Cancer Selfies

Wednesday February 01, 2023

A very chemo birthday

Cycle 11, Day 1

Tomorrow is my 36th birthday. Today is six months, to the day, since I learned I had cancer. Almost exactly five months since I met my oncologist and learned how serious it was. Five months since I've been off work.

I'm hanging in there. I'm almost always a bit tired, and need a lot more rest than I used to. I'm frequently cold, and even though the apartment is a very comfortable 23C I always wear a sweater. Even if I had the energy for long walks, chemo does bad things to your digestive system and I just can't be that far from a washroom.

One more cycle until we move to the next stage. It's exciting, but I'm starting to build anxiety about major surgery, and if I'll even get it. But I'll keep doing one thing at a time until it's done.

A man lays in bed, illuminated by blue light A man lays in bed, illuminated by blue light from the bottom and red light from above A man lays in bed, illuminated by blue light from above and yellow light from below A man wears a red toque, green sweater and surgical mask, standing in front of a window with conifers and a pile of snow visible in it A man with sparse, short fuzzy hair sits in a car

From the comments

James Petrosky: Gang, I'm just so physically and mentally exhausted by this. I wish there was a way to take a vacation from it. But I know the pain would come right back, and that's no escape.