The Cat's Out of the Bag

Well, only a truly relieved mother could use a megaphone to shout from the rooftops when news is this good. Or a mass email! If you received an emafandom my mother before I had the chance to personally call you, I apologize. She totally blew up my spot. Email is a dangerous means of communication in the wrong hands (just kidding). But, again, only a mother in her deepest moment of gratitude would rush to tell the whole word.

So...what's the news already? Christmas has come early to the Bond family. On Thursday, I got the final results from my PET scan and brain MRI, for which the insurance company DID pay. The brain MRI showed one original lesion had grown .5 cm but all the others were gone and there were no new lesions. I still have to speak with my radiation oncologist, Dr. Narayana, on Monday to find out how we will handle the remaing lesion but it is considered rather insignificant. Here's the really big news...da da da da-there are NO signs of active cancer anywhere else in my body. The breasts, the bones and the liver are all clear!!!! In a year of unending shitty news, this is beyond what any of us could have dreamed. A real Christmas miracle! Feel free to break open the champagne. We all deserve it because I wouldn't have gotten to this point without all of you behind us and beside us.

Now not to put a damper on this fabulous news beacause we all want to bask in the glory of it, but the fight is not over. Please remember that I have Stage IV cancer. There is NO remission, but I can be classified as N.E.D (no evidence of disease). In the meantime, we must continue to pray, meditate, send out good vibes and keep our fingers crossed. My prognosis doesn't change yet. However, with each scan that comes back positively, we have more and more reason to be hopeful that this story will have a happy ending...50 years from now.

You may be asking what are the practical implications of this development. Dr. Volm, the best doctor I have ever known, suggests we stay the course. I am totally cool with that. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. I will continue my current protocol of chemo drugs and Herceptin. The only difference is that he will be open to me "taking short breaks" if I want to travel.

We will continue to blog about our family and health because there is still so much to come. For instance, Nathan did come home from the hospital on Wednesday. Ultimately, the doctors changed their diagnosis. All the bacterial blood cultures came back negative so their best guess was that it was a severe case of gastroenteritis. Of course, it's a rather difficult virus to deal with as he is missing a major part of his intestines and has an ileostomy. Slowly, he has begun to recover. Obviously, the surgeon advised him not to travel so our Puerto Rico trip was canceled. However, with all the good news, we'll take the trade off. Plus my dear friend, Marcos, has insisted we make the trip as soon as we all are well.

Nathan is scheduled to have his reconnection surgery the first week of January. We are looking forward to thoroughly enjoying this holiday season. With the good news and knowing that Sadie will really appreciate all the festivities around Christmas (at least the presents part), it will be the best Christmas and New Years ever.

Oops...I almost forgot the cherry on top. I have my driving privileges back! I was almost happier about that than the scan results. For those of you who know me, you know I am not kidding. Nathan says I'm like a 16 year old with her new drivers license, looking for any excuse to drive. Anyone need a lift?