The big "R"

Hi everybody, it's "the wife" again.

Well, today was a really good day. To remind you, Adrian had his PET/CT last Monday, and, we thought the results were good. But today was the first time the "R" word was used - and by a doctor to boot!!! Yes, you read it correctly. We had a meeting with Dr. Sidransky (aka the mouse doctor at Hopkins) and he confirmed what we were both thinking and hoping - Adrian is in remission. OMG!!! Now, this doesn't mean he is cured, but for now there are no visible signs of malignancy. He no longer has to have Alimta (chemo) every 3 weeks - yay!! And even though Adrian claims he tolerated it well, that was a bunch of BS!! The first week following chemo, he was nauseous and fatigued; the second week he was just OK, which left just 1 good week. So, yay!! 1 year was enough for the both of us.

Now, should the cancer come back - which it may - the Alimta will still work to keep it contained. He won't grow resistant to it as we were once told. And, on top of all that good news, there has been a lot of progress on new therapies for adenocarcinoma. I guess word finally got out that it wasn't just smokers who got lung cancer.

What about the MouseSkins, you ask? The first generation (offspring of the implanted mice) are now maturing. The good news is that the tumours are very slow growing (mimicking our human situation) - some have no tumours at all! The bad news is that it will be a while till the researchers can determine where the mutation exists. I think we'll be happy with that.

So, all in all, a very good day - at long last. Even though it's coming up on 2 years (since diagnosis), it seems like an eternity. Our lives were turned upside down in a nanosecond. But hey, what doesn't kill you makes you stronger (at least, that's the rumour). In the grand scheme of things, we've been very lucky. Lucky to have food, shelter, lots of love...AND UPS!
So that's it from me. Now I'll hand the keyboard over to my very abled husband.

P.S. This all means that Adrian has to now partake in cooking, cleaning, laundry & exercising!!!

Carpe Diem.