I got this!

It's been a bit since I last wrote here.  A fair amount of normal life and family things happend but very little when it comes to the medical journey.  There were just two medical events that are worth noting.

The first event was my primary doctors appointment on Thursday the 8th.  That was a follow up from my visit in the hospital.  This was bumped out one week due to the first scheduled day was on the day they did my port placement.  My meeting with him was fairly uneventful.  We talked about a few things as I head into treatment. He was disappointed to hear my cancer returned and told me he would be praying for me.  Not something you hear from doctors often but I'm glad my doc is bold enough to share it.

Friday was the day between my doctors appointment and My Pet-CT.  For the pet scan you literally starve your body of sugars by going on a very low carb diet.  It looks like eggs and cheese to your hearts content.  You can have a few veggies like green beans, broccoli and mushrooms to name a few (at least the ones I can stomach)  I get meat like chicken or ham just easy on the ham due to it being cured with Sugar.  I didn't strarve on Friday but missed the carbs in my diet. 

Saturday the 10th before most people are up, Leah and I were leaving the house to drive downtown to Lemmon Holton for the Pet Scan.  There was no valet or even people to check you in so we had to walk to the desk and call a specific number for the Pet scan people so they knew we were there.  They get you in a room and start an IV. That took some fanigalling since they got blood but had a difficult time pushing fluids.  Luckily they managed to use the IV but each time someone came and held my arm with my IV to insure fluids would go through.  How often when you are in a scan is a Nurse holding your arm asking you if you are feeling warm.  Yep that happened.  A little wierd but at least it told them the contrast was flowing through as it should.  Before the scan they inject you with an isotope infused sugar.  The tumors feed on sugar so the isotope bound to the sugar will make those tumors glow on the scan. They also have you drink oral contrast before the scan.  This all went fine and other than the nurse holding my arm in the middle, the scan went fairly normal.  One thing we got to see is the Sunrise from the second floor of Lemmon Holton.  Photo courtesy of Leah who was out in the lobby.  I cought the view of it during my scan but couldn't move my head to get a good look due to needing to be still.  Maybe this was God's way of saying it's o.k., I got this! 

After the scan we resumed a much normal diet including the things I couldn't have on Friday before the scan.  I spent some time varnishing some chairs we got for our deck.  Later at night we got ready for today and relaxed a bit before heading off to bed.

Today is a busy day.  We started by heading to the church service at Camp Geneva.  The service was one where they were comissioning the summer staff one of which is Lydia.  It was a very good service and besides seeing Lydia we also got to see and talk to some friends and extended family.  It was good to see all of you and talk with you.  We got to see Lydia's cabin which will be her home for most of the summer.  We even snapped a few photos here.  From there we needed to get Lydia's laundry in the wash, get lunch, finish laundry, drop Lydia and laundry back at camp (waiting to see campers tomorrow morning), and then head to Benjamin's Hope for church.  I play drums which I always enjoy doing and this Sunday should be full of good songs.

At this point I still don't have results from the Pet Scan and will update them here when I get the news.  The other thing I have this week is my first chemotherapy treatment. That happens Thursday morning and will continue through Saturday morning.  I'm anxious about it since I didn't love the side effects 10 years ago.  You may see a post or 2 from Leah as we get into treatment especially if I'm not feeling good. 

For this week if I could ask prayers for clean test results and for calm minds as we head into my first treament.

~ Kent

P.S. A small house keeping note.  I love seeing the posts and read them all (often). If you are posting anoymously I would love a name at the end of your message to help me know who's writing.  For those of you logging in I see your name already so we're good there.