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Cycle 8 Complete

I have completed my 8th and final cycle of chemo. It was a challenging week of treatment, but it's all finally over.

In a lot of ways my final week felt the same for me as it did when I completed chemo five years ago. I felt happy to be done with chemo and all of its side effects, but at the same time I felt anxious about losing my chemo "safety net." I was never able to figure this chemo out so I was probably more happy to be done with it this time. As much as I hate having to do chemo I know that is the only thing keeping the cancer from coming back. I just have to trust that the chemo did it's job now and that is a difficult challenge for me.

Unlike last time I rang the bell at the end of my treatment. For those of you unfamiliar with this, it is a tradition for a cancer patient to ring a bell on their final day of chemo. I didn't ring the bell last time because I felt it was foolish to celebrate too early. Since then I have endured two recurrences requiring two lung surgeries and six more months of chemotherapy. So I guess I was right, it was too early to celebrate. It was too early to think that I would never need more treatment, but that doesn't mean that I can't celebrate making it through the treatment. So this time I rang the bell knowing that this doesn't mean that the Chemo-Cozy will stay in my closet never to be worn again, but that I got through 6 months of chemo and that's reason to celebrate. I haven't really celebrated much over the past five years, and I think I need to change that going forward. I have a ton of scans to get through to making it five years cancer free and I am going to make more of an effort in recognizing each milestone along the way.

I was also given a certificate for completing chemo, and you can see it below. On the last day I brought in donuts for the nurses. The nurses at VCU have been great, and I wanted to show them how appreciative I was for their help throughout all of this.
Eight Cycles Down, and No More To Go! We made it!!!

Comments

  1. Overcoming obstaclesMay 12, 2019 at 11:20 AM

    Hi Mike, I'm a female and my name is Lesli Riggins and I've survived Ewing's sarcoma for 53 years. I got it when I was 5 years old. I'm in medical journals and have. My doctor put his license on the line. I have proof,

    ReplyDelete

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