Path to freedom and more surgery

Sipping coffee again.... but not in a green chase lounge. More like a straight back brown chair at my favorite coffee house in the world, Mod. Before my brain becomes jumbled even more in ISBNs and coding (studies) I wanted to take a minute to write about yesterday's news. Yesterday was good news. The tests results concluded that there were NO metastases and NO new tumors! YEA!! My body is basically free of those pesky tumors and the ones in my lungs are about to be gone too. I can't say too much about this because I really won't know more until we hear from thoracic surgery. I hope to hear from them soon.... like in the next two weeks. After I am all healed from the lung surgeries, we will celebrate. I can't call it Cancer Free, but I can call it NED, which means no evidence of disease. Call it what you will, but that is pretty dang close to the same as cancer free. Knowing this is a long process; I still had to be reminded by Dr. Benjamin. This cancer is chronic, not acute. And because it is slow growing, they can't declare that it's gone just cause they don't see anything. That's okay. I will take the NED label. And I am still going to be smelling the roses along the way, taking it day by day, knowing that I will have a long amazing future ahead (with Sean, a family of our own...the works), but taking it one day at a time.
Will let you know more as I find out. Thank you so much for thinking of us this past week. Keep the faith and prayers coming.

Events continued

The machine for the bone scan looks like a donut. Or really more like the CT imaging machine. They have you lie down on the “conveyer belt” and it slides towards the machine. Then a screen comes down just over your face. As you slide back, you can see the monitor that shows your bones. That was pretty neat though I really had no idea what I was looking at. I could make out my bones of course, and everything looked fine to me. And though I am no doctor, I think (hope) Dr. B will say the same. The bone scan was easily uneventful which was nice, but the brain MRI was least enjoyable. The technician locked my head in a large helmet that looked more like a birdcage. Then he nicely (he really was very nice) tells me not to move, which is easy to - do that is until the machine clicks with other clicks and the whole thing starts to rattle your back and sides. I have never had an MRI like that before. It also had the usual clicks, but the plinking sounds were loud and rather piercing. Needless to say, I did not fall asleep this time. I just stayed in place the best I could for the next 45 minutes and thought about the massage I would be getting tomorrow. I just checked in for the CT scan. I got a bracelet upgrade as they say; one with a fancy picture on it…me. My drink of choice today is going to be mocha flavored. The nurse said that people are just raving about it. Frankly, I am tired of the berry/banana mix and happy to try something new. At least now I can pretend it is a Mod Freeze. It will be two bottles and two more hours before the actual scan so I am going to read chapter 13 in my book about Ethical issues and the collection. More exciting news to come later. SMILES!!

Events

Ryan drew my blood as I sipped my coffee in the soft green chase lounge. And I never even felt the prick of the needle. Really. We are at the Mays clinic for all of my morning scans and everything is a little newer and bigger over here. This afternoon, we will be back over at the main building. J I am sitting and waiting for my x-ray and decided to share about today’s scans since it will be a long day of scanning. Its been a while since I have had so many scans in a day and two of them are new for me….just when you think you have had them all…there are more machines here than shoes in my closet and that is saying a lot. Sean and I munched on bacon egg and cheese sandwiches (our fav here) and he is reading the Houston paper. I wonder if I can get him to do all of my school work for me today?? Just kidding – I am not sure if his idea of weeding a collection will be eggactly what my professor will be looking for.

I have been super nervous about this all week. I tried not to be, but hard to help that. I have just felt so great these past 7 weeks. A first in nearly 3 years and who wants to go back? The positive in me knows that I will only go forward. Forward. Surgery. Forward. Finish grad school. Forward….wait for stint to come out and or begin adoption process. Forward. Not backward. Not standstill. I want them to tell the next patient with ASPS that they have a cure now. I want that patient to know the side effects and know that they will be on something that works. I feel like that will happen; like that is happening. But I am still a bundle of nerves. But I am going to keep my head high, keep smiling, and sip my coffee.

And I will write more when I can today.

Falling into the news of it all

Well, we have made it. I stopped taking the chemo on September 26th. I didn't quite make it the full solid year, but I ran out early. No complaints there. However, stopping "cold turkey" style has its downfalls. Two major infections at the same time caused one trip to the Mda ER and 6 pills a day for a week. But I was already on the road to life without chemo. Before I knew it, my energy was coming back, the nausea was gone, the pain was gone, and I could eat and drink whatever I wanted without any chemo related repercussions. I have said this before - so easy to not notice what you have (even the little things) until its not an option anymore. I can't even begin to tell you...2 years of life with chemo vs. life without...I am not having to walk around on eggshells around myself. That may sound funny, but it is true. So that is what I had been doing for the last 7 or so weeks. Learning to experience life nearly cancer free and without chemo again. Just taking time for myself and my family. And those weeks have really flown by. Cause here we are already to this coming Friday. My exams start at 8am. I will be scanned and dosed and dosed and scanned all day with my last scan at 5pm. I have a chest x-ray, blood-work, bone dose, bone scan, brain MRI with and without contrast, prep for CT (which means a barium party) and then a scans for chest, abdomen and pelvis. Exhausting, yes, but we will hear great results on the following Monday and continue the steps forward. We will meet with Dr. B to go over the results. I am feeling and hoping to hear that all has continued to be great and to discuss my upcoming surgery. Surgery has tentatively been planned for Christmas holidays and should be fairly small. I am of course voting that they stick a TINY tube in and aspirate those little boogers left to be lingering in the right side of my lungs.
Waiting is always the hardest part.

Please keep those prayers coming. Though I am positively positive that the news will be great, I am still pretty nervous.

Carpe Diem!!