Celebrating Three Years

Here we are....three years after Ed's original diagnosis.  Hard to believe it's been 3 years, but we are very grateful.  We never thought of or imagined three years.  At the time of the diagnosis, we were hoping for 6 months, then another 6 months, and then another.  Milestones are harder to set at this time since we never thought beyond those first few milestones.  And with every CT scan or any random day of the week, I keep waiting for the gauntlet to fall.  I know it's looming over our heads ready to strike at any moment, but it hasn't and so we continue to press on and live life to the fullest.  We realize that, although Ed is living with cancer, the key is that he is "living".  There are so many people who have passed in the past three years either due to this terrible disease or for some other unforeseen tragedy and we realize how lucky we are and are continually reminded how every day is and remains a gift.

And although there are days like today where Ed is in pain and he doesn't feel well and goes back to bed, the good days outnumber the bad and there are so many who are so much worse off, dealing with terrible health issues or have sudden tragedies and lose loved ones.  So instead of focusing on our negatives, we continually remind ourselves of the positive and that's a much healthier perspective to have in life.

Ed did have a CT scan last week and the good news is that there are no new growths.  His shoulder pain looks like arthritis and Dr. B will be referring him to the orthopedist.  He also gave him some stronger pain medication and a prescription for a Lidoderm patch which should help with the pain in the meantime.  This is the biggest issue Ed is having right now and the pain keeps him awake at night.  The pain meds and patch seem to help and it will be good when he can see an orthopedist.  I am glad that we asked them to look at this area more closely during the CT scan.  At least now we can rule out cancer in that area as the cause of the pain.

In terms of the cancer, the lungs are stable; lymph nodes in the neck are down.  Tumors in the chest have shrunk and no changes in the liver.  This is all good news since it means the current treatment regimen is effective at knocking down the tumors and/or keeping them at bay.

There was some evidence of additional fluid in the abdomen and the mesentery (described as the "saran wrap" holding intestines) is more prominent and could be causing some weeping of fluid into the abdomen.  Difficult to tell though and something to watch in the future.

Ed's white and red blood counts are okay; liver function test is slightly elevated but same as September and there is no protein in the urine.

So, in other words...no significant changes and the current regimen is keeping the tumors from growing.  So we'll continue with the current treatment pattern for now.

Thank you all for your continued thoughts and prayers!