Good news. After about 60 days of anxiety, I got a PET scan and the PET scan showed no presence of cancer. The PET scan did cost about $4000 dollars (I haven't gotten the adjusted payment yet), which is, I think, a bit ridiculous, but it was well worth the peace of mind.
I do realize how privileged I am to even be saying that.
Anyway. Dec 23rd was my remission anniversary, so, 1 year down. 4 to go.
It's been long enough that I've started to feel like this whole lymphoma and chemo experience was almost just a bad dream--like it happened to someone else. It's weird how trauma never leaves you, but it does become...less distinct. At least that's the way it is for me. Granted, there are triggers that bring the whole experience back full blast--nausea, for example, or the smell of hospital food (rather an inconvenient thing since I work in direct patient care so I find myself fighting nausea almost every day during patient mealtime), and of course, thinking about a future when loved ones die or when I die (something that happens more often the older I get, I'm sorry to say).
In addition to grappling with surviving an illness and the uncertain future that comes with the diagnosis, it's just been a rough year. Because of the...well, because the way the majority party has been threatening to dismantle the ACA.
For the record.
