A healthy and thankful me.

Just over 16 months ago, on June 6, 2012, I was told that I had a rare and aggressive form of Lymphoma, that is very difficult to get into remission, and has a 5 year survival rate of 20%.  That news was about as close to a death sentence as I ever care to receive.  Yesterday was my followup visit with Dr. Horwitz at Duke.  After a CT scan and some blood work, I was told that my scan was fabulous, showing no signs whatsoever of residual cancer, my blood work was about as perfect as it gets, and I am not scheduled for another followup visit for 6 months.  Hallelujah !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

As we were driving home, I said to Holly that I was have some difficulty processing all that I had heard during our visit.  Certainly I understood that I am now in complete remission, and the cancer has been totally eliminated from my body.  And I understood that I no longer have any restrictions on my activities because my immune system, by this point, is totally reestablished and is capable of fighting off most any germs/viruses/infections/etc. that it routinely encounters.  In other words, I am able to resume my life as I knew it before Non Hodgkins Peripheral T-Cell Lymphoma entered, temporarily, into my life and my body.

The reason I am still having some difficulty completely absorbing this most recent positive report is that up until now there has always been a BUT, or a PENDING, somewhere in the conversation.  "Everything looks really good but we need to finish up the radiation treatments."  "You are in complete remission but we want to get a look at another scan in 3 months just to be sure."  "......but...."  This time, however, there was no BUT.  We don't need to wait and see what some additional test tells us.  I don't need anymore treatments of any type.  There is nothing pending except for me, and my amazing family, to get on with our lives.  Why is that so hard to grasp ?  It really isn't that tough, and I look forward to letting it totally sink in.

There is something that I keep thinking about from time to time, and it concerns the people who are right now in the process of going through some form of cancer treatment.  My battle is over and it is time for me to move on.  But someone else out there just got their cancer diagnosis yesterday, or is nervously awaiting the outcome of that biopsy, which will not be good news.  As I sat in the waiting area yesterday at the Duke Bone Marrow Transplant clinic, I saw patients come and go, and could tell that they were in the process of going through their own bone marrow transplant,  and feeling absolutely terrible.  I looked at the door that I had gone through so many times, and thought about the men and women sitting back there hooked up to IV pumps, getting the medications that will keep them alive and hasten their recovery.

I know that I will never forget about those who are going through their own personal ordeal.  And I will always be mindful of the fact that none of us is promised a tomorrow.  I will always remember to say a prayer for them and their families.  Thanks to all of those who remembered to pray for me and my family.  I will be eternally grateful.

Duke followup

Next Thursday I have an appointment with Dr. Horwitz at Duke for my 3 month followup exam.  He has me scheduled for a CT scan rather than a PET scan.  Interesting that he said he prefers doing CT scans for routine followup visits because the PET scans are too sensitive.  They tend to pick up so much that they sometimes give false positives, which then prompt further testing and mental anxiety.  So he feels like the CT is sufficient.

It has been a couple of months since I posted here on my blog.  What a great feeling it has been.  Not being consumed by thoughts about treatments, doctors visits, immune system problems, medications, and the whole raft of things that occupy a cancer patients mind.  Holly and I have enjoyed making the transition back to our "normal" lives.  We have even gone so far as to put a For Sale By Owner sign out in front of the house.  It has been our intent for quite some time to relocate closer to our son and daughter, but our plans got put on hold when the Lymphoma showed up.  But with that behind us, we can begin to pick back up where we left off.

I will report back after we return from Duke, but I did want to post something here in advance of our visit.