Jun 24, 2011

Then We're Happy (beware, this is long)

As some of you know, Matt went through treatment this winter for testicular cancer. It sucked. Bad. But, he was a trooper and all is well at this point! We just got home from a visit with the oncologist (which will happen for the rest of our lives) and I wanted to share the good news!

Last week we spent a day at Mercy for testing. It was a long day, but we've pretty much got the routine down by now. We show up and Matt gets a bracelet, then we go to X-ray, then we sit while Matt drinks this nasty-looking, berry-flavored contrast dye (it makes me almost gag just looking at it), and he has to drink two of those bottles!!!


...then we go have a pulmonary function test (PFT) done, then Matt goes to CT for his abdominal scan, then we go to the doctor's office for blood to be drawn from his port...

...then we get to leave! And it only takes about 4 hours! Whew!

Today we got the results of all the tests, and we're happy! The doctor told us Matt's blood work is perfect! He said he wouldn't have known Matt had ever had chemo just by looking at the labs.. great! Matt's PFT has shown a little bit of lung damage from one of the chemo drugs, but Dr. Reitz is beginning to wonder if he maybe has asthma-lite since his lungs should have healed from the drug by this point. It's nothing to worry about, though- thank the Lord!! The chest X-ray is pristine :) No problems there. And for the big dog: Matt's CT scan has shown (since after treatment) one enlarged lymph node. Now this one lymph node was the entire reason for having chemo in the first place; if it hadn't been enlarged at all, then we wouldn't have had to go through chemo. So since treatment ended in February, the lymph node has been shrinking, but it's still not down to "normal" size yet. Basically, there's something that can happen called a teratoma tumor that can be left-over from any type of cancer. So Dr. Rietz is saying that if the lymph node continues to shrink, then we're in the clear... But, if it always stays enlarged, then it's more surgery in the future to get that out of there (a teratoma tumor isn't cancer when it's young, but it will turn into cancer if left alone). Matt has had two rounds of CT scans since treatment, and both have shown shrinkage. The node used to be 3 times the size of normal, and now it's 2 times normal. We're showing improvement, we're just not perfect yet.

Anyhow.... the plan is to keep an eye on my boo. The tests will be repeated in three month (instead of 6) because of the lymph node. And that's ok! If all we have to do is watch that booger shrink every three months, then we're happy!!

Jun 5, 2011

A First Attempt

So I'm joining the blog world. Woohoo! I'm terribly new at this, and thus have no idea how to change the font (which I currently don't like), or how to make a cutesy background other than the stock ones I got to choose from. It'll get better with time, but for now, it is what it is.

I don't have anything super pressing to share via my blog, but I wanted a way to share the fun times of being married & having a dog (outside of Facebook, of which I'm becoming a not-so-enthused user). And so you have it. A blog is created for you to read about the adventures of... us! Assuming I'll keep it up to date, and assuming that there are people out there who will want to read it. We shall find out together. So here's to the blog world! I'll see you again soon.