The Latest 6-Monther

It's an interesting thing, living your life in 6-month increments, leapfrogging from one CT scan and oncology appointment to the next.  

For 5-1/2 months, everything's blessedly normal - work, errands, camping, yard work, etc. - then about two weeks prior to the next CT appointment, the scanaxiety kicks in and BAM! The bus traveling through Cancerland veers off the road and into a big fat gloppy mudhole, where it remains bogged down in worriment and dread until the CT results roll up, hook up their chain, and pull it out of its quagmire.

Yeh, I know:  I'm a drama queen.....  

Many people told me not to worry, that this CT will be fine - I've been feeling great and remain asymptomatic.

To which I was always responding in my head:  YEH, AND I WAS FEELING GREAT AND WAS ASYMPTOMATIC WHEN THIS CANCER THING WAS FOUND BY ACCIDENT!

The fear is always gonna be there, that this slow-growing cancer will morph into a more aggressive form (or threaten to cause havoc like it did in 2013 when we had to beat it back into submission with the Rituxan cocktails).  From talking with friends who have undertaken their own cancer battles, I've learned that the worry is a normal part of living with a cancer diagnosis, even during glorious days of remission.

So last week, I donned one of my fav shirts and high-tailed it up for my latest date with the Radiology Techs.

Since I'm always seated in the same chair for IV insertion, I always seem to pose the same way:

I will never tire of those delicious warm blankies!

My view from the IV chair.  Dork.

As soon as I was IVed up, Jared the Rad Tech set me up in the CT room for my next photo shoot:

The Rad Techs are always so efficient and fast - I was finished in just a couple minutes.  I told Jared he's like pit crew on the Indy 500.

Another CT scan in the can!

After the CT, it was off to a doctor appointment for a horrible month-long toothache I've been having. Wait, what?  A doctor appointment for a toothache?  Um, don't people usually see a dentist for that sort of thing?  Well yes, people usually do - but HUGE dental phobics don't.  

Stage IV cancer?  Piece of cake.  Dentist?  Oh HELL no!  (bad childhood experiences, choking in the dentist chair in my 20s, etc. etc. etc.)

A few weeks prior, I had called my primary doctor's office and told them my tale of dental woe and he gave me a prescription for 600mg ibuprofen 3x daily (the multiple Aleeve I had been downing on a daily basis wasn't touching the pain).   

Alas, the doctor told me she couldn't really do anything for me, and told me to see the d-d-d-d-dentist. After a month of enduring this pain that felt like a horse kicked me in the jaw (and ear and throat), I gave up and headed straight to the dentist and got right in without an appointment (oh goody).

Actually it wasn't bad.  I've been in so much pain that it honestly felt good to be getting to the root of the problem (so to speak).  X-rays revealed a small infection in a broken tooth.  When the dentist pointed it out on the x-ray, I screeched "That's IT???  THAT wee spot is the cause of my ceaseless torment???" (told you I was a drama queen.....)

We made an appointment for an extraction in May (I got a camping trip coming up - I don't want to be post-extraction on a camping trip!) and he sent me on my way with prescriptions for antibiotics and Vicodin.

I'd say I handled it pretty well:

Today, however, was the best day of the past week:  I got to visit with my Awesome Oncologist, Dr. Hampshire.  

Selfie with my onco homeboy, yo.....

Why was it the best day of the past week, you ask?  Because my CT was perfect and my bloodwork was perfect, even with fighting the tooth infection.

Can you say R-E-L-I-E-V-E-D???  

I LIVE for those good report cards from my Oncologist!

And as for you, Scanaxiety: