John's Cancer Update

Real quick background for newer readers.  John, my fellow, was diagnosed with cancer of the lymph nodes (stage 4) in June 2007.  He did 6 months of chemo and went into remission.  Six months later, it was back, this time in his spleen.  So they removed the spleen, no chemo.  He was in remission.  They decided to keep a closer watch on him and  he had a scan 3 months later, showing the lymphoma was back yet again, in his groin.  He saw a Lymphoma specialist and they decided to do a very strong, very dangerous course of chemo.  This was last summer.  He did 3 days of chemo in June 2009, 4 days of chemo in July and a week of super high dosage of chemo in August, followed by a stem cell transplant, using his own  stem cells.  The chemo knocked his white blood cell count to zero.  His blood count rejuvenated quickly after the transplant and he was released from the hospital 12 days later (most people are in for a month after transplant) .  One month to the day after he entered the hospital, he was back at his job!  Amazing!  He gets a PET scan every 3 months to check for signs of the cancer returning.  So now you're all caught up!!

John had his PET scan done last week, as he's had every 3 months for the past year.  Yesterday he had his appointment to see his Oncologist to find out the results of the PET scan.

YAY!!  YAY!!  YAY!!!  It was negative!!!  John is still in remission from his Lymphoma!!  Dr. Nasta is very pleased with the results.  So he's coming up on 1 year cancer-free, and we couldn't be happier!  The doctor has been keeping an eye on his adrenal glands for a while, because something was happening there.  The scan showed the adrenal glands are shrinking, so that was more good news!

So we just knew we had to celebrate!!  There's a little sandwich shop just  next to the hospital that makes amazing sandwiches, called The Potbelly Sandwich Works.  (I ate many meals there last summer).  We had lunch there.  Then we went to the Philadelphia Museum of Art and saw the Late Renoir Exhibit!  It was great!!  I have a new print to hang in my family room!  It's called Terrace at Cagnes.   We were planning to go to the movies last night, but we didn't.  We mistakenly thought Salt was playing, but it opens on July 23.  So we stayed home.  It was 103 degrees yesterday anyway, so we had enough outdoors for a day!