What a crazy ride

So my last treatment was July 28, 2015, THANK GOD!!!  I really don't recommend chemo to anybody, unless of course you come down with cancer and need it to save your life, then go for it.  My last PET scan in early August showed the granuloma's, more on that in a bit, but the chemo really knocked the tar out of the cancer.  

Am I in remission?  I don't know...I have these things that show up like cancer in the scan, but have been tested and are not cancer.  I think only time will tell, but I feel well, not great, but I think it is just a byproduct of the chemo.  My stanima is really slowly coming back, it is probably about 50% of what it was prior to chemo.  Of course every ache and pain felt  I automatically think it is cancer, so that sucks.

Now for the granuloma's.  On my scan, mainly in the pelvic region, there are areas that look like cancer.  I had one tested back in January and it came back negative which prompted a surgery to grab a node from another area.  That node tested positive for lymphoma.  The "negative" node came back as caseating granuloma lymphanditis.  So after chemo was done, the oncologist wanted to get a bigger sample just to make sure they could run enough tests and not miss what could be a small amount of cancer.  So dutifully I went into surgery toward the end of August and woke up with a perferated bladder.  Consequently I had a catheter for 5 days while the bladder healed, but they did get a large sample for testing.  

The sample has showed no cancer, they even tested it genetically against my cancerous sample and they were different from each other.  It is an abnormal cell, but currently not cancerous.  The oncologist thinks my body will most likely just handle it as an infection and they will go away.  I really have very little pain from them, most often times none at all, but occasionally it will flare a bit and remind me they are there. 

So here is the real bummer about being a cancer patient.  Only time will tell if it is gone, there is no magic test or scan that can tell me what the prognosis will be.  Next month I am being scanned again and I could be filled with cancer....or not.  It is an absolute horrible thing to live with and if you have had cancer you know exactly what I am talking about.  If you haven't then lets pray you never will.  

So the good news is that I am done with chemo and am probably free of cancer, the bad news is that only time will tell.