Back to Work - In More Than One Way

Getting back into the swing of things at work has been easier than it was last year (I was on medical leave during the fall of 2013 as well), for a multitude of reasons. First and foremost, despite the broken ribs and SBRT sessions, I feel much better than I did last January, because the fall of 2013 had begun with major surgery - my liver resection, during which my medical team removed a little over half of my liver in order to get rid of the metastases that had formed there - and the complications that had followed - as readers of my blog might remember, the surgeon accidentally stapled shut my IVC (inferior vena cava) and the mistake had not been discovered for three weeks. So that was fun. We followed that rodeo up with five more grueling rounds of chemotherapy, which concluded right around Christmastime. The chemo sessions actually had been cut short - I was supposed to have 8 rounds - but my counts were so low, so consistently, that it took three months just to get five rounds in (they were supposed to be biweekly) and so my oncologist decided to pull the plug on the last few sessions, because getting to them seemed almost impossible. Chemo can do a real number on your ability to produce new blood, resulting in temporary (or permanent) "burning out" of the bone marrow, and it seemed that this was happening to me. So I was in pretty rickety shape last January, severely anemic, with low white counts and platelet levels hovering in the 50-75k range (you have to have 100K to be able to get chemo, and normal platelet counts range between 150-400K). But this year! This year, after taking the time off for R&R during the fall, all of my various maladies and broken ribs notwithstanding, I am relatively bursting with energy and feeling much more like myself. My platelets have finally, for the first time since August of 2013, returned to the 100K mark, my anemia is only mild, and my white counts look good. I've learned to take better care of myself and am eating a vegan diet that really helps with my energy levels and overall vitality.

My baby girl and me, on the slopes a few weeks ago!

This semester is also shaping up to be more successful than last spring because I have just stellar group dynamics in all three of my classes. I always, always enjoy my students and find myself consistently impressed with the hard work and thoughtfulness of many of them. But group dynamics don't always fall together - especially across the board! - in such as way as to make me excited to teach. There's just great energy in my classrooms this semester (one of my upperclassmen gave me a high five at the end of class last night, and several others sang out, "great class tonight!" as they left) and the kids are doing fantastic work. I should probably stop before I jinx myself, but suffice to say that I really look forward to getting to campus each day, and even on my long day when my last class ends at 7:30 pm, I feel happy and energized rather than drained. (Of course, by the time I get home, my teaching high has worn off and I sort of collapse into bed, but hey, I'll take it.) These feelings are especially impressive when you consider that I started my SBRT sessions again last week, to take care of the two lung lesions on my left lung that I talked about in my last entry, and they leave me feeling pretty fatigued. Tomorrow will be the fourth session out of five. And then I have grand plans to get back to my yoga mat (carefully, carefully) and rebuild the strength that I've lost due to the broken ribs. 

Medically speaking, my next big hurdle once the SBRT sessions are over will be another high-contrast CT scan, which will let us see whether any new lesions have appeared outside the lung areas. That hasn't been scheduled yet, but it will likely happen sometime this month, because I have a high-contrast scan every 3 months right now. As usual, there's a lot riding on this scan. We haven't seen any new lesions outside my lungs for almost a year now, and I'd really, really like it to stay that way. So please fire up your prayer rings or your good vibrations or whatever the heck it is that you've all been doing for me, because your meditations on my behalf really work. Visualize a cancer-free, anxiety free me, and I'll be doing the same (but anxiously, ha!). I've already been offered two summer courses to teach (one in person, one online) and my fall teaching schedule is also lined up, and I have every intention of fulfilling those beautiful obligations. Please help me make it happen. Be the Obi-wan to my Princess Leia: "Help me, Obi-wan Kenobi. You're my only hope."