One Year NED!

I had a PET-CT scan yesterday and guess what? I am still clear! I would love to say that I am officially one year cancer free but doctors only like to say NED. I have no evidence of disease at this time. I am soooo excited with this news! Every time I have a scan I’m scared that this will be the one when they tell me “The cancer is back” but each time I’m surprised by the good news. I feel like I have been so lucky health wise despite all the long lasting side effects that I feel every day. I’ll take the fatigue, tingling and muscle twitches as long as I get to be here for my son. This reassures me that I made the right decision to enter a clinical trial especially since it was only at the Phase I stage. I was so scared that I had made the wrong decision because in a Phase I trial they are still trying to figure out correct medication dosages and learning about side effects. We are true guinea pigs at this stage because they’re still trying to figure out how safe these drugs are. I am so happy right now. I just hope that all this good news will continue for a long time.

I also have an update regarding my last echo. I had my doctor’s office send me the report and for a moment I was a little scared. They had told me in the email that it looked great but as I read it I came across this line: “There is an intraatrial septal
aneurysm.” Obviously this made me a little worried because when you read “aneurysm” it’s never a good thing. I messaged my oncologist asking her if this was bad because there was no way I was going to Google it. I made that mistake when I was first diagnosed with cancer. She ended up being concerned as well and consulted with a cardiologist and the chief radiologist and they all came to the conclusion that I’m ok. Apparently this is common and there’s really no treatment involved. They just “monitor” it through echo’s. So, if they’re not worried then neither am I. I’m trying not to worry so much anymore. Life is too short. Plus, with all the stress over the past few months I think I may be running out of tears.

I’ve been so overwhelmed with other things happening in my life that for awhile I didn’t know what was worse. But my son is definitely my inspiration to keep moving forward.  Together we’ll try to make the best of things and I’m hopeful that God has great stuff in store for our future. From now on I will not let anyone take me for granted and I will continue to enjoy life one day at a time.