I've had this day circled in my mental calendar for a while now.
Two years since my last chemo.
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| Me, two years ago, celebrating the end of chemo |
The deal with follicular NHL as we all know is that it comes back, sometimes quickly, sometimes years from initial treatment. I'd like to be in that latter category, thank you very much. In fact, I'd be fine to be an outlier. For some cancers, there's a statistical significance to how far out you are from chemo. I'm not sure that applies as much to indolent lymphomas such as fNHL but it still feels good for the visions of chemo to fade further away in the rear view mirror.
And while I'm not much for artificial milestones and there's nothing really differentiating this Sunday from any other (save a big football game in a couple hours), getting to two years post-chemo and still feeling good -- well it felt like some hill that I needed to climb.
Nothing has changed, except that I now will only see my oncologist twice a year, instead of quarterly. But having crossed the threshold seemed at least worthy of marking here, and with my most consistent health affirmation -- a nice winter's run along my favorite local route.
That accomplished earlier today, it would be a nice cap to have a Super Bowl victory too. But whatever happens in tonight's game, it's still a good day.
--Michael
