Kidney Don't Fail Me Now!

It's been a while since I've jotted down my thoughts. It's been 8 months since surgery and 6 months since immunotherapy began.  I've got be honest - the pain and discomfort of surgery is a distant memory. The every three week poking and prodding (blood work and infusion) is just matter of fact. I look at it as getting to take a day off work every three weeks. Heck, even the rash and itching is normal now. Where is my Triamcinolone? It's a little tragic - I'm taking daily life for granted again. Work goes Monday through Friday. Poker goes Friday and Saturday (okay, sometimes Sunday) nights. Sunday is for visiting mom, lamenting the weekend and psyching myself for another Monday morning.  On the other hand, there are times of stress and terror. Time between a CT scan and the doctor's call is especially unnerving. There's always some doubt for the day or two after a CT. An old running buddy who is a survivor mentioned to be that there will always be some st

NOTE: I originally wrote this to post back on my birthday - 1/12. Today is 1/29. I got lazy and stored this away as a draft, but then forgot it was there!. So, I'm posting it today. Has it really been 5 months? Yeah. Kind of blows my mind. It's one week shy of 5 months since surgery for something I never thought I would need to face. The last time I left a note here was a couple of days after my first immunotherapy session. A lot has happened since: On the medical front: Two additional immunotherapy sessions with the only side effect being some itching. Blood work and labs that seem to show that my body is adjusting to life with one kidney. Creatinine is higher than normal, but trending in the right direction. Dr. Pal says this is normal. CT scans (done last Wednesday) that came back clean and showing no evidence of metastasis. On the life front: I've been back to work since November 18th. Meh. It was much more fun with the two "B"s - baking and boring. There has