Blissful Break and PET scan

It has been an interesting past couple of weeks. We had planned a trip to go visit my Grandma, who spends the winter in Palm Desert, CA. We coordinated the trip to start after Mike's last round of chemo, and it would be a low key relaxing vacation and also a celebration to be done with chemo! Well we came home from the treatment to find this:

Our door had been decorated by Ashley and my niece and nephew. Mike's favorite treat cereal is Lucky Charms and she also included the amazing cadbury chocolate eggs. Mike comes home from treatment zapped of energy, so this is his attempt at being enthusiastic. I don't know if you can tell in the picture but he becomes this pasty white throughout his treatment. Well Mike was feeling good enough to ride in the car and we left for Cali on Wed.

Our trip was wonderful. We didn't have any big plans and spent time in the sunshine, eating good food, playing in the pool, games, and spending time with Grandma. I think Mike is looking more and more like a cancer victim. His dark bushy eyebrows are very thin now. He still has some hair on his head, but it is so thin and sparse that he keeps it shaved.

We arrived back in Logan late Sunday night and Mike had his PET scan on Monday. Well we heard the results on Tuesday as I was pulling into work and we were kind of shocked. The doctor said that he is CANCER FREE!! But he also said that he will go through 2 more cycles of chemo, or 2 months. We were not expecting that. We had started to plan a fun summer backpacking trip and what Mike was going to do to finish his schoolwork and start recovering. Well, yet another reminder that we can't plan out our lives. I was frustrated and overwhelmed and had a break down as I went to start my shift. I am very appreciative of all the great coworkers I have. It just didn't seem fair. Can't we just be done?

Well Mike wasn't happy about it, but once again had a better attitude then I did. By the next day I was once again feeling really good about everything. I know this is because we have had so many people praying for us and we have felt so comforted through all this. We are so much better off than we could be!

Well yesterday we met with the oncologist. The reason Mike is going through more chemo is because of guidelines set by the national boards and the cancer specialist. Mike has what is considered unfavorable Hodgekins lymphoma because of two things. 1) The cancer was in 3 nodal regions and 2) The cell type is mixed cellularity, which is "unfavorable." So the guidelines recommend another 2 cycles, even with a clean PET scan. We are also going to be meeting with a radiation oncologist to see if Mike needs to go through radiation following the chemo. The radiation would be 4 weeks, every weekday. Hopefully we don't have to do that.

We are so grateful for those friends and family who have been checking up on us and making sure we are doing okay. I have learned a lot so far, and I think one of those things is a better understanding of how to help someone who may be going through something like this. People will ask what they can do for us, and the biggest help has come from prayers and from people who take the time to sincerely ask or let us know they are thinking of us.