I am somewhat tardy with this update, but I have good reasons.
The most straightforward part of my reasoning is that I was scheduled for a Cystoscopy (click link to learn about those), on the 9th. I didn’t see the point of posting anything before that as I would have had to post a second update anyway. I didn’t have enough to talk about to make 2 posts about it – so I delayed.
Second part of the reason is that I wasn’t home. I went on my big summer motorcycle road trip (more details coming soon in the motorcycle tab). I was gone from 29 July, until about 7 August…. passed by the house for laundry, but was mostly away.
On the last monthly update, I was still undergoing BCG treatments, and still had #18 to go on July 8th. For this session of BCG, I think I got hit a little harder. I don’t know if it is a combination of my weight loss, or the fact that my fitness level has deteriorated, such that my body is still not able to recover as well as I would have hoped.
The challenge of recovery after the treatment is pretty substantial, it all comes down to the energy reserves, energy conservation and allowing the body to have the resources it needs in order to best put all energy to the fight. I am now wondering if I have tipped the scales too conservatively on the prevention side, and now need to rebuild on the fitness side of the scale. It all seems to be a balancing act, that you only find out if you are out of balance based on negative impacts.
The Cystoscopy today was uneventful, I think that I am becoming a regular. I know the paperwork by heart, the process is pretty straightforward, and anxiety levels are pretty low. I don’t stress about what the “worst case scenario” might be – because I have already gone through it. I now have to spend time thinking about which procedure number that I am on. So after consultation with a calendar – this was “invasive procedure” #30. I haven’t counted the CT/PET scans, ultrasounds, x-rays, blood work, military medical exams (2 per year) and the other items that have been part of my world for the last 26 months. This is just surgery’s, BCG or procedures that end in – oscopy.
Todays results are about as good as I could have expected. The Doctor is happy with progress, and does not see the need for another surgery (A “TUR-BT” aka Trans-Urethral Resection – Bladder Tumour), and just wants to continue with the BCG that is t be scheduled for December (ish).
Other news, you may have noticed some adjustments to the website. I have changed it so that there is a page that holds all BLOG posts, but other pages that will have them broken down by category so that people can just read posts about Cancer, motorcycle stuff, or just these monthly update posts. My thoughts with this change is that I can now focus my posts more directly on topic, rather than trying to make a post that covers all bases. I think the end result will be more posts, but I think that they will be better categorized. I will try to keep them this way for at least 6 months, and maybe adjust again around christmas. A big part of the change was when I learned more about menus, and website navigation options in my online coursing… great stuff in the Lynda.com library – free for Edmonton Public library card holders.
I would like to ask for people to share this, to people who you think might be interested in reading my journey, following along as we go. You can use the share buttons just below this for social media, or even have the option to email it. Thanks for following along.
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