Lovely Haiku

Apparently Tim's friend Mackenzie meant to write a haiku earlier, but this is what he got and it's awesome. Enjoy!


Mackenzie's Lazy
Didn't Write No Haikus, oops
TOO LATE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! REMISSION!

Remission

Tim's parents and us with Dr. G, over half of us holding up Victory signs!

Tim is officially in remission! We went to the doctor today to get the results of the PET and CT scans from this week and Dr. G said that the PET scan was completely clear, including the spots on his pelvis and ribs, and that Tim is in full remission. He also said that he doesn't think that the cancer will return and that we will hopefully be done with it for good. We are all so very, very happy. Thank you everyone for your kind words and supportive thoughts and prayers. This ordeal has been made so much easier because of family and friends. For getting us a car, attending appointments with us, sending care packages, being there to talk, thinking of and praying for us and so many, many other things, we are grateful to a point where it's difficult to express. Thank you.

The future... Tim and I are done with our semesters and we're looking forward to spending time with family next week and friends throughout the break. Tim is finished with his graduate degree, so he is going to be looking for a full-time job very soon. I'm finished with my job at the publishing company on the 30th and should start student teaching for my special education degree in January. If all goes as planned, I'll be done with grad school and ready for my own classroom next year. Somewhere in there we have to make up the wedding, but we'll figure that out as we go. It's so nice to be making near-future plans again!

Tim still has a couple of spinal chemotherapy treatments left and I'll update this periodically as he continues on the remission path. We're looking at 3 month scans for a while and then they'll be tapered off to every 6 months, yearly, etc. Thanks again, everyone, and we wish you all a wonderful holiday and a Happy New Year!!!

Updating

Final PICC pic


Tim's still hanging in there! He had what we hope is his final week of the bags last week and got his PICC line taken out on Friday. I'm sure it's really freeing for him not to have a little tube flapping around every time he moved his arm and he thoroughly enjoyed taking his first shower in months on Monday night.

That tube was in his arm for almost 4 months!

T has been experiencing some painful headaches as a side effect of the lumbar puncture that they had to do on him last Thursday to inject the spinal chemotherapy. He read somewhere that it has to do with the spinal fluid leaking out of the hole that was made and away from his cranium, causing the headaches. I don't pretend to know if all that is accurate, but it sounds valid to me. The pain is lessened when is either standing or lying down, but it is particularly bad when he is sitting. Unfortunately, there isn't much lying down or standing around during finals week, so he has been in pain. The effects are only supposed to stick around for about a week, so we're hoping that tomorrow he feels better.

The LP wasn't bad last time, but this time he got up before the allotted time. He was meant to lie completely flat and still for at least one hour before moving around, but they were pumping him full of liquids and he had to use the bathroom REALLY bad, so he got up after 45 minutes. Let this be a lesson to anyone who needs a lumbar puncture in the future. We're not sure if that's the reason for the headaches all week, but it's something he'll certainly avoid next round!

Giving thanks...

What's new...we went to the doctor again on the day after Thanksgiving. We got basically the same news as last time. Dr. G warned us that Tim may need a couple of additional chemotherapy cycles, depending on the results of the tests, but also said that was unlikely. So next week is the expected final EPOCH treatment, the week of the bag. On Friday, Tim gets the PICC line removed and we're both very excited about that! No more nightly flushings and showers are back in! If T does need to get the additional treatments, he will need another PICC inserted, but we don't expect that to happen. The one he currently has is about 15 weeks old and Dr. G said it is time to remove it, that it wouldn't make it through 6 more weeks. The removal is a simple process, according to the nurse Kara.

I thought I had written a post about the spinal chemo, but apparently I did not. Tim has the second one on Thursday of this week. Tim described it as a pinch and a burn, not bad at all. Of course, Dr. G said that it was easier for T because he's the optimum candidate, tall, thin and young. As usual during this entire debacle, Tim complains very little. He's a tough cookie! On the other end of the spectrum, directly after my flu shot earlier this year...

We haven't been up to much in the past few weeks. Our semesters are wrapping up and we've kept busy with that, plus work for both of us. I have only a few more weeks left at my job and am trying to get everything situated there. I'll start student teaching in special education for junior high aged students on the 4th of January. T is still working part time for the University of Chicago, but when he's done with the chemo and grad school at the end of the year, he'll start looking for a full time position. Needless to say, big and exciting changes are coming!

Thanksgiving was lovely, full of feasting, football and a rousing round of Yahtzee. There's so much we are thankful for this year. Tim's parents and Hana came to my family's house and we all worked together to make a delicious meal. Sitting next to me in current time, Timberly just thoroughly enjoyed a large plate of leftovers and we have plenty more in the fridge. I participated in my first and hopefully final Black Friday shopping spree the following day and then it was back up to Chicago for the doctor's appointment. Yesterday I went down to my uncle's house for another family dinner, but T was worn out from the traveling and opted out. We lazed the day away today, as Sundays tend to go around here, and we're preparing for finals in the coming weeks. Wish us luck!

