Doing the Rounds

Another Week 3 post-chemo is ending, but I don't have to go in for a chemo session tomorrow. I am very, very glad to be past that! 

What I'm going to be doing instead is embarking on a round of medical visits. This coming week will be my PET scan to evaluate my progress, as well as a cancer-unrelated ophthalmologist's visit, which I have to have because of one of my medications. To prepare for the PET scan on Tuesday I'll have to avoid carbs and exercise on Monday. Then the following week I'll see my oncologist and the thoracic surgeon to see what they have to say about the PET scan results. And the week after that I'll go to the mesothelioma specialist at Johns Hopkins to see what she thinks about it all. 

And after all that... I have no idea. I may or may not be having surgery, but if so I don't know when. And I also have no idea yet how much time the chemo has bought me. My time horizon is therefore about three weeks out just now—I am really learning to live in the present.

Meanwhile, I have been spending happy time in the garden and less-happy time indexing my book. The latter is almost done. The former is a great comfort to me, but I note that the season of garden pests has begun, with asparagus beetles, aphids, and rose slugs already making their presence known. My Chemo Plants #4—the Canterbury bells—arrived the other day and still need to be planted. It's just as well I won't have more chemo, as I am rapidly running out of space for new plants!

Circe and Lakshmi help me unpack the plants

Yesterday, after some gardening in the morning, we went and spent the afternoon and evening with friends. It was my longest time away from the house for something non-medical in many months. I was pleased to have managed it but have been exhausted all day today. Since the half-life in the body of Keytruda, my immunotherapy drug, is about three weeks (and I'm scheduled to get it only every six weeks now that the chemo is over), it may be that I'll be less fatigued over the next few weeks. I can hope!