Moving forward

Here we are chez Wells, and we keep on keeping on.

Starting out with the good news: the PET scan T had to check a spot that was seen on his lung came out clean, so the cancer has not spread anywhere else.  It's always wonderful to have a ray of sunshine in the middle of a storm.  And my scan came back clear as well, so now I can focus all of my energy on getting my love healed.  

T and I met with his radiological oncologist yesterday at NMH.  He seems to be another fantastic doctor, very calm and informative.  The current plan is to get T going with chemotherapy and radiation before even thinking about surgery.  He'll have approximately twenty-eight days, Mondays through Fridays, of the chemo/radiation combo and then anywhere from a six to ten week healing time before surgery.  The doc said that the chemo/radiation combo pre-surgery has been shown to dramatically lessen the chance of recurrence post-surgery, and the wait time afterwards allows the combo to keep working its magic of shrinking the tumor and allows time to heal before the surgical oncologist gets a chance to do her thing.  My lucky guy gets to go back to NMH on Wednesday for another colonoscopy and then again Thursday for another CT scan to determine exactly where to aim the radiation.  Scans and tests and contrast IVs, oh my!  We don't have an official start date yet for the chemo/radiation treatments, but we're hoping to know more after Thursday's appointment.  We both got the impression from the doc that he hopes to start within the next two weeks, so we're keeping our fingers crossed for sooner rather than later.

Admittedly, it will be inconvenient to drive into Chicago every weekday for approximately six weeks, but the benefits far outweigh the hindrances.  We trust the doctors at NMH and love the way they all communicate with each other. People in Valpo drive to Chicago for work every day, so doing what we need to do for a finite amount of time is no big deal.  And truth be told, I sort of love being "stuck" in a car with T during the drive because it's more time we get to spend together that we wouldn't have in a normal work day.  Sometimes our conversations run to the deep, but mostly we find things to laugh about.  Heaven knows we need a lot to laugh about lately. 

It's looking like chemo/radiation throughout the summer with surgery sometime in the fall.  T and I did our best to explain all of this to the kids last night.  We had done a bit of explaining earlier on, but we also knew we had to go a bit deeper.  We're telling them as much as we can without scaring them, but I think everything unknown is scary to five and seven year old kids.  There has been so much upheaval already this summer, and we're in for a whole lot more. They need a schedule and some normalcy, and unfortunately, I can't guarantee any of that right now.  This parenting thing is hard on a regular basis, but adding cancer into the mix makes it even harder.  I am more than confident that T is going to get through all of this, that we all will, but it's going to be a bumpy ride.  Once again, I am thankful for all of the love and support we have gotten from our family and our friends.  Keep praying, sending the mojo and juju, and just thinking good thoughts for us.