PET Scan Results

Tax day is over and done with now...thank God! Although Virginia's state tax is due on May 1, just in case you were wondering. And what's more, they don't even let you e-file...how lame is that? I suppose it is alright though considering I owe them money this time around.

April in the DC Metro area is turning into a big disappointment. The weather has been absolutely freezing. Waking up to snow on the ground the day before Easter is not my idea of a good time. I just want it to warm up, and soon, because I've got important things like softball to focus on!

This weekend is the 10-Mile George Washington Parkway Classic down in Alexandria. I was hoping to run in it but I woke up yesterday feeling very ill. I made it into work for a couple hours and then had to leave. I collapsed in bed and didn't make it out until about 9:30 this morning, only getting up to switch out movies in my DVD player and to take another shot of Nyquil. I'm feeling a bit better today but still definitely not 100%. I'm not sure what it is/was, but it affected my whole body. Started out as discomfort in my stomach but then progressed into what felt like the flu. Not fun. In any case, I'm definitely feeling better and I'm hoping to be back to quasi-normal status tomorrow.

Now for more interesting news. As some of my more loyal readers will remember, the Cherry Blossom 10-Miler here in DC last year was a big deal for me. Sort of a welcome-back-to-a-healthy-life event for me really. My goal was to finish the race last year in 1:30:00 and I beat that by more than five minutes with a final time of 1:24:37. This year, I decided that I would again run the Cherry Blossom 10-Miler, if for no other reason than to just help me get in shape for the warm weather that has been elusive so far. My goal this time around was to run it in 1:20:00--or 8 minutes a mile--which would be a new personal best for me, beating my time in 2002 by 19 seconds. After a slower start than I had hoped for because of the crowds at the starting line, I found myself forcing a faster pace than I was accustomed to just to make up some lost time. I could have hit 80 minutes with a very solid last mile, but I just didn't have it in me and ended up at 1:20:40--missing my goal by 40 seconds. Oh well...there is always next year and I will be out there!

The most recent update specifically having to do with the whole purpose of this blog--that is, my cancer--came yesterday. Last week I had my first PET scan since last August when the results came back hazy and meant that I needed to get what was left of my tonsils removed. As usual, I was a little apprehensive about it. (As a sidebar, I would strongly encourage you to read the front-page article of a recent issue of Newsweek. It was written by Jonathan Alter who was diagnosed with a serious form of cancer in 2004 while he was covering the Presidential campaign. He puts to words a lot of the uncertainty and emotion of a cancer diagnosis and course of treatment that is difficult to capture and is a very good read.) After going through the usual pre-scan steps--not exercising, not eating, not wearing metal to the scan--it was time and it went as well as any scan I had had up to that point. I'm still not okay with small spaces and so every time into that tube is a battle for me in itself. This time I actually fell asleep for a bit during the scan, which is something that I would have never dreamed possible, so maybe I am making little improvements.

Anyway, yesterday, while I was lying in bed sicker than I had been in quite some time, I got a voicemail from Georgetown University Hospital. It was Eva, Dr. Davidson's assistant, letting me know that the results came back and everything looked good. Needless to say, I was happy to hear that. I like to think that this is expected, but every time I hear the good news, I feel sort of lucky in a way. Like I've just dodged another bullet or something. That's really the only way I can describe it. But in a way I have dodged a bullet. I've always maintained that I've been lucky to have had the type of cancer that I did while many others are diagnosed with much more serious types of cancer on a daily basis. They are the ones fighting the real battle.