V for visitors, diet choices, and Light the Night walk

It's been almost two months since I first went in to see my doctor for my stomach symptoms which then set off the chain of events but it doesn't feel all that long ago. Sometimes I still catch myself looking in the mirror at my bald head and slimmer face and think wow...I can't believe I have cancer. It's still surreal to me that this is what I have and it seems the last two months have been just a dream. But it's only a fleeting moment before reality sets back in. This is what I have and this is what I have to live with for the rest of my life. But I try to keep positive about it and remind myself that there are thousands of people living with lymphoma who've been able to put it into remission and live quite normal lives and when the disease comes back, they just go in and treat it again with other treatment options. The good thing about my disease is that 1) there are a variety of effective treatment options available ranging from chemo to radiation therapy and 2) I have time on my side and there's so much research being done on lymphoma and many clinical trials occurring right now so that by the next time it comes back, I'll have hopefully even better treatment options. Al I can do is hope and staying positive and having the right attitude goes a long way in beating the disease.

Since my diagnosis, I've been off of work on short term disability. During this time, I've had a lot of time to really focus on my health and taking care of my body by exercising and eating right. I've enjoyed the time off as I've kept myself extremely busy and I've had visitors come by almost every day to be my walking partner or to go to lunch with me. On a side note, my lunch options are somewhat limited due to my restricted diet of no sodium, no fried food, no processed food, no foods high in potassium and phosphorous, and no dairy, so it's a lot of salads and plain grilled chicken and fish. It's funny-- now that I've cut out sodium almost entirely from my diet (it's almost virtually impossible to cut out sodium unless you cut out every food option available in a supermarket...even bread and cereal has sodium in it!!), I can totally taste the salt, soy sauce or fish sauce in any dish now even just by trying a little bit of it. My taste buds are used to just eating bland food! It kinda sucks as I do miss eating regular food-- a slice of pizza or a nice, big fat piece of prime rib-eye-- but I've been very good at sticking to my diet regimen. While people make good lifestyle choices to eat healthy like being a vegan or a vegetarian, I simply don't have much a of a choice as I only have one kidney and I want to keep that one remaining kidney as healthy as possible. In the long-run, I know it's good for my overall health, but it's definitely not easy maintaining it especially when we're going out to eat at a restaurant. This is why I eat a lot of home cooked meals. More recently, I discovered Munchery.com as a good friend gave me a gift card and I tried it for the first time this past week and the food was really good and healthy. For people looking for an easy healthy meal without having to go through the hassle of cooking, I really recommend it. Hmm...perhaps I should reach out to them and ask them for a cut or at least a gift card for promoting their services?!

Anyways, back to the visitors. I've appreciated every person that's come by to visit- whether to say hello to check up on me, drop off food, or be my walking partner, it's great to have all this support and makes my day go by a lot faster.

As my treatment seems to be going really well (as far as I can tell), I've decided to return to work following my third chemo treatment next Friday. By then, I'll have been through halfway with my cycles and as the first two's aftermath went well, I feel going back to work will bring back some normalcy to my life. I've already told my manager of my decision but also told him that I had to have some flexibility with my work schedule and be able to work from home a couple times a week and avoid commuting following chemo on days where my immune system is at its weakest. The thought of being on the ferry or wedged in on BART with hundreds of other people is fairly scary-- any sneeze or cough could be detrimental to my health. So some people ask why risk it at all? Why not take the whole time off until your treatment is over with? I know I do have that as an option as I could go on short-term disability for the duration of my treatment (you can get up to 6 months of leave) but again, I think going back to work will bring back some normalcy to my life. Who knows...maybe I'll find that I just can't handle the stress from the madness of work (and it really is madness...some of the things my partners and the people I support ask of me) but the good news is that I can go back on disability if I find out that I can't handle being back. So I'm gonna give it a try and see how it goes...

Last update for today and this is a shameless plug for supporting my campaign-- I made a vow to myself that once I was done with my lymphoma treatemnt that I would get involved with the Team in Training events sponsored by LLS.org but since the earliest one until next year is the Nike Women's Half Marathon which I shouldn't be participating in not because I'm a male but because I'm not supposed to be running at this time, the closet thing I found which I'm able to do is the Light the Night walk in San Francisco on November 12. I'm looking for any support--whether to donate to my modest total fundraising goal of $1,000 or to join my team and walk with me that night-- any help or support is much appreciated. You can learn more about the walk and support me here: http://pages.lightthenight.org/gba/SanFran15/DLou Thanks in advance and I hope that some of you can join me on that day and walk to raise more awareness about lymphoma.