OK, the official word of the day is NED!!!! Yes, Michael’s scans looked great!!!! We are so excited. We are both doing “the Happy Dance” and Michael doesn’t dance!!
Today we actually did get to see all three of his doctors. We started off the morning seeing his neurosurgeon. He was extremely pleased with Michael’s progress. First thing he did tell us is there is NO TUMOR PRESENT in any of the scans. We are so happy. He did say that the surgical area, spinal cord is looking better than they had expected. His nerves in the previous scans were still clumped together, but seem to be spreading out like they should be allowing more of a free flowing. They still have some “clumping” but overall it’s looking better. We went over the nerve damaged areas and that hasn’t changed any. As Michael told the doctor, he is just getting “use” to it.
Down side, Michael does have a fractured tailbone. The neurosurgeon said this would be due to the radiation weakening the area and he could have easily fractured it. This could explain for the lower back pains he’s been having. He said Michael needs to work real hard on his core strengthening. We need to work on getting Michael back in shape. We are scheduled to go back and see him in 6 months.
We stopped by the orthopedic doctor’s office after that (they are on the same floor) to see if they could possibly work Michael in today instead of us having to drive back to Dallas next week. They said no problem. We had to wait around for about an hour and were able to go back to the exam room. Doc came in and was excited to see Michael up on his feet. We went over his interpretation of the reports and his excitement of how Michael has progressed since the last time we seen him. Michael doesn’t remember that time as that is part of the 2 weeks Michael still does not remember. Doc explained how amazing it was to watch and assist the neurosurgeon on Michael’s surgery. He also talked about how amazing it is that Michael has been given a second chance and yes he has. He did say that the disk degeneration that Michael does have looks good at this point. He did say he wants Michael to continue to stay away from the heavy lifting.
He said that if we ever move from the area to be sure we talk to him first. He doesn’t want Michael to ever get “lost”. He said by looking at the MRI’s now, if we had to take Michael to another doctor and say he had a “Ewing’s Sarcoma” inside the spinal cord, it would be hard to tell. I explained we will never leave his care. He’ll have to retire first and I don’t see this doctor retiring for a long time. Unless Michael has any more back pain or other problems, we will not have to see this doctor for 6 months to a year.
Michael and I went to grab some lunch over at the hospital cafeteria before we had to go see the oncologist. Of course on our way back over to the professional building all his doctors are in (yes all three are in the same building) we ran in to three different staff members from the oncology center. Of course none of them recognized him at first until he spoke, you know the whole he has hair thing. We go to the 7th floor, check in and go back to get his labs. On the way back to see the doctor, we ran in to Michael’s PA who didn’t recognize him with hair either. It’s such a neat thing to see these people’s faces as they realize who he is and the look on their face knowing we did beat cancer.
His oncologist came in with a big smile on his face and we went over everything again with him. He is extremely pleased with the scan reports. Michael’s labs are up and down. The red cells look great but his white counts are still down at 2.9K. We will go back to see the oncologist in 3 months and have a chest x-ray and labs again. We will re-do the scans again in 6 months and if all looks good at that point, we will go to 6 months visits for a year then go to yearly visits.
All three doctors are extremely impressed with Michael’s progress. We need to keep up with his headaches as he still gets one every few days and they come on extremely fast. We need to continue to keep his back pain under control and begin trying to rebuild Michael’s strength and stamina. To look at Michael, you would not know he was sick, but to someone who sees him daily and has known him for years, you can see where he has become extremely weak. We are also going to work on his sleeping. He still does not sleep well and can go days with no sleep. We also need to continue to monitor is fractured tailbone for a bit too.
Over all, today was a GREAT day!! Many smiles all around. Michael is still cancer free and we only can pray he stays this way. We could not have made it through the last 18 months without our family and friends. And to our sarcoma family, we will continue to stay in this fight with you. Each and every one of you has a special place in our hearts forever.
Please continue to keep all our sarcoma warriors in your thoughts and prayers. While Michael has kicked this horrible dreaded disease in the butt, many others are fighting the fight of their lives. Please continue to lift them up.
We love all of ya & sending many warm hugs from Texas!!!
Mel & Michael
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