Life is Full

My professional waiting-painfully-long-in
-medical-exam-rooms-for-news face.

I have many notes and seeds for blogs ready to burst. But I've been so busy with wonderful adventuring that I have not had the time to write. Instead I've been out living and collecting wonderful stories to be able to relive again when I get to writing them. This is a wonderful position to find myself in for a change: my life has been rich and full, eye opening, and transformative over the past month.

I lived in NYC for two weeks and experienced Manhattan to the fullest. I received highly targeted radiation to the two problematic areas of cancer growth on my vertebrae and the large area on my sacrum every morning at 8:30am for 10 days. Overall, I felt very well during it, and things went smoothly except for one comedicaly outrageous debacle on the second-to-last day (full blog worthy).

My esophagus is very irritated from the treatment, but besides some deep achiness that's the only thing that's lingering. I'm told it is temporary. More importantly, I had a PET Scan yesterday to check on the other small areas of lymphoma involvement that we have not been addressing while I received radiation to focus on the immediate problem areas. Well, remarkably and unexpectedly, just two days after wrapping my rad sessions, the scan revealed that the three big, scary spots are ELIMINATED!! All that is left are tiny flecks showing divets of where the cancer cells were once collecting.

We were all shocked looking at this scan in comparison to my last. The radiation immediately took care of the problem and my bones are now free of danger and the major pain gone. This is an incredible feeling – a literal weight off my back. Not surprisingly, the small areas of lymph node disease involvement in my chest and in my abdomen are a little hotter on the scan with some new spots creeping in, and I am experiencing some symptoms of this. We are formulating a plan to get those back under control with a next course of treatment.

Overall, it's a very good report for my circumstance. I suppose this is what disease maintenance means. My life of late has been full of good food, culture, weather, parks, tons of walking, clearheadesness, happiness, drive, clarity, and wonderful experiences of both Karin time and close friend and family, husband-and-wife time and love. After some convincing and treatment plan tweaking, my wonderful medical team at Sloan-Kettering gave me clearance to travel as planned. As long as nothing crazy happens between now and then, on Wednesday, Craig and I jet set for a childhood friend's wedding in Malibu, CA. After the weekend in LA, I will fly to – finally – see my sister (my life blood) in her Las Vegas environment. My parents and brother will be flying out as well, and we'll spend the week touring the mountains and deserts of Nevada ... and the crazy Vegas strip ... as a family. It will be wonderful. I look forward to lots of blogging in detail when I get back. I have many stories to tell from the past few weeks.