Nashville or Bust

Green Light Ahead

It’s been an interesting week. Last Wednesday, Dave met with one of the radiation oncologists in the group to learn about radiation therapy and more importantly, find out when he could migrate from the Chemo Lounge to the Rad Booth. We knew we were up for some good news when one of Dave’s chemo nurses saw us in the adjoining waiting room, burst over, and gave him a hug and a big thumb’s up. With a smile she simply said, “I saw a report today but I’m not going to be the one to ruin your surprise.” I had to laugh. For once it was nice to get a tip of something good while stuck in the waiting room.

I’m not sure if you are supposed to be happy or giddy when you’re learning about radiation therapy. But we were. During that hour of discussion we realized how far we’ve each come in this journey — as a team and as individuals. We finally saw the pictures of Roger and we were stunned. He didn’t look like what we had imagined this entire time and that’s really a good thing. Let’s just say, science is amazing.

So what’s next? Well, a lot of things. The scans are probably as clean as they are going to be. There still is a little something inside of Dave but we’ve been told it is most likely scar tissue. A tumor of his size doesn’t really completely go away. To make sure that there really are no active cancer cells remaining, four weeks of radiation — every day —  targeted at the remaining “stuff” should give Dave the insurance he needs to move to the next gate: Remission. While his PET scan showed no activity, Dave needs to go this route because his initial PET scans (the control series) didn’t “light up” either. Remember, that was one of many little mysteries in the beginning.

The radiation begins on Monday, March 14. He’ll be tired and we’ll learn of other side-effects as we go through the month. But the next six months of recovery are looking good. Actually, they are looking pretty darned great.

As a side note, each of us is dealing with this change of scenery in different ways. We’re different people and while we’ve gone through this as “together” as two people can, we’ve been sitting in different seats. You don’t just don’t shift into a high gear of happy. Don’t get me wrong, it’s there, but so too are a lot of other feelings. I suppose the next six months of healing won’t just be centered within the body. The mind and soul need to adjust as well.

So for all of you still out there cheering Dave on, thank you. He feels it and uses it not only to keep himself going but also encourage others we’ve met along the way. Every day my little litany of names that I whisper unfortunately grows longer. There are so many people we’ve met in this short time who are fighting, too. Keep going. Green lights are ahead.

March 9, 2011 - Posted by daveandjacqui | Dave