May 18, 2022 (Final Edition!)
Home | Previous Update
Hello, dear friends and family!
This is the update we've been hoping to write! The last one! Spoiler alert: my beautiful wife is, inasmuch as her oncologist can determine, free of cancer!
What a long road to get here.
The last chemo treatment was 4 weeks ago today,
and the aftermath was brutal. My poor, brave, strong wife endured
the worst pain, nausea and fatigue, and for the longest period yet.
This was not unexpected, but that didn't make it any easier. The
chemo treatment itself turned out, ironically, to be no big deal.
After all of the suffering around the portacath and picc line, the
chemo nurses managed to get the healing elixirs into Mel's veins
without issue. If only we knew then what we know now, all the
suffering she could have avoided....
Slowly, she's been getting better, and Melody
was well enough on Mother's Day to have a visit from our kids.
In the last few days, Mel has been
getting stronger still. She's been out of bed a lot, making
some of her own meals, and maybe overdoing things a bit
because she's so anxious to get her life back. IMHO, she's
been a bit too active and is learning to (well, if
not learning, at least she's been forced to hear me
admonish her to) moderate her activities so she doesn't
crash.
We'd been waiting for a week and a half
to hear the results of the CT scan, and had our appointment
today with the gynecological oncologist/surgeon in charge of
Mel's treatment, and got to hear a lot of encouraging news:
there is no reason to assume there is any cancer in her
system, and though it could take up to a year to completely
recover (the Dr said there will be good days and bad days
ahead), there's nothing to prevent her from starting to live
a normal life again.
They will continue to monitor with
blood and checkups every 3 months for the next 5 years, and
unless there are any symptoms or rises in the CA125 blood
test beyond the maximum value, no further treatment will be
necessary.
If we weren't so completely exhausted,
we would be celebrating! It still seems surreal that this
has happened at all, and more so that now, it's all over but
the healing. All we can do now is hope that some of the
chemo side-effects dissipate, and that the 3-month check-ups
continue to bring us good news. We're most concerned about
the neuropathy in her feet and some mild hearing loss -
these symptoms go away in some, and remain permanent in
other chemo patients. We are hoping for the best.
Mel says she will borrow this intention from her beloved "Thay":
Twenty-four brand new hours are before me. I
vow to live them deeply.
—Thich Nhat Hanh
We have been moved literally to tears
by the support of this community of friends and family.
Thank you for sticking by us through this difficult journey.
We are mindful that not everyone gets a happy ending (or at
least a happy reprieve), and are humbled by that and all the
more grateful.
We hope you are all doing well, and
staying safe. Sending you and yours lots of love, and we
hope to see as many of you as possible in the coming year.
THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!
Glen |