My biopsy came back clean!!! ~Ema

I’m so relieved it’s almost indescribable. I feel like I have slipped out from under the sword. I know the sword still hangs above me but it’s not as close as I feared it was.

We are now at the place we had hoped for since hearing the diagnosis.

REMISSION!!!

It has been such a difficult year and yet I feel like I got off easy. I’m so lucky because I’m still here. My heart breaks for those in the cancer world who fight as hard as I fought but with worse results. I know I may join their ranks at any time and that is incredibly frightening. Cancer will always be a part of my life. I will spend the rest of my life searching my body for it. The amazing thing to me is that it looks like I will have a good shot at “the rest of my life”. When I was diagnosed with this rare, aggressive cancer we truly didn’t know if I was at the beginning of the end. Was it a bump in the road or the end of the road?

Now it looks like we can start planning for the future again. Looking forward years down the road. I know it’s all tenuous. I know I could get hit by a bus…but at least that bus isn’t barreling down toward me right now. That bus has veered off for a while. It may come back at any time but with this clean biopsy I can relax a little.

Everyone says to live like there will be no tomorrow. All we have is right now. I’m sorry but it is exhausting living like that! Trying to appreciate every little bit of everything, wondering if each special event is the last one you’ll have; it’s emotionally exhausting. Of course you want to appreciate your life and the people you love, but running around trying to wring every last drop out of life wears you out. There is a happy medium where I live my life, take care of my business and love and enjoy as much as possible. That’s where I am and it is such a blessed lovely place. Time to take a breath…

~Ema

CT Scan is Clear - One down, one to go. . .

Just got word yesterday that Ema's lung CT was all clear. Actually, the terminology used was "Stable from last scan," but that's so dry, so clinical - isn't it?

We should get the biopsy results today. It's a little disconcerting that it's taken over ten working days to get the results for this. I called Dr. A's office yesterday and they were surprised that the results hadn't come in yet. That bothers me because that's exactly what happened to our first biopsy as it "bounced" around the country until someone at Harvard was finally able to identify it. Hmmmm. . . I'll try to keep positive today going into the appointment this afternoon, and report back.

~Tom

Just waiting. . .

We have two outstanding tests for which we should get the results early this week. (That sentence proves that grammatical correctness does not always equate to clarity:)

We should get the lung CT scan test results back today. An "all clear" on this would be. . .well, 'terrific' doesn't seem to be a strong enough word. The other result, the bone biopsy, should come to us by Wednesday.

With "all clear" for both, we should be positioned to take a deep breath as we head into the summer with a clear horizon.

As always, I'll keep y'all posted.

~Tom

Biopsy - A Success!

Ema had her biopsy yesterday, and I spoke with her orthopedic oncologist right after the operation. He said he is 95% - 99% sure that the bone he extracted was just that - bone, not tumor. We will make an appointment for two weeks from now so we can get the lab results, although I suspect his office will call us sooner if the news is anything other than good.

In order to take the bone biopsy the surgeon had to "re-use" the flap (skin graph), entering from her previous surgery site. She has a pressure bandage on, and there will be some discomfort, but the surgery itself was minimally invasive.

Next week - another chest CT scan! The fun just never seems to stop around here :)

Stay tuned. . .

~Tom

Biopsy Rescheduled to Thursday May 29th

That white area below the kneecap is the culprit. That's what's necessitated the biopsy tomorrow. The good news is that the area in question showed up after radiation treatment, and didn't grow at all between two MRIs - three months apart. That evidence, combined with what the latest PET scan revealed makes our oncologist fairly confident that this is some sort of bone scarring from surgery/radiation therapy and not an osteosarcoma or some other type of tumor.

The biopsy will determine for certain the nature of this anomaly. In the meantime, we hold on to what we can to help us feel as positive as possible about the outcome. Writing it down seems to help. Thanks for coming along for the ride. I'll keep y'all posted.

PET Scan is All Clear!

Just a quick post here (running out the door to dinner) to let you all know that Ema's PET scan came back all clear! She found out yesterday and we are both so very relieved.

She is going in for her biopsy next Friday to determine what's going on with her tibia, but her oncologist is optimistic. He said that the MRI showed no change from last time, and this PET scan, although it showed some activity in that region, didn't alarm him at all. Yay!

Sick Today. . .

Ema is sick today. She woke up with a fever and chills this morning, so I'm staying home from work today and keeping an eye on her. Sam doesn't go to school on Mondays, so I'm watching him as well.

It's interesting just how little a four-year-old understands about 'keeping quiet' when mom is trying to sleep. . .oh well.

I just got off the phone with Ema's oncology nurse who is phoning in an antibiotic prescription to the pharmacy. I'll head over there in an hour and pick it up. The nurse said to call back tomorrow morning if Ema still has a fever so we can bring her into the office.

I'll keep y'all posted on this.