Here I am, eight days after the last radiation treatment and generally feeling pretty good. Some side-effect symptoms have shown up but are quite manageable. The 1st was a couple of days ago when I noticed some discomfort while swallowing. Then yesterday it was joined with some feelings of heartburn/acid reflux from time to time. Additionally, there is an occasional sensation of “something going on” in my upper chest area. All of these things are apparently “normal” and will resolve over time. My energy is still pretty good and I’m riding the bike fairly regularly and started up my indoor training plan for both biking and weight lifting. OK, so weight lifting has just had one day so far, but hoping to keep it up. 🙂
When you have a cancer diagnosis, you tend to spend a fair amount of time thinking about it, at least I do. Not fearful, but it’s always rattling around in my brain, sometimes it’s pretty front and center and other times it’s just a deep background awareness, but generally lurking somewhere.
You get the diagnosis or doctor’s report and you think about that. You wait to meet with the oncologist, and you think about that. You hear about the treatment plan, and you think about that. You wait for treatment to start, and you think about that. You’re in treatment, and you think about that. But then treatment is over. There is a pause. There is nothing pending, nothing pressing and it’s easier not to think about “it” for a while. This is where I am now. There are some oncologist meetings coming up and a likely PET scan in mid-December, but there is a lull, a time where it’s easier to not let “it” occupy so much of my thoughts and emotional energy, a resting. Resting feels good. Time for some normal life, well as normal as it can be with that “other thing” going on.