More info

For those of you who wondered, we do not yet know anything about the growths on Tim's ribs and hip or about whether or not the lymphoma has been eradicated in the bone marrow. Tim only took a CAT scan for Friday's results, so they could not tell about the bone marrow. About the ribs and hips, the doctor said that there was no mention of any abnormalities noticed from the CAT scan, but the PET scan would give a better view of that. In mid-December Tim will undergo another PET scan and bone marrow biopsy, in addition to another CAT scan and the combined results will be compared with the initial results and the PET scan from last week. The doctor did tell us that since the bone marrow is made up of small cells he expects the lymphoma to not be a problem in that area, but I'm not really sure what that means. We were a little elated by the good news to focus on questioning that, so we'll have to take him at his word for the time being.

At our doctor's appointment on Friday we found out more about the spinal chemotherapy in addition to the good news about the tumor shrinking. Tim starts this coming Thursday. This is one of his chemo weeks and they will do it during his two remaining chemo rounds. He gets four treatments and they are spaced out at 3 weeks each, so he will be getting the final treatment during the second week in January. I will be going in with him on Thursday for the procedure, right after my dentist appointment.

Not so fun fact: Chemo patients are discouraged from visiting the dentist. There is a concern that if work must be done that opens a wound in the mouth, an infection could be acquired that the weakened immune system of a chemo patient may have trouble fighting off. I'm not sure if that's just for this type of chemo, but it doesn't seem like it would be.

Speaking of infection, I'm sick. Someone I work with contracted the H1N1 virus plus I observe a couple of days a week at a school with hundreds of kids, so we were prepared. We stayed for the most part in separate rooms, didn't prepare meals together (which was easy, as I was not eating), and I carried around a can of Lysol with me for the better part of the week thus far. The worst part was the ride home from my parents' house this weekend. I just kept the window open and breathed away from Tim as I slept. So far he's avoided catching it and hopefully we'll be in the clear soon.

We got to see and enjoy the company of the lovely Jessica this weekend, before I was ill. We went to a German restaurant and had steins of beer and dances with elderly men. On Saturday, we drove home to see my sister Angie and her rambunctious pups who are visiting this week were last. We had a bit of a hastily thrown together family reunion on Sunday. It was gorgeous weather and fabulous company...had I not been ill it would have been better, but it was still nice to see most of my dad's side of the family altogether again, plus a few members of my mom's side. I wish I had a picture of all to post, but we had to dip out of there right after dinner, when I started feeling really ill again. Instead, I'll leave you with this:

We're celebrating!

I promise to write more later, but for those of you who knew we had an appointment with the oncologist today, know that the large tumor in T's chest has been reduced over 80%. The doctor said that it was the best that he had hoped for and he thinks we're going to get rid of this thing with the treatment Tim is currently receiving. Good news at last!!!


T under the completely fabulous table my parents built for us. Lovely place mats, too, courtesy of the Roebers and Tim's relatives in Thailand.

El muerte de nuestra boda...

For the weekend that was designated for our wedding, T and I decided to spend time with family and friends. Scratch that. I decided to spend the entire day in bed and Tim decided we would instead go out. I had traveled home for part of the week to see my dear friend Deborah, who was visiting our hometown from North Carolina and whom I haven't seen in almost two years. We got ourselves into the usual Kewanee trouble on Thursday and Friday and she was run out of town at the end of the visit with the people of our fair hometown letting loose a collective sigh of relief that such a troublemaker had once again departed from their midst.

So Saturday rolled around and I was still trying to come up with justification for not leaving my mother's couch. Master procrastinator that I am, I managed to rise off of said couch at around 11:30 in the morning, about 3 hours after my expected departure and only after T called me about 1/2 dozen times to get my rear up and at 'em. I finally arrived in Bloomington around 4:30 and with the aid of Timmeh started making the meal we had planned for everyone. We made rat shaped meatloaf, mummy mashed potatoes, mummy appetizers and monster's eyes deviled eggs. I got frustrated halfway through and left to go take a shower after one plate was made, so my sister Becky and Tim prepared the rest of the plates. All said, I think it turned out to be a hauntingly delicious meal.

While we hadn't planned to go out after dinner, our friend Ashley drove all the way over from Kewanee and she had such an awesome costume on that we felt an obligation to the people of the twin cities to take her out for their enjoyment. Shenanigans ensued.

So we're not yet newlyweds and it wasn't the Halloween we thought it would be, but it was probably the best we could have expected, under the circumstances. Tim felt good physically the whole time and we were with people we love, so that makes all of the difference!