Sigh With Us and Feel the Sunshine

The last 10 days haven’t been easy.  Mom hit a bit of an emotional wall last week.  As Dad mentioned, the side effects were starting to wear on her and it all just felt hard.  Mom went in last week for an evaluation of her port. The chemo nurse during Mom’s last treatment was concerned that it wasn’t working properly. The chemo drugs were definitely going in, but they couldn’t get a blood draw.  As it turns out, there is a small kink in the port that was stopping fluids from flowing out of the port but not from flowing into it.  With a fear that the whole port operation would have to be done over, we waited for news.  Mom’s oncologist does not seem to be overly concerned with replacing it right now since it is not intended for long-term use.  So, we are going to keep using the port as is.  Then, Mom went today for her MRI.  She has an appointment scheduled with the breast surgeon tomorrow so we didn’t expect to hear anything until then. And so, we prepared to wait. Again. The long wait of winter, chemo, cancer.  Fortunately, the sun is shining in Richmond.  And we are definitely soaking it up.

And sometimes good news feels like sunshine. Late this afternoon, Mom got a phone call from the breast surgeon who was probably as giddy as a breast surgeon can get.  Dr. Vaidya (the surgeon) didn’t want to wait until tomorrow to tell Mom her “wonderful” news.  There is NO EVIDENCE OF CANCER in Mom’s breast.  I am going to say it again so you can feel the impact.  NO EVIDENCE OF CANCER.  Let’s all take a collective sigh together.  And, it’s ok.  You can let those tears fall.  I did.  It’s amazing how you can not realize you are holding your breath until something happens to make you exhale.  We are exhaling in a big way.

The chemo phase has been successful.  So successful.  And while it’s way easier for me to say it than Mom: it all feels worth it.  Mom will do the 4^th round of chemo next Friday (March 23).  We’ll know more in the next couple of days, but it is looking very likely that she will not have to do rounds 5 and 6 (another sigh of relief, if this turns out to be true).  This means that the chemo phase could end a full 6 weeks earlier than we had anticipated.  Credit Mom’s fighter spirit and her ability to finish projects ahead of schedule.  Credit the doctors.  Credit the kick ass/ass kicking drugs.  I don’t really care who gets the credit!

While this news IS as amazing as it sounds and feels, we do still have to keep the whole journey in perspective.  There is still more treatment to come.  We will now start asking lots of questions and doing research on the next phase of the journey: surgery.  But, first, we will take some time to revel in good news and the luck of the Irish.  Jess gets to Richmond tomorrow night and we will spend the weekend celebrating this news, Jess’ 25^th birthday, St. Patrick’s Day, the sunshine, and whatever else we feel like celebrating.  If you have something you’d like us to celebrate on your behalf, send it our way.  We’ll toast to you too.

We will also continue to revel in all of you, our faithful followers and friends.  We appreciate the homecooked meals, the gifts and flowers, and the warm wishes.  You have made this fight easier.