CANCER FREE AFTER 1 YEAR!!

So why not spend some quality time at the beach? Well actually we took the vacation a little earlier in anticipation of the news! The family spent a short week in our old summer stomping grounds of North Wildwood at the Regency towers. I also had a chance to re-live some childhood memories when we took a quick jaunt to my old stomping grounds of Somers Point, NJ where I lived and went to kindergarten at the ripe old age of 5. Dana and I then spent a weekend getaway with some old college cronies to celebrate our 50th birthdays.

I would have liked to have posted the news of being cancer free on 7/21, the actual date of my last radiation treatment, but had one more procedure to take care of before I could be absolutely confident in my statement above. You see my 4th PET/CT scan I had done about 2 weeks ago showed complete resolution and no activity whatsoever in the head/neck area which was most welcomed news…but it seems there’s always a but…but the CT scan showed “thickening of the duodenum wall (an area at the very top of your small intestines) and the PET was lighting up in that area”. Just fabulous. So it was recommended I have an “EGD” scope. Same type procedure I had done and from the same Doctor when I had my feeding tube put in. Pretty simple procedure actually (only takes about 5 minutes) but waiting a week to have it done and get the results was the stressful part. When I woke up, I was EXREMELY relieved to hear that everything looked normal!!

As of now, I have pretty much had every orifice of my body scoped, checked or inspected with the exception of one. While THAT procedure will come soon enough, I feel so much relief and have much confidence that I am truly free of the big C! I have been busy planning a 32nd year high school class reunion/50th birthday party (will have attended quite a few of these this year!) and have been so looking forward to seeing everybody and was not going to let ANYTHING get in the way of attending that on 8/7…God knows when we’ll ever have this chance again!

On a side note…During the past week or two, we got some news that Dana’s father was in the hospital for stomach pains…then there was a possibility he had a stroke…then it was determined that he needed to have his gall bladder removed…but then they said they couldn’t do the operation because he may have had a stroke…after some testing, it was determined he did have a stroke but it was from some former point in time and the (out of sorts) symptoms were a result of the Morphine and other drugs they had him on…so, the operation was back on & he ended up having his gall bladder removed on Thursday…it was full of gangrene and had they let it go much longer, it could have burst and he could have died… However, at last report as of this morning from Linny, the surgery was a success and the fact they managed to do it laparoscopically, will shorten the recovery time and he will be fine.

Finally, about my Retinal Vein Occlusion… on second thought, let’s save that for another post and just hope the blockage clears!

Cheers - Fred