Garry Stewart

Well, it’s been 179 days since that first phone call from my doctor with the news about the cancer diagnosis. A lot has happened in those 179 days, but today was the best day!

Today, Shirley and I met with the oncologists to review the results of last Thursday’s PET scan and the results could not have been better. The Dr. said that there are “no signs of any active disease in you body.”. From the PET scan report…”There has been a complete metabolic resolution of the patients lymphoma.”, translation –  no cancer!

So, what’s next? Well, there are a few follow-up activities. On December 19th I’ll have the port removed from my chest. It was great to have, but I won’t be sorry to see it go. There will be two years of follow-up appointments with the oncologist, every 3 months for a year and then every 6 months.

To all our family, friends and church, thank you all for your love, prayers, support, concern, encouragement, food, and help that you’ve given Shirley and I on our journey through this process. It has all been very much appreciated!

Today and every day we’re celebrating God’s goodness and faithfulness to us. So thankful for all He has seen us through past, present & future. God is good.

This is the second PET scan to see what’s happening to the cancer in.my body. Of course the preferred and expected result is that nothing is found.

The test itself is quite uneventful which is ways good. After the screening and getting set up with the radioactive sugar injection (sounds harmless right?) I’m in the recliner resting under a warm blanket for one hour.

Into the tube is next with arms over my head and wrapped up in warm blankets again because the scanner is in a seriously cool room. Three passes in and out of the tube and I’m done, none to soon as one of my arms is beginning to cramp. All in all its a 2 hour process.

Next stop is on Monday with the oncologist to get the report.

First off, relax, it wasn’t that “urgent”, I was just following up on the dizziness thing. 

Th Urgent Care Clinic was awesome! they provided very quick, and thorough examination to investigate my symptoms. The diagnosis was narrowed down to a couple of possibilities.

The most likely possibility is a viral infection of the vestibular nerve, called vestibular neuritis, which can cause intense, constant vertigo. Thankfully, mine is not too intense. This would link in with the cold I’ve had for about 4 weeks.

Continue reading “Cycle 6 – Day 17: My visit to CancerCare’s Urgent Care Clinic”

Well, something new is going on. For the last three days I’ve been experiencing what I’ll call “dizziness”. This is something different from the periodic experience of getting up and feeling very light-headed and the possibility of fainting.

This new dizziness, loss of balance is a constant thing where I need to exert extra effort to walk in a straight line and find myself holding on to things to steady myself.  I checked in with my oncology nurse and she’s going to discuss with the doctor. I’ve not heard back yet. The advice was I it was “bad” or I was super concerned to go to the ER. Not there yet, so I’ll wait it out for a bit more and see what happens. My GP is booked up and I couldn’t get an appointment until near the end of the month.

I did a little shopping today which involved a lot of head swivelling and looking around which really aggravated the symptoms. After a while my stomach started to feel a little queasy. Sitting still and lying down are all good. Not exactly conducive to being active and getting things done.

I rode the bike yesterday for a couple of hours and surprisingly it didn’t cause too much trouble. The ride was pretty good for the first 50km and then I really started to feel tired.

The cold, which is still hanging on into week three now, seemed to cause me to struggle on the slightest climbing efforts and breathe abnormally hard. Also, an annoying running nose which just wouldn’t let up probably didn’t help.

Over the last few days when lying down, rolling over or getting up I had a cough. Not the typical tickle in the throat cough but one where you breathing fine, then there is an increasing gurgling feeling in your chest that increases with each breath until you are forced to cough and then it goes away for a while (minutes) and then is starts all over again. After a longer period of time (30-60 minutes) as long as I don’t change positions, it settles down and I can try to fall asleep. A couple of nights were nasty as getting up for the bathroom triggers the whole coughing thing and the meds & extra water intake are making getting up in the night a frequent event. Thankfully, last night, no coughing! Hopefully, that’s over.

Another highlight for today, the last injection of Grastofil ! Yahoo!

Feeling frustrated, tired, sorry for myself, angry and who knows what else after a night of being up every 2 hours. Will this cold ever let go? Does my life now revolve around peeing? Is there going to be a “normal” in my future?

I know it’s just a temporary thing and I’m trying not to slip into a dark hole but it’s a bit of a struggle today for some reason. I really crave a good night’s sleep.

Thankfully, fittingly on Thanksgiving Day, I read this and find it speaks to me.

Patient endurance is what you need now, so that you will continue to do God’s will. Then you will receive all that he has promised.

‭‭Hebrews‬ ‭10:36‬ ‭NLT‬‬

Patient endurance – I will calm myself and rest in this.

I have so much to be thankful for. A wonderful wife who encourages me so much. A great family who support me in so many ways. Good and steadfast friends and a God who loves me beyond my wildest dreams.

Thankful.

Last night was the usual interrupted sleep. I think I was up 4 times for the bathroom as the increased water consumption and the drugs seem to keep you pretty “busy”.  Thanks to the prednisone it takes a long time to fall back a sleep each time. I just lay there thinking about all sorts of random things but eventually I drift off for 1-2 hours before the next “awakening”.

And now its waiting. Waiting for the PET scan and the result review with the oncologists in about 7-8 weeks. Seems like a long time right now. Trying to keep positive and in faith about the results.  Psalm 103:3 and Psalm 91, especially Psalm 91:16

Update: The wait is not as long as I estimated. My PET scan is scheduled for November 1st and the oncologist review will be shortly after that.

I don’t get a phone call about any problems with my blood work, so it’s full steam ahead and I’m back in the chair.

Shirley is with me and this time we drove in on our own. The morning seems to fly by once again with a bit of napping in the chair towards the end of the process when there is one drug on the IV for about 1hr.

Back at home it’s a quiet afternoon with some computer stuff, some reading and another nap. I’m feeling good with no serious side effects, for which I’m quite thankful.

Nothing to exciting to report today, just the (now) usual blood draw for lab analysis to make sure I’m “OK” for Cycle 6 tomorrow. It’s quite the process of talking to various folks after getting the blood done. First there is the nurse who does the vitals and asks a number of questions. We discuss the cold I’ve had for the last 2 weeks, doesn’t seem to be too much f a concern. Then there is the doctors assistant who asks all the same questions in a bit more detail plus a little poking and prodding of my various lymph areas & my stomach/bowels, plus some stethoscope listening. Pretty thorough all in all. Then finally the oncologist doctor pops in, asks how I’m doing and if there are any questions. We talk about what’s next.

4-6 weeks after the end of Cycle 6, some time in late November or early December there will be a PET scan to see the status of the cancer. I’m believing it will be totally gone and treatments will be over. After that it’s periodic monitoring for some unspecified amount of time.