3 Year Update

I never really know exactly which date to consider the exact date of my diagnosis. As I did last year, I suppose I will just go with the date I was officially told I had Hodgkin's (Oct 2, 2009). I still rank that as probably the scariest day of my life, not because of the cancer diagnosis, but because of the attempted bone marrow biopsy with no drugs!! Anyway, since that's tomorrow, I thought I'd write a 3-year anniversary update.

I think I will always have a lot of emotions related to my diagnosis in the fall. This year, I feel pretty triumphant because 3 years feels like a big milestone in some ways. A lot of the literature I read early on always phrased things in terms of the 3-5 year milestone, so I've finally made it to that minimum milestone. I've never really been terribly concerned that my cancer will come back, but now that I've made it to 3 years, I feel even less concerned. I had a PET scan back in May that was clear. I think it will be my last PET because it was an awful experience (I had a really awful time with the fasting and got really sick). I'm doing most of my follow up with my primary care doc because Dr. Sharma was so awful the last few times I was in there (really, 90% of the times I was in there....). I have the name of an oncologist at Hopkins I can set up an appointment with, but it takes some effort to get everything transferred. I'm dealing with some other, more urgent, health issues (I'll explain below) and once I get those sorted out, I'll get to work on the oncologist. For now, my primary care doc is doing a fine job.

I still struggle a lot with what I lost because of cancer, most notably, the job I really enjoyed. I've been at my "new" job at Hopkins for just over a year now. I like it for the most part, but it's not at all related to my academic interests. Perhaps more important than that, it was a huge pay cut and I feel like I will never catch back up to where I was. It's really frustrating at times, but I try to just be thankful that I have a job....and I'm well enough to have a job!!

In terms of general life update stuff (let's see if I can remember a whole year's worth of updates!):

• I replaced my car last November and probably not a minute too soon. Got a lovely Toyota Matrix that I love!
• Since a few people have asked recently, I haven't been able to keep up with gardening. I really can't handle being out in the heat/sun/humidity/mosquitoes, so any garden I plant would just get neglected. I'm managing to keep a basil plant alive on the windowsill.
• Josh is still working at the Aquarium and he still loves it. He's also still doing his turtle job, which will wind up at the end of October. He's also taking 2 graphic design classes this semester (so basically, we never see each other). He's doing well, though. Just busy!!
• We've added a bunch of new family members. Last fall we adopted a carpet python from the Aquarium. He's about 6-7 ft long and his name is Spiral. I also just adopted 3 baby rats back in July: Cora, Stella and Alba. Cora and Stella are black and Alba is a Himalayan rat (white with a brown smudge on her nose and ears). They're very sweet, smart and funny and they have very distinct personalities. I'm enjoying having rats in the house again. Especially ones I can handle!
• I've taken up quilting as an indoor hobby. I've made 4 baby quilts plus a set of 8 quilted placemats since the spring. I've got 2 more baby quilts to finish up for a friend who is expecting twins in the very near future and then I'm trying to decide what my next set of project will be. Josh is awesome at helping me pick the colors. He also does most of the fabric cutting since I have issues with precision at times.... 
• My job is going pretty well. We've been super busy this past month and we're rather short staffed. My boss is due to have a baby any day now and we're in the middle of a giant project, so I've been working a lot of long days trying to do the work of 3.5 people all by myself. Things should slow down a bit after this week and even more after the end of October, so that will be nice. 
• As I mentioned above, I'm in the middle of dealing with two fun health problems. 
• One is my migraines, which I have since I was about 11. Starting in August, I got a migraine that lasted for over a month and a half. I finally gave in and saw the doctor for it (doctors have usually not done much for my migraines) and, to my surprise, my primary care doc was comfortable starting me on two meds for my headaches that I had previously been told only neurologists would give me and then, only after an MRI. Anyway, I started the meds (Topomax and Imitrex) and so far they seem to sort of be helping. I think the Imitrex isn't going to work, but the Topomax is helping. We've had to increase the dose once and will probably have to go up a little more. It's got some crazy side effects, so my fingers are almost constantly tingling, I can't remember words, carbonated beverages taste gross, and I've lost my appetite. But my head mostly doesn't hurt anymore.
• Fun health problem #2 is an as-yet-to-be-diagnosed cardiac arrhythmia. I'm seeing a very nice cardiologist at Hopkins and we're trying to figure out exactly what's going on. My heart behaves perfectly when I'm in the office, but has a tendency to feel like a floppy fish out of water and skip lots of beats. It had only been associated with exercise, but in the past week or so, it's been acting up and I haven't done any exercise. I've had 2 relatively normal EKGs, a week-long event monitor and I have an echocardiogram scheduled on Thursday. I go back to get all the results in a few weeks. It's most likely completely benign and the doctor doesn't seem worried at all. It's really just an annoyance (an expensive one! All these tests are expensive!!

That's probably about it for updates. I'll try to post some pics of our new critters and my quilts when I'm not falling asleep. And I'll try to do it before next October!