It's official - it's gone. I got the news last Friday but wanted to wait until I was 100% sure (after my near miss with remission 4 months ago) before I posted on here.
I saw the head honcho yesterday who confirmed (and then I confirmed it because I took the scan report to read in front of him) that everything is 100% normal. No enlarged nodes which is kind of a big deal for us NSHL folk whose disease causes 'scar' nodes to be left around the body. No FDG uptake on the pet scan which means only cells that we WANT to be there are actually there. No apparent long term lung damage (which means no more steroids and I can allow my lungs to repair naturally). I am allowed stop my blood thinner injections in about 2 weeks once I've finished a course of 3 months which my poor stomach will definitely thankful for (it's getting VERY difficult to put on socks with all these bruises. Woe is me.) AND.....too much information warning....look away now..... I got my first period in 4 months which means NO MORE MENOPAUSE AND NO INFERTILITY da daaaaaaaaaaaaaaa :)
I was allowed walk out of the building with only a promise to return for a check up scan in 6 months. 6 months with no doctors, nurses, hospitals nothing. I don't know how I'll cope. Aside from being deliriously happy all the time and especially every second Tuesday when I don't have to get up and go for my poison pump.
Now that I am officially in remission I've decided to put myself on hair watch. Unfortunately I don't think I took many pictures of the remnants of my hair towards the end, but suffice to say it was pretty dismal. A few long wirey stragglers that I couldn't bring myself to just shave off despite Nick's begging. What if they gave me a head start (excuse the pun) in hair regrowth stage? Turns out he was right, they all either fell out or were so useless I just shaved them off. So, here I am, 6 weeks out of chemo officially on hair watch 2012....
I have a hairline, and lots of tiny, thin, but finally once again NOT WHITE, hairs!! I do look a little unsure in this picture, let's face it, I don't exactly look good so it's hard to be beaming with confidence :) Please also note 16 eyelashes.
And from the back. Apparently, not an easy task to take a photo of the back of your own head. I got there in the end. Kinda. But look at all those pretty hairs!! Not a lot as such, but it's a lot to me :)
So what now? Well, in the immediate future I'll be off on holiday number 2. In the next hour in fact. My two boys are being left home to fend for themselves while I head back off to the sun. I haven't been away from them in a year. The idea of it now bothers me a huge amount. Time to cut the apron strings Nick, I'm off again!
It's a weird feeling to think I'm done. Can I really just say Ok, done, back to life as it was before? Or will something always seem just a little bit different? Or a lot different? One thing is for sure. Lesson learned - you never know what's coming for you. There's no point worrying, worrying about things, by it's nature, means you've already considered them and their consequences. The only thing that can really throw a spanner in the works are the things you never thought of. The things you never thought could happen to you. Even then, you cope.
I intend to keep the blog going, not just doctors appointments (as not much point in keeping it going once every six months) and certainly not about my daily life as, without cancer, I'm fairly boring. I'll just see what happens. Thanks so much for your loyal readership, comments, kind words and love so far. I mean it when I say it would have been quite a lot worse without you xxxx
I saw the head honcho yesterday who confirmed (and then I confirmed it because I took the scan report to read in front of him) that everything is 100% normal. No enlarged nodes which is kind of a big deal for us NSHL folk whose disease causes 'scar' nodes to be left around the body. No FDG uptake on the pet scan which means only cells that we WANT to be there are actually there. No apparent long term lung damage (which means no more steroids and I can allow my lungs to repair naturally). I am allowed stop my blood thinner injections in about 2 weeks once I've finished a course of 3 months which my poor stomach will definitely thankful for (it's getting VERY difficult to put on socks with all these bruises. Woe is me.) AND.....too much information warning....look away now..... I got my first period in 4 months which means NO MORE MENOPAUSE AND NO INFERTILITY da daaaaaaaaaaaaaaa :)
I was allowed walk out of the building with only a promise to return for a check up scan in 6 months. 6 months with no doctors, nurses, hospitals nothing. I don't know how I'll cope. Aside from being deliriously happy all the time and especially every second Tuesday when I don't have to get up and go for my poison pump.
Now that I am officially in remission I've decided to put myself on hair watch. Unfortunately I don't think I took many pictures of the remnants of my hair towards the end, but suffice to say it was pretty dismal. A few long wirey stragglers that I couldn't bring myself to just shave off despite Nick's begging. What if they gave me a head start (excuse the pun) in hair regrowth stage? Turns out he was right, they all either fell out or were so useless I just shaved them off. So, here I am, 6 weeks out of chemo officially on hair watch 2012....
I have a hairline, and lots of tiny, thin, but finally once again NOT WHITE, hairs!! I do look a little unsure in this picture, let's face it, I don't exactly look good so it's hard to be beaming with confidence :) Please also note 16 eyelashes.
And from the back. Apparently, not an easy task to take a photo of the back of your own head. I got there in the end. Kinda. But look at all those pretty hairs!! Not a lot as such, but it's a lot to me :)
So what now? Well, in the immediate future I'll be off on holiday number 2. In the next hour in fact. My two boys are being left home to fend for themselves while I head back off to the sun. I haven't been away from them in a year. The idea of it now bothers me a huge amount. Time to cut the apron strings Nick, I'm off again!
It's a weird feeling to think I'm done. Can I really just say Ok, done, back to life as it was before? Or will something always seem just a little bit different? Or a lot different? One thing is for sure. Lesson learned - you never know what's coming for you. There's no point worrying, worrying about things, by it's nature, means you've already considered them and their consequences. The only thing that can really throw a spanner in the works are the things you never thought of. The things you never thought could happen to you. Even then, you cope.
I intend to keep the blog going, not just doctors appointments (as not much point in keeping it going once every six months) and certainly not about my daily life as, without cancer, I'm fairly boring. I'll just see what happens. Thanks so much for your loyal readership, comments, kind words and love so far. I mean it when I say it would have been quite a lot worse without you xxxx
