Nothing but GOOD NEWS

Just got back from an office visit,
got the results of last week's CT scan and MRI...

and nothing but good news.
no evidence of cancer,
and the 3 pulmonary embolisms (emboli?) are gone....

phew!

So, now I get to live my life for three months,
then we'll do another blood work panel,
and in 6 months more scans....

Last weekend, we had a bit of a End of Chemo Celebration.
It was a perfectly fun, and serious, and emotional
way to cap it all off.  I was joined by an amazing cast of supportive characters,
the final toast,
and the big SMASH..... with everyone.

I will never forget that.

On this, the 12, and last chemo treatment...

some things that I am grateful for today, in no particular order:

• an easier trip this time around
• that "beep beep beep" sound saying the pump is empty
• my wonderful wife, who is just as emotional as I am today, and keeps saying "we can do anything, this shows we can do anything"
• my wonderful daughter who, in her three-and-three-quarters wisdom keeps saying "Papa looks so unusual! He looks so unusual, we can see his chin!"
• the house refinance meeting which started out with a lovely gift in celebration of me, and not the house, a lovely, thoughtful (and delicious) bottle of Macallan 12 year old scotch...ah, the symbolism! hope it isn't illegal....
• the oncologist's office calling to say that Wednesday's blood draw for tumor markers came back normal (even the one that test for ovarian cancer....phew)
• the note from my old best friend wishing she could be here, and reminding us of the new importance of the number 12
• hot shower (twice)
• the nurses at the oncologists office bursting in to applause when I stopped by to drop off my pump, forever.
• a new friend and tattoo artist, willing to shuffle around her schedule for a new special tattoo
• the beginning of a return to my new life, after...

THIS IS THE LOOK...

... of a man FINISHED with chemo.

LAST CHEMO

sitting on the back yard,
sun on my face
so far so good...

The Final Countdown...

On the eve of the eve of my last chemo treatment,
a look back....

...and may this last one truly be the last one.

time to party

so,
we are planning a party to celebrate the end of this treatment.
we've invited a bunch of people,
but sometimes chemo-brain gets in the way,
so if you didn't get an invite and you really want to come, get in touch,
and we will send you the info.

it's going to be a hoot.

JUST ONE MORE

I am thrilled to be able to say that I have only one more treatment left
and  then a few scans and a few blood tests and then....
THIS LITTLE BLIP WILL BE NOTHING BUT REAR VIEW MIRROR!

Treatment #11 went pretty well.
Driving in to the doctor on Wednesday, my anxiety levels were pretty high. I was really not looking forward
to going through all this again.  It was all the power of negative thinking.... we had been talking a fair
amount about how hard the last few treatments have been, they were really catching up with me,
taking a lot longer to bounce back, extra days in bed, blucky blucky blucky...

well all that talk didn't help. I started to believe it, I started to out-think myself. I started to let the negative in.
BUT, once I realized I was doing that, I was able to kick all that junk out of my brain,
flex my brainial biceps, and show that negative thinking who was boss.....
oh, and I took a lot of lorazepam..... and some anti-nausea meds...

SOOOOOO.... it's a toss up really,

power of positive thinking
                 vs.
modern pharmaceuticals


....we may never know, but what IS important is that round 11 is not only OVER
but it wasn't so BAD.  It wasn't an ice cream sundae either, but it wasn't bad.....

My super friend Tracy helped out with the cup smashing ceremony this time:

if only chemo could always be this fun......