Friday, 12/9/16- Still Cancer Free!!

Well, let's start with the very good news!  We met with her new Oncologists this afternoon and she told us that the CT Scan she had last week was clean and showed nothing that needed to be looked at or checked.  She also said all of her blood work came back as normal so at this point, she is considered to be Cancer Free and healthy.  We were obviously a little worried about today, but this was very good news and we are feeling much relieved.

This was our first time meeting with this Oncologist and we liked her a lot.  She was very thorough and went over more than just any cancer concerns.  We talked about Barbara's hot flashes and what might help them rather than just staying on Estrogen which can be bad long term (Breast Cancer).  She also talked some about nutrition in general especially as related to her continuing nausea.  She also set her up to see a nutritionist in a couple weeks to maybe help with some suggestions and what not to eat as well as what might be best.  We'll see how much that helps.

Going forward, we will still get a monthly flush of her port.  We will see the Oncologist in three months.  This visit will include blood work but no scans.  At that point we will decide if Barbara should change her medication for Hot Flashes unless we look at the documents she gave us and want to try something sooner.  Given how she is doing, she plans on another CT Scan in 6 months rather than the 3 or 4 we were expecting.  Less radiation is good.  She also mentioned that she would likely want to do another Endoscopy at some point since the CT does not see everything.  She is going to review the last one done and then decide what might be needed in the future.  As I said, she seems very thorough and is looking at Barbara's entire picture and not just the cancer.

I guess the bottom line is that things are continuing to go as good as they possibly could be.  Barbara is still recovering some and will be adjusting to her changed system for some time, but overall she is really doing much better than most.  She may have to live for the rest of her life with the "nausea" or whatever is bothering her "gut" when eating, but that is at least manageable and should get somewhat better over time.

Since things are going so well and we are not expecting anything unusual, I will likely only be doing updates every few weeks.  I will make sure I do an update after doctor's appointments and at least once a month just to report how she is doing in general, but hopefully I will not have anything bad to report.

Thanks again for everyones support!  This has been a very tough year, but it is clearly looking like the hell we went through was worth it.