Chemo Treatment #5 - An Early Christmas Present!

"It's Clear" - two of the most beautiful words I've ever heard after our wedding vow, "It's a girl, "It's a boy" and my brother telling me he was cancer free.

Lauren, Dr Seifter's patient service coordinator, called me while I was on the way to treatment. I missed her call and was intrigued that she was calling a half hour before my appointment time. I was hopeful after reading the PET/CT report yesterday but I needed to hear it from Dr. Seifter before believing anything I could read from the report. The conversation with Lauren was brief, entirely uplifting and funny at the same time:

  Lauren: Mike, Dr. Seifter wanted me to tell you that it's clear. Your scan is clear. I told Dr. Seifter 'I think he already knows.' 
  Mike: Thanks so much Lauren. I thought the news was good when I read the report, but not that good. See you in 30 minutes.

"It's Clear." I didn't imagine I'd hear that. I read the words at the end of the report that said "Good response to therapy..." so I thought I was doing well based on my white blood cell counts being where they should be. All of my enlarged lymph nodes have either "markedly diminished in size or even resolved..." They're gone, not possible - already? Absolutely! And I really appreciate that Dr. Seifter wanted me to have realtime info from him as opposed to waiting until the appointment.

I was 15 minutes late to my appointment and arrived with a smile on my face. I was planning to go to work afterwards so no one accompanied me today....not for lack of volunteers between my buddy Sean and my dad. First was the consult, where Dr. Seifter also had a smile on his face. Good news is hard to contain. My PFT score, while lower than the previous two tests, is still fine. The option here is to quit the Bleomycin if my lung performance deteriorates to where the score drops too low. Then on to the checkout where, as Dr. Seifter remarked, there's not much to check out!  My blood pressure continues to be good at 110/80 and my weight is steady. So we will continue with the treatment as planned. Time to kill off all of the residual Reed Sternberg cells to be sure I am cured. My new hope is that I continue to respond to ABVD they way I already have.  And with no further adieu, here's the PET/CT report.

PET/CT #2 Radiology Report

Anna and her son Chris were working in the chemo room today - a great team. I was the first person in this morning and it was not overly active with 4 other patients in this morning. My blood work was first, as usual. My WBC was 1900, the lowest measurement yet. Given that it was only 11 days since the previous treatment, this is not unusual. And my RBC (for you Ellen) is still holding steady at 4.44 so my energy level is still decent. Everything else was routine. I was out by 1pm and heading home since the meeting at work finished early.

It's been a great day everyone! 
Much love to you all.