go.

On the subject of follow-ups, my first is approximately 3 weeks time on thursday (clinic day), with further appointments on a regular basis, ending up at intervals of around a year. But for now, we don't have any solid plan for when we need scans and checkups, that is hopefully being sorted today at the lymphoma conference. Info on my leg is still noticeably missing, Which again, we will hopefully find at our thursday appointment. So till then, still on crutches/wheelchair, which is rather annoying, but it could be worse, so we'll deal with it.
Another minor irritation, is that I'm still stuck with my hic-man line for a couple of weeks till, guess when, clinic day, when they can hopefully place me in day stay and cut it out. Then once it's healed over, I CAN SWIM.

One final thing for today, Relay for life this weekend. Feel free to come along and support the walkers and help raise money for the cancer society. Get hold of me on facebook or go to http://www.relayforlife.org.nz/event/event?EventID=120 for details.

I'll make every attempt to keep posting, but I'm afraid you'll probably only get one post a week, that's just all I'll be able to fill without things happening. But as soon as i get info, it'll be here.
Till next time children, be good and stay healthy.
Logan.