The Second Time

I learned that since I had a re-occurrence of my cancer, I was going to have to have a series of chemotherapy that ended up taking a year to finish.  I had some of the typical side-effects.  The doses of my chemo drugs were not as strong, so YES I lost my hair, but not all of it.  I was only nauseated the day after treatment, and there are some unpleasantness most people don't know about, how certain drugs turn your urine colors, you can get constipated, weight gain (on Prednisone), and neuropathy, and shortness of breath.  Here is a description of the medications I had to take and side effects.  This website is not the most scientific, but it does a nice job of laying the information out http://www.deltronix.com/public/li/moppabvd.html

I continued with my chemotherapy and doctor appointments through the next year, and had my last treatment scheduled for October 31st, 1996.  My counts were too low that day to actually have chemotherapy, so I asked "are you sure it's okay I can be done?"  But I was in the preventative phase of the treatment and there was NO sign of cancer!  I started the routine of doing follow-up appointments, and everything was looking good.  I was told not to worry about the cancer returning, but the doctors want to monitor for some long-term side-effects, which I still happily go to yearly appointments today.

The cancer was gone, but the problem was during that year I had suffered a great loss of friends and social support.  People I used to spend time with and go out with on the weekends were not calling, or even asking how I was doing.  There were a number of people at school who were nice and supportive, but it stings when people you considered friends were not there for you in the long run.  Choir was my sanctuary, where I could go and have fun and be with people I enjoyed being around, but most of those students were not a close friend of mine outside the classroom.  By senior year of high school I was ready to move on and leave all of that behind.  Make new friends and start over.

Side note:  I had realized a few years later that some of my fellow students didn't realize I was re-diagnosed with my cancer- maybe they thought I had gained weights and started wearing hats for no reason?  But after I was re-diagnosed I did not go around school telling everyone I had cancer, and since we had a large student body I can see how some people would not have know.