I Made It!!

Five.  Today is five years since I finished treatment, so it's my fifth re-birthday.  To be honest, it's a mixed feelings sort of day though.

I'm really happy to have got here and when I'm finally discharged by ENT in a couple of months, it will justifiably become another milestone day.  I'm just not feeling as ecstatic about this particular day as I have in previous years and I'm not sure why.  Originally I was going to have a party to celebrate getting here, but I just haven't been able to get excited about it recently.

It is possible my enthusiasm is being tempered by the ongoing issues with my throat.  It's now been a year since it flared up again, and the experts seem no closer to finding a solution that works long-term.  To say this is annoying is an understatement and I seem to be spending way too much time trying to manage the throat issues.

I've managed the last two weeks without taking any fluconazole, and things have been bearable - just. There seems to be no signs of the oral thrush anywhere, and there is no news regarding having a scope put down my throat to check things out   So it seems to just be a case of continue to experiment with ways to try and keep the discomfort at bay as much as possible.

What I have found is that by resuming taking omeprazole daily the symptoms don't seem as bad as they were when I was taking it every other day, so that's a small victory.

At my last infectious diseases clinic (this week), they said they don't see any harm in me taking fluconazole weekly to see if that also helps, so I'll resume that from tomorrow and find out if it does anything.

I've always held today up as a momentous day in this process, but while this is meant to be the day that signifies I've effectively won the fight, I feel slightly cheated that the cancer can still flex it's muscles like this after so long.