I am sure to most of you it looks like a bunch of black and white blobs, but let me give you the lay of the land... the picture on the right is Allen's first CT scan. Imagine if Allen had a flip top head and you flipped it back and were looking down into his chest. The two big circles are his lungs; the black inside is where the air is, and all the white and gray is CANcer and fluid. It is still hard to believe how big his mass was, and we didn't even know it was in there! That's what he gets for being in amazing physical shape! The picture on the left is the scan from this week. Check out all the black inside his lungs! And, so much of the mass has shriveled up!! The Ninja said that the mass has continued to shrink after radiation, and it might get even smaller as time passes.
Take THAT CANcer! When we were looking at the scans with The Ninja, I noticed the dates in the upper corners. The scans were taken almost a year apart TO THE DAY! After we left the office, I just couldn't shake that crazy coincidence (and I don't believe in coincidences). I thought a lot about how much easier the last year would have been if we have known as we sat, scared to death, in The Ninja's office looking at Allen's first scans that a year later we would be sitting in his office looking at CANcer free scans. How it would have been a little more bearable for Allen to endure the endless chemo sessions and other procedures; how there might have not been as many sleepless nights; and, how together, we could have enjoyed the pregnancy more. But, then I remembered a quote that I had seen:
We met so many amazing people along this journey, leaned on people we didn't even know before Allen's diagnosis, friends became family, and our little family of five became stronger than I ever imagined. The struggle is what made us grow. A Hodgkin's survivor told Allen in the beginning of all of this that "CANcer would be the worst and the best thing that ever happened to him." I had no idea how CANcer could ever be the best thing that could ever happen to my husband. I HATED CANcer, and I still do. But, now I understand what he meant.
