26th - The Goal Line Is In Sight

A big thank you to Stuart's parents, Bill and Cathy, for spending the past few days with us in Charlotte.  It helps tremendously to have extra hands around when I am not feeling well.  Thank you to Bridget Ruller, as always, for being Cooper's favorite babysitter this morning while Stuart and I went to Dr. Frenette's.

Now, on to the best news I have heard in a long, long time.  The results are in from Monday morning's PET/CT scan and things look very good.  No metabolic activity was identified during the scan (a.k.a. no abnormal cell growth).  It also looks like my lymph nodes are about as small as they are going to get.  Those two facts together have led Dr. Frenette to decide I can stop my treatment after 6 months.  Unless something really odd happens, it looks like my last treatment will be on March 17.  I called my Mom on the way home from the doctor's office and she pointed out the obvious irony of the date...St. Patrick's Day...a day of luck (and faith) for any Irishman.

I am so happy at this point, I do not quite know what to do with myself.  It has been all about the "what-if" over the past few months and now I need to start to focus on finishing treatment and on "survivorship".  This is the phase after you survive cancer when you need to readjust to having other priorities in life.  Lance Armstrong put this really well in his book, when he said:

"How do you slip back into the ordinary world?  That was the problem confronting me after cancer, and the old saying, that you should treat each day as if it might be your last, was no help at all.  The truth is, it's a nice sentiment, but in practice it doesn't work.  If I lived only for the moment, I'd be a very amiable no-account with a perpetual three-day growth on my chin."

Further philosophy can wait for another day...today it is an all-out celebration.  Please celebrate with me, you each deserve it for being such wonderful support partners in this so far.