Cancer with a Head Cold

In about 72 hours from now I’ll be getting my first blood draw in three months, and right now I need to feel healthy and energetic to provide mental armor against the possibility that the test results might hint at the cancer making an all-too-early return.

But instead I’m pretty sure I’ve caught at least one of the colds that’s been going around.  First there’s the usual bug that’s going around the office.  My boss was away from the office at the time, but he came back with an imported European head cold to add to the office virus pool.  Around this same time my wife also got sick with something she probably picked up at the doctor’s office.  There’s just so many bugs to choose from I don’t know which one to pick!  Can I have them all?  Ugh.

I have advanced prostate cancer.  If there were any justice in this universe, I’d never catch another cold ever again.  But my sore throat and hints of nasal congestion disagree.  F*** cancer.  F*** the universe.

My cold is also magnifying my usual aches and pains, and adding to the usual fatigue from treatment.  To a cancer patient, this feels uncomfortably like a return of symptoms.  I know that it’s probably the cold and not the cancer, but only testing can say for certain.  It’s extremely hard to be rational about this as I approach my one year cancer-versary, and remember how every test I had a year ago brought more and more bad news despite my attempts to be positive and hope for the best.  Neither worry nor positivity have much effect on test results, at least in the short term.

Half a page is enough of a pity party.  Let’s be proactive about this.  I’m signed up to run a half marathon in two weeks to celebrate my cancer-versary, and exercise is one of the best things you can do to prevent or delay cancer recurrence.  I’m taking this afternoon off from work to get in my last long run before the race.  I’ll be both training for the race and studying for my future blood tests.

Out of respect for my cold, I’ll be taking the pace extra easy.

We also have dinner plans with friends this evening, and that adds an extra bit of complication.  My cancer medication has to be taken on an empty stomach, at least two hours after eating and an hour before eating again.  After dinner I expect to go straight from the car to bed, so taking it at bedtime is out.  Instead, I’m planning to take only water on my long run, down the pills as soon as I get home from that, then have a pre-dinner snack an hour later, which gives me time to take the celebratory post-run shower.

Speaking of which, some days the best part of running during the workday is having an excuse to soak in a hot shower afterwards.

None of this is conduct becoming a cancer patient with a cold, and that’s why I’m generally feeling confident going into Monday’s tests.  I do have a whole list of minor symptoms to discuss with the oncologist, but each one has a perfectly reasonable non-cancer explanation.  Still, I will mention them so when he looks at my blood test results he can form a more complete picture of my current health.  I’ll also be sure to mention my half marathon, and ask him how the Pan-Mass challenge went for him this year.  Sometimes my appointments take a bit longer because we get talking about endurance sports.

And now I must go.  It is time to make another cup of coffee and attend a work meeting via the internet in my proverbial pajamas.  For my coworkers reading this: I’m not wearing any pants, film at 11.