The Results Are In…

No more cancer!

Dr. Hammond reviewed the pre-treatment and post-treatment PET Scans side-by-side with us.

For some reason we had never seen the pre-treatment scan in detail. A normal scan is shades of black and grey. Fast growing cells show up kind of like a fire, with reddish being more active, then orange hues and finally yellows and whites. Mine lit up like that scene from Christmas Vacation where Clark Griswold finally got his Christmas lights working. Fast-growing, cancerous cells everywhere. Lymph nodes in my neck and abdomen, and bone marrow inside my arm and leg bones were all light yellow and white. As Dr Hammond told us at a visit in February, initially over 90% of my blood was cancerous. He wasn’t sure how my initial labs were pretty much normal. Although I looked and felt sick at the time, I was actually much, much more sick than I realized. It’s still somewhat unbelievable to me. But enough about the bad.

The good news is that the post-treatment scan showed nothing. It was shades of black and grey, meaning no cancer whatsoever. not even a little. Dr. Hammond said it is not uncommon to have some residual areas on the scan where more of the injected nuclear agent is absorbed, showing some lighter hues. He was actually surprised that my scan did not show any of those areas. It was just plain, old, boring black and grey. Plain, old, wonderfully boring black and grey. I’m still dealing with a few other issues from the lymphoma and the chemotherapy. This mainly consists of fatigue, decreased stamina, and abdominal pain. All of which he said were pretty common and should improve over time. Trust me, all of these are way better than having cancer.

From here the plan involves follow up with oncology in 3 months, and routine follow up there after with labs and CT scans. There is a small chance of recurrence. Recurrence is rare, but it is most likely to happen within the first 2 years after treatment. They don’t like to use the word “cured” but the good prognosis rates are high. I have read it is around 90-95% after being cancer-free for 2 years. Not too bad for Sporadic Burkitt’s Lymphoma, an aggressive cancer that accounts for only 1% of adult lymphoma cases worldwide, and only 1200 cases annually in the US.

I can’t thank each of you enough for all of the support my family and I have received over the past 6 months. I am forever grateful. It has not been an easy battle. Cancer really does suck. The only reason I’m still alive today is from the encouragement and prayers of people who love and care about me, the medical teams, and God’s healing power.

I’ll continue to update this blog from time to time. I’ll let you know about my 3 month check up. For now I’m just going to try to take my oncologist’s advice, and “start living life again”.