John Update... and blog awards!

It's been a little while since I did an update on how John is doing. 

You all know he went into the hospital on August 21 for his stem cell transplant to try to kill,once and for all, the Lymphoma that keeps coming back.  He had 5 days of intense chemo and on August 28, John had his stem cell transplant.  Twelve days later, on September 9, John was released from the hospital and came home to my house for recuperation.  On September 21, one month to the day he entered the hospital, John went back to work at his job as a security officer for a chemical company.  He chose not to return to his job tutoring kids at Huntington Learning Center for the time being.  He may go back one day.

Since John has gone back to work, his strength is coming back and he seems like his old self again!   He's working full time and not tiring like he thought he might.  More than three years have gone by since we met and more than two years since he was diagnosed with cancer. 

John's hair is growing back with a vengeance!!!  His eyebrows are back as well as his eyelashes!  Believe it or not, I think he's most happy that his nose hairs have grown back!  John had the biggest problem with his nose running and his doctor told him it was because he had no nose hairs!  His poor nose was getting sore from all the blowing and wiping!  The hair on his head is coming back rather quickly too.  He also needs to shave every day again.  John has a very heavy beard and he probably could shave twice a day.  All summer long, he shaved MAYBE once a week!  It was like he was 16 again!   I think he liked that he didn't have to shave very often. 

John had a doctor appointment last Tuesday and he had a good report.  No problems were detected and his blood counts were all good.  He was supposed to have a PET scan done tomorrow (Tuesday), but his insurance (stupid Tri-care) hasn't given the okay yet, so he had to cancel it.  His doctor is now talking to the insurance company to get it scheduled.  They can OK a stem cell transplant with cost Lord knows how many thousands of dollars and not OK a PET scan to check to see if the cancer is gone!  That's just stupid!!!

So as soon as we find out about the PET scan, I'll let you all now how he's doing.  I sure hope it shows an all clear!  It would really suck if he went through all of that and not have the cancer gone for good!


Alix, my good friend at Casa Hice, bestowed the Lovely Blog Award on me the other day.  I'm flattered and she likes my blog enough to give me this award!  

I have to name blogs that I just love, but I love all the blogs I follow.  So everyone, grab this button and give yourself a big round of applause and put this award on your blog!

Also!  About 2 weeks ago, Angela at The Suburban Jungle gave me this great Lemonade Stand Award!  I have a chain of lemonade stands now!  Thanks Angela!