One Long Week

After having gone through two months of this new chemo treatment, my oncologist wanted to take another CT scan to see how effective this new regimen was. The scan was scheduled for a week ago last Monday at 8:30 in the morning, with a follow up appointment with the oncologist the following Friday. I don’t think I slept a whole lot the night before. It seems that I spent every waking moment, praying for good news, or at least that the news would not be devastating. I arrived for the scan at 8:00…I guess I was anxious. The scan only took 5 minutes, and I laid a still as possible, wanting the scan to be as accurate as it could be. All done! Now I could eat breakfast and spend the rest of the week wondering what the results were. Tic-tock tick-tock, the days seemed to drag on. I tried keeping busy, but those “creeping thoughts” seemed to work their way into my brain, with all kinds of “what ifs.” Finally, Friday came and I headed to my appointment, along with Denise and my Mom. I'm not admitting anything, but I may had been speeding just a little bit. After about 30 minutes of waiting, Dr Carlson came in. The first thing he asked was if the pain was the same, worse, or less. Oh great! I had a brief flash back to my last M.D. Anderson trip and braced for bad news. I told him that the pain seemed to be about the same as it had been for the last 6 months. Then Dr Carlson made the most wonderful comment I had ever heard. “Well, normally we see that the pain eases as the tumors get smaller, which is what we are seeing in your case!” There was silence in the room, while I closed my eyes and prayed a huge Thank You! I commented that this was the best news I had heard in the last 6 months…then Denise spoke up and said that it was 7 months. She is so good with dates and numbers! Dr Carlson also commented that I hadn’t lost much weight or hair, and that it was a no brainer that we should continue with the same treatment. What a relief it was to hear some good news. It made the weekend visit to Grand Island, so nice…I think I wore a smile the whole time.

I know several of you are concerned that I might not be feeling well, because I had not made an entry for quite a while. Actually it’s just the opposite. I have been feeling pretty good lately and have been able to get several projects done around the house and get into work more often. At the end of the day I am a bit tired and “brain fried” though, and just can’t seem to write the right words. I will try to do a better job of getting something written a little more often.