Yesterday Allen had his post chemo scans. They started off early in the morning, with a "yummy" Barium shake. (Allen compares them to drinking latex paint!)
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| Down the hatch! |
The scans (both PET and CT) took about an hour or so to complete, and then he was radioactive. That is always so weird to type - to think about a person being radioactive. It isn't an issue unless you happen to be around pregnant women or young children, which obviously covers everyone else in this household, so it IS an issue for us. He has to stay at least six feet away for 12 hours. After scans, we had lunch while we waited for them to be read and to meet with The Cancer Ninja. And, yes, we sat on opposite sides of the waiting room while we ate. It felt so silly!
After a quick lunch, it was time for results! The Ninja had GREAT news! Allen is still in COMPLETE REMISSION! It was just what we wanted to hear! We looked over all the scans with him and Allen's chest mass has shrunk from 14 cm to 5 cm. A normal person has about a 2.5 cm to a 3 cm thickness in that area, so Allen is really just about 2 cm bigger than average! Wonderful news! The Ninja went over symptoms that we need to watch for over the next three months and discussed Allen's next stop on the CANcer train - radiation. The way things sit right now, Allen will undergo simulation for radiation in two weeks and begin treatments in about three weeks. We are looking forward to going over The Radiator's plan and fully understanding how he will go about making sure any tricky little CANcer cells that might be hiding are truly GONE FOR GOOD! The Ninja also gave Allen the good news that he should be able to eat salads - something he has CRAVED for the last six months but been unable to eat due to his extremely low counts - in two weeks. It just so happens to time up with the baby's birth, so we already have our celebration dinner of huge, yummy salads planned!
Thank you to everyone for all their kind words, thoughts, and prayers! Thumbs up for COMPLETE REMISSION!
We are ALL-EN!
