My New Favorite Word: Remission

I heard my new favorite word yesterday:  Remission!

It's true!  If you're on Facebook you may have already heard the news, if not, you're hearing it now--I'm in remission!

I had a follow-up PET scan on Monday and an appointment with my oncologist yesterday to review the scan. My doctor could hardly hold back her excitement.  When she entered the room she did the customary, "how are you doing today?"  and then with a big grin on her face said, "your scan looked really good!"

I'll confess tears began running down my face as I responded with, "it does?"

She jumped right into things and showed a side by side of the before and after scans.  The picture on the left showed a large mass in my abdomen, another located along my spine behind my heart and lungs, and multiple lymph glands around my neck, under my arms and groin area, all dark with cancer. The cavity around my heart and lungs showed fluid build-up and my lungs and breathing were greatly compromised because of it.  The right lung was only half inflated with air.

Then we focused on the scan on the right, the scan from Monday: no masses could be seen anywhere, and all the lymph nodes once dark with cancer were not even detectable on the scan. My lungs are both completely filled with air and healthy again, and absolutely no fluid is left in the cavity space.  My heart is as healthy as ever.

So what's next?  Going forward, I will be having some preventative maintenance treatment every 2 months.  This will involve just one component of the chemotherapy regimen I had over the past 4 months.  The goal and hope is to keep me in remission for as long possible.  With my type of cancer, follicular lymphoma, it is expected that it will return again--and usually does-- as they have not yet developed drugs that can "cure" it.  I will be under the watchful eye of a very knowledgeable oncologist and a band of health providers giving me the best treatment possible.  Routine blood work will be done at every office visit and treatment session and another CT scan will be done 6 months from now to check in on things.

For today, I am celebrating along with my family.  We are so thankful and joy-filled.  Please know that each of you have been a very integral part of this journey so far and I hope you will celebrate along with us at how your intercessory prayers for healing and strength have been answered. God has been so gracious and loving through every moment and day. Thank you for all the meals you have brought to us, for the cards, texts, emails and words of encouragement and for standing shoulder to shoulder with me/us in this battle.

I don't know what the future holds, but today, I'm celebrating!