Challenges and Tests

The past week has been challenging. Last Thursday I woke up with a headache, and then proceeded to feel headachy and queasy and generally ill for five days. By the time I realized it was settling in for the long haul it was the weekend, so I couldn't contact my doctor till Monday. He then sprang into action, ordering tests with the thought that I might be having bad side-effects from the immunotherapy. Apparently that can happen out of the blue, even months after the last dose. He also said I should go back on some medicine that had worked wonders to settle my stomach in the aftermath of chemo but that I had recently stopped at his instructions on the grounds that I was well past chemo and doing so much better.

Luckily, the medicine has again worked wonders. The queasiness is gone, though I still feel pretty wrung out. Meanwhile, I went in for a blood test first thing on Tuesday morning and then for a brain MRI in the afternoon. In the middle of all that I also had to go buy a new cellphone, as my old one abruptly died on me.

So far none of the tests whose results have come back have been all that informative. As is typical with medical tests, I am torn between wanting negative results—indicating that I don't have the various awful things I'm being tested for—and wanting results that give useful information about what to do to fix the problem.

Before this episode came on I was cautiously beginning to look around me for things to do and ways to rebuild a life for myself after its recent interruption. Now, even with the queasiness settled, I am not up to doing much more than lying around. I really, really hope this doesn't indicate an upsurge in tumor activity. For answers on that score, I'll have to wait for next week when I have my next CT scan.

In better news, I'm getting the first ripe peaches from my young tree. And yesterday I picked one of my miniature pineapples, and we ate it still warm from the sun with our tea.

The good news: recent harvest