The joys of sneezing...

It's such fun to have 'flu! No really, it's a wonderful illness. First of all, it means you can snuggle up in bed, after all you look sick, you sound sick and you feel sick. Second, no one says how well you look with it. Thirdly it goes away by itself. ( eventually, I hope).
Actually I would prefer not to spend any of the precious time before the operation sniffling and sneezing and feeling lousy, but better now than later; I have a feeling that sneezing with an abdominal incision is a big no no. It's put a hold on my yoga aspirations though, but I think tomorrow I will manage to go. I've been dragging myself around complaining all week, enough already! I can't hear anything in one ear, I am dying to get that 'pop' that clears it out. Everyone here has had this 'flu, Oren is the last in line and got it from me I guess; unluckily for him he has his colonoscopy tomorrow, so he has had to do all the awful preparation with drinking the nasty drink and so on while feeling terrible anyway.
Meanwhile I have done all the blood tests, x-ray and ECG for the op., and am ready for the pre-op on Sunday. My leukocytes are a bit low, hope it isn't a problem. On the bright side my cancer markers came back really low, looks like the radiotherapy really knocked the stuffing out of it. The official answer from the PET-CT came a few days ago, it is as the technician said, it looks good. The actual tumour is 2 cm now, down from 3.2 cm, and there was almost no take up of radioactive marker, which means there is very little activity in the tumour- it's nearly dead in my opinion. What's left of it will soon be dangling from the end of a pair of tweezers! Ho Ho Ho! (and for anyone in the Philippines, a bottle of Rum!) ( I miss that Rum!)

PET scan day is over...

Good news! The official results will be out in ten days, but the technician who did the scan was very nice, and told me that there are no metastases anywhere from my head to toe, and furthermore the original tumour has shriveled up and is hardly visible at all.
I am so happy! It doesn't mean I don't need to be carved up and bombarded with poisonous chemicals during the rest of the year, but it does mean that I have a good chance of getting rid of the cancer completely.
The scan itself was uneventful, I was given an injection of radioactive isotopes and then sat for about an hour drinking pink water with contrast medium in it. Most people say it is awful, but I don't mind it much, it's pretty tasteless. Then I was called in to the PET scanner. I had to lie on a narrow bed with my arms over my head while the bed hummed and buzzed its way into a white tunnel. Kind of like being the hot dog in a big bun ( can you guess I had to fast for four hours before this?). Then it came out again, and that was that. Easy, painless, amazing.
I have been doing research into who survives cancer, and how, or why they do. I have come to some simple answers, and mean to implement them. The people who beat cancer;

1. Exercise daily
2. Reduce blood insulin levels by eating less simple carbohydrates ( a low GI diet)
3. Keep stress levels down

So, that's what I need to do. I have already been on a hunting expedition and have managed to capture and drag back to my lair the carcasses of several types of bean. Hummous, thankfully, is a low GI food, and avocado is too, so I think I will manage to stave off starvation. Actually, lots of foods are low GI ( GI means glycemic index), just not the ones I used to cram myself with. Fruit and vegetables are all ok, except banana which is a bit iffy. Most meat and fish is ok too, just really processed stuff with flour in is out. Peanut butter is good, although bread isn't too good, so you just have to eat it off the spoon, oh dear.
Exercise is easy, I have started doing yoga seriously again, after too long. My whole body aches, but it deserves it anyway. I am walking too, about five kilometers a day.
As for stress levels, I'm pretty well off there too, no big stressors around. I'm living in a quiet, pleasant place where I can hear the birds singing in the morning. Actually singing is an understatement, they seem to have a competition for loudest bird every morning. I don't have to work if I don't feel like it, I have no money problems ( no money, no problems, you know...), and I have an understanding and supportive partner. So, I have nothing to complain about!

I feel...

BETTER! Now the radiotherapy and chemo is over (for now...) and I have had a week free, I feel good. Really good. My bum is getting gradually better, according to touch it still feels a bit like the grand canyon but it doesn't hurt too much any more. I think at least some of the good feeling is from not having to sit for three hours in the car to and from Beilinson, and now I have time to cook healthy food, do my jigsaw puzzle ( 1500 pieces, a world map from the 1600's, I think, there is no date on it) read and do yoga.
Today I started walking again. I used to walk a few kilometers every day, but gradually stopped during the last few weeks. It has been rainy and cold and I just felt tired and icky, but today was a lovely spring day, fresh and sunny after yesterdays torrential rain. I got Oren in tow and set off round the old peoples home over the road, there is a good path through the fields. We did a big circle round, back to the road and ended up ( somehow, ha ha) in the shopping centre, where I got some new sweat pants, then home happily. Oren got some running shorts, he has managed to lose 7 kilos and is running every day.
I have made a decision; I shall not be dying from this cancer, or any other cancer ( just to be clear about it).