DONE!!!

(12/30/08)

Well, folks, it's done. Over. Kaput. Finis. In the end, I didn't have to do the last cycle after all. I have been showing symptoms of bladder damage these past few cycles, and so my doctor decided that the risk of causing permanent damage outweighed any marginal benefit from finishing this last cycle. So when we got the lab results during my appointment yesterday, she said, "You know what? You're done." And that was it. I was a bit in shock, though I kind of suspected she might say this, given the symptoms I'd been having.

So, after more than a year of crap crap crap, I'm finally done, and right before the new year (I know, it's really just an arbitrary date, but I'll take it). I'll still have regular checkups for a while, and the longer I don't have disease the better the prognosis (although there's not enough data to actually give a number for prognosis). My doc says that they usually start counting from the time that you are disease-free, and for me she says this would probably be after my radiation treatment. I don't know that it really means that much, but by that rationale, I already have almost a year disease-free under my belt. Once I get to year five I can breathe much more easily.

For now, it's time to live for real again. . . WOOOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!