What's this about cancer?

     Well, what comes to mind when you  hear the word "cancer"?  Almost everyone knows someone who has had cancer at some point in their lives.  Many people have survived and live long lives after their cancer goes into remission.   Cancers come in all different forms.  They are not one illness.  Each person's cancer is different from another's.  Cancer is when a normal cell changes and begins to grow out of control.  These cells are chaotic, erratic, disorganized cells that have no real purpose. 

      The cancer I have is a couple of tumors growing in an area called the thymus, which is near the top of the chest bone.  Its a pretty rare form of cancer, which means doctors and scientists are still trying to figure out the best way to treat it.  My treatment is starting out with chemotherapy, which basically attacks the rapidly growing cancer cells in the body with poisons and fairly nasty chemicals.  These chemicals are great for killing the cancer cells, but they also attack a few other rapidly growing normal cells while they're at it, such as blood cells, GI (gastro-intestinal or gut) cells, and hair follicle cells (yes, I will lose my hair, and no, I won't wear a wig!  I'll wear knit caps and scarves, and hope some of you fashion-minded students can teach me how to tie them!) So alot of my being sick will be from the chemotherapy, not the cancer.  The body basically wants to get rid of all the toxins that are in the chemo, so in addition to the chemo drugs, they have to give me a bunch of drugs so I won't throw it all up.  

     I'll be going through 3 cycles of chemo at first, having one day of receiving the chemo every 21 days.  For the first week or so after each chemo, I'll feel pretty sick, but by the next week I should feel better, and that's when I'll hope to be at school, at least for half days.  So far, mornings seem to be when I feel best.  

      After those three cycles of chemo, the doctors hope my tumors will have shrunk enough to remove them surgically.  Then all I'll need is a bit more chemo to make sure there are no more cancer cells lurking around, and all should be fine! 

     I hope this makes sense to those of you who weren't really sure what this is all about, and that I didn't go into too  much gory detail!  One of the reasons I'm doing this blog is to stay in touch with my students, because I  miss you all already.   So please read it whenever you get a chance and post comments (make sure and leave your name on the comment so I can respond back to you personally!) - I'd love to hear from you all!  We can also talk about WorkAbility stuff here, if you want - like job applications, resumes, interview preparation, etc.  I'll try to get some pictures on the site soon.  Please don't worry about me - send your positive thoughts instead!  Hope to hear from someone soon!