The answer is ALL the things.
Here’s a little review of my recent history.
Last time I had a PET scan in March, it revealed a growing spot of cancer in the femoral head of my left hip. So they scheduled me for 5 doses of radiation over a 2 week period in early April.
At the same time, my jaw started to ache, and I got all in my head that I probably had cancer in the bone of my jaw (like ya do), so I went to the dentist only to discover that I had a wisdom tooth going wonky on me.
Understand, all four of my wisdom teeth grew in straight when I was in college, which was like 100 years ago. Why is this one bothering me now? I had an infection in the tooth, and the root was poking out of my gum between my teeth and tongue, and rubbing on the side of my tongue, causing an irritating pain. So the dentist suggested getting it removed. I called the oral surgeon, and the next available appointment was in June. (This was the first week of April) Ugh! So far away! Plus I had to get clearance from my oncologist before I could do the surgery. He said I had to wait until after my next round of scans, which weren’t until late May, so June it was!
THEN a few days later, I got Covid. 2 years into the pandemic. I thought I was invincible! Darn. I had to miss all kinds of things, (poor me!), and my second week of radiation (which was really easy, painless and immediately effective) got delayed by a couple of days, and my regular (every 3 weeks) chemo appointment got pushed back a week. I did get monoclonal antibodies, and an antibiotic for my tooth, both of which did a number on my gut flora, but helped clear up Covid and my tooth pain relatively quickly.
THEN in the third week of April, I played 3 characters in “Into the Woods” on my worst chemo week instead of my best because of the reschedule.
I’m starting to understand why we don’t see many middle aged people on stage. Did I mention Easter was in there too? It was a hard three weeks, but I got through it all.
Then I rested.
Fast forward to today. By now, we’ve had Xander’s college graduation party (first weekend in May), finished off the end of the school year at USF, had two student recitals (USF and home studio), and celebrated Maia’s last day of high school. I’m in final tech rehearsals for Good Night Theatre’s next show, the Culinary Cabaret (next weekend- Matt & I are both in the band) and have started rehearsals for this year’s Fairytale Opera in the Park. It’s Memorial Day weekend, and Maia graduates in 2 days. Oh, and I’m taking a 10-month onilne course called “How To Run Your Voice Business Without Hating Your Boss”, and am working on starting a multi-teacher voice studio.
I’m rarely bored.
I had a PET scan yesterday, and got the results this morning. And GREAT NEWS!
• The radiaion treatment is working. The lesion in my hip is shrinking, and the doc has every reason to believe it will continue to shrink.
• There are NO OTHER CANCER MARKERS IN MY BODY! The lymph node in my right armpit (which is my problematic one) has a teensy uptake in activity (4mm to 7mm) but there’s a lot of scar tissue there, and any inflammation in my body can cause that spot to glow, so no reason for concern. We’ll just keep an eye on it.
• Dr. Jones says if my tooth is not bothering me, there doesn’t seem to be a real reason to go through oral surgery and introduce risk of new problems. So, unless the tooth pain returns, I’ll be keeping all my wisdom [teeth] to myself, thank you very much.
• Due to the recent change in my chemo schedule, we don’t have to adjust my treatment timeline before Matt & I head to Paris (knock on wood) in July. Our trip will fall on my best week. Hooray!
• All my lab numbers are back to ideal, so I’m back to being Practially Perfect in Every Way. Just the way I like it.
