My Blue Bandana

If you had not noticed from the pics or from seeing me in person, my blue bandana is my favorite accessory. The bandana looks 1000% better than my hair that is in such sad shape. Now that my chemo is over I am wondering when my hair will start growing back. I still have hair but just not very much of it in comparison to what I normally have. Hopefully the new growth will start soon. Some of it still continues to fall out so I hopefully that will end soon too.

The girls and I went to the zoo on Saturday with Melissa and Rosa. Even though Sophia was semi sick, she was well enough to go and did not want to be left behind. We had fun and took some great pictures. Ray stayed home to work on the back yard. The deck is now gone and the tree has been cut down to make space for our new room addition. I will probably post a picture of what the yard looks like tomorrow.

I am still here!

I am 23 days past my last chemo and I am feeling great. Being done with my treatment right before Christmas was one of the best presents I have ever recieved. I had a CT scan at the beginning of December which showed the remaining enlarged lyphnode that I once had was now non-detectable. Woo-hoo! Boy was that good news. Now I have only one more scan. If that comes back showing N.E.D. (no evidence of disease) then I would begin my 17 days of radiation. So hopefully the END of my fight with Hodgkin's is near. How good it feels to be victorius.

I have a PET scan at the beginning of February. Before the PET scan a tracer is injected into your bloodstream (similar to a contrast agent in CT/MRI scans). The tracer is radiolabeled, meaning it emits gamma rays that can be detected by the PET scanner. This tracer agent is designed to bond with glucose (sugar) cells in the body. Cancerous (malignant) cells grow at such a fast rate, they metabolize more sugar than normal cells. If there are cancerous cells that still remain in the body, the tracer will bond to them, and the PET scan would detect them and give the doctor a glimpse into how its growth is slowed by treatment therapies.

I would begin radiation only if the PET scan found N.E.D. So, until then it is just a waiting game. At least I have been given a break and have a chance to feel normal again.