Let us rejoice!

Take a look with your own eyes (from left to right starting in the top left).   If you're wondering what you're looking at, it's PET scan pictures going straight through me starting where the mass becomes visible all the way back to my spine.  That grey area is the mass obviously, and you'll see that the only lit up areas are my brain and heart.  Now go back to my blog entry from April 9.  See a difference?  The ICE chemo has done it's job, and has exceeded our expectations.  Josh and I thought the scan was clean since it appears that way, but in reading the report tonight, it says there is "only subtle residual abnormal metabolic activity at this site" which means we're not there yet, but we're pretty darn close.  It doesn't even matter though.  We will take whatever victory comes our way.

 Dr. Londer is so hard to read. I bet he could bring in all sorts of cash at the casino's with that poker face of his.  He came into the room with his usual stern look on his face, said hello, sat down, and the first thing out of his mouth was, "well...the scans show a considerable improvement".  The first thing that came out of my mouth was, "really?" as if I didn't believe him or needed him to repeat what he had said.  Once he confirmed the news, I raised my hands up to the sky and said, "woo hoo!" as if I was giving God two high fives in that moment.  I'd like to think I did a pretty good job keeping my emotions in check for the most part when all I wanted to do was just sob happy tears right then and there.  This was huge for us!  When Dr. Londer walked out of the room, Josh and I shared a few happy tears and hugs.  We just really needed some good news for a change and I could tell Josh was feeling the same way.  Our prayers are being answered.  We're moving in the right direction, and the stem cell transplant should be just what the doctor ordered to rid my body completely of this crud.   Let us rejoice!!

The purpose of the stem cell transplant is to essentially re-program my body, telling it that only healthy cells are welcome!  From what I understand, doing the transplant should also make it more difficult for the healthy cells to mutate again into cancerous ones.  What I've been telling people is to compare this to your computer having a virus.  You can try all different methods to rid your computer of that virus.  Sometimes the antivirus programs are all you need to catch it and eliminate the virus, but to ensure it's gone sometimes the best route is to wipe your system clean and start fresh.  Does that make sense? 

So what's the plan?  The answer is I don't know yet.  I was supposed to get a call from someone at the UofM today to schedule an appointment.  What kind of appointment I don't know.  All I know is I should have gotten a call...and I didn't!  Guess what my first item on the ole "to do" list is tomorrow morning?  Rule #1 - Never mess with a cancer patient and tell them you're going to call on Wednesday and then not call on Wednesday especially when it's to schedule appointments to get me one step closer to being cancer free.  It's kind of a big deal!!

 Even though these people work in the medical field, do they REALLY understand how their patients are feeling?  They must know that some of us are walking around with our phones attached to the hip being obsessive compulsive, checking it every couple minutes to make sure we didn't miss the call.  It's just not right to leave the patient hanging in my mind.  Hopefully I can get a hold of my coordinator at the U first thing tomorrow morning and get the scoop.  Stay tuned!