Saba Beats Cancer

As we waited for blood work yesterday we were struck by how much my daily groove has grown over the past few months. The goal of all these things is obviously to beat cancer but also to better tolerate the chemo - which now is the hardest part. As we go into chemo 5 and 6 we hear from all my fellow lymphoma travelers how hard that is. So I need to be better prepared going into it. One thing I need to do is gain weight. For some 50 years I have been trying to lose weight and it is surprisingly hard to gain weight in chemo.  But I am up a pound yesterday (go ice cream) and eating 4 meals a day - healthy to get the vitamins etc. So here is the daily routine right now to try and keep ahead of all the side effects and make sure I am as strong as I can be for the next round of chemo. Daily affirmation - I am cancer free etc. hokie but helps Stretching Walk at least 2X Sumo band work out Meditate - this has really helped the last few weeks keep me focused and relaxed Deep brea...

The food here is not good at all. So yesterday I used Uber Eats from my room for the first time to get Chinese delivered and it was magical compared to the normal dinners here.  Had plenty of left-overs for tonight and we do have a patient fridge so all is much better.  Got my fortune below Doing little things well is a step towards doing big things better Interesting - I guess getting the chemo done s the little thing towards being cured. Reached out another double hit guy who is on chemo 5 and he just went into remission. He is on the board of the Lymphoma Research Foundation and says docs probably will not shorten treatment if at all.  Double hit is so bad that if it comes back, it is tough to beat a second time. So they want to make sure it is really gone. Oh well - this is still the halfway point if it is full treatment and I will be done in June, recovered in July. When I walk every day, there are not many places I can go - so I walk the halls and there a...

Ok - maybe not yet. But a pretty big gap in my treatment plan was the loss of muscle tone.  I have lost 25 pounds and was walking and thinking I was a rock star.  But luckily my nephew's wife is a PTA and they sent a Sumo exercise band for me to use. They are stationed in Japan (thank you for your service Sean). I think the sumo connection got me to rip it out of the box and start using it immediately and thinking I was an idiot for not using it sooner. So now I do band exercises in the morning after the walk with my sit-up and stretching routine. I am sumo dammit. And that has to help get the Methotrexate out right? I mean more heart beats gotta help! They got me a kimono and I might have to sport that on a walk occasionally to let them know who really is sumo in this place.  I am sure we could do a fundraiser for Lymphoma research on that video. This also points out how this large team of supporters is making this so much easier to win.  I also got two amazin...

Obviously this is all very complex and I write stuff down to remember everything the doctors and nurses are saying about all this treatment, timing, chemicals, side effects etc.  It's way too much.  But on timing - I am pretty maniacal about keeping track about what they say. So they said I would get a scan right before chemo #3 so we could see how I was doing. Since there is obviously a lot riding on how I am doing I marked this down. Well the appointment comes through and it is set for right after I think we would have chemo #3.  So I shoot an email asking if this is a mistake or maybe they are moving chemo #3 later. No word back from the medical team but the appointment just moved to having the MRI on the brain April 10th and the full PET scan on April 11 with Chemo #3 set for the 12th. So I was right - it is before, not after chemo #3. So - when I say you have to constantly stay on your toes and ask questions - you really do. We especially want to see wha...