Results are in!

March Madness is upon us, folks. And today is one hell of a mad day for me! Although the Gophers got bounced, I received the best news I could hope for--my bone marrow biopsy reveals no evidence of residual disease. So, I guess I sit here and can call myself cancer-free. 

I am still dealing with some chest gunk, low-grade fever and intermittent headaches, but who cares. For now, I can believe that I will see Nora grow, go to school, get her heart broken, find someone to love forever and maybe, just maybe, she'll have kids of her own! What a trip.

My biggest fear was and still is her growing up without so much as a memory of me. I never necessarily saw myself as the father type, but now, she's my only focus. I look forward to improving health, so that I can be there for her the way my family has been for me. I need to be a rock for her.

Angela, Nora and I cannot begin to repay the kindness you have all given us in so many forms. I do swear, though, to continue to pay it forward. Despite these fractured political times, I have learned one thing and that is that people are inherently good. I hope to find ways to inspire that thought in others as you all have done for me.

This is clearly not the end--there will be further testing and hoops to jump through and maybe even setbacks, but I feel so empowered knowing I have you all behind me.

A thousand-thousand blessings on you all. We did it. Go us!

 

 

 

 

What we know so far

Hi All-

Just a quick update:

On Friday, I had a PET scan and blood draw. Today, Angela and I met with my oncologist to go over the results. The good news is that my scan revealed no signs of cancer. The one negative is that I did have some inflammation of the lungs, but that could be from any of several reasons including a viral infection or as a side effect of the chemo drug bleomycin. I will get another PET scan in roughly 5 weeks to see if that has gone down.

I will be getting a bone marrow biopsy tomorrow, which I must say I am a little nervous for. None of the testing thus far has had anything to do with how my bone marrow is reacting to treatment, so it's hard to feel confident one way or the other. I should get a call from my oncologist from the results of that hopefully by early next week.

There's reason to be optimistic, so we certainly are. We'll keep our fingers crossed that things continue to look good and we can begin to think about long term care plans.

A big thanks to all of you for your continued support and well wishes. We'll send out an update once we've processed the results of the biopsy.

Thanks!