I don't know where to start..

Unagi · Post by **Unagi** » Fri Sep 16, 2016 1:52 am

Little Raven wrote:I'm so happy that things are looking up. You've been a great husband, FP. I hope I can live up to your example, but more than that I hope I never have to.

So well said. All of it.

Post by **FishPants** » Fri Dec 09, 2016 11:54 am

Been awhile since I posted an update. My wife has been done with chemo for awhile now, and her hair has been growing back but she's had a lot of neuropathic pain. We're still working on finding what works and what doesn't, it's improving but not totally gone.

Two weeks ago she had a lumpectomy to remove the two tumors and sentinel lymph nodes.. Longest day of my life. We were there by 7amish, lots of stuff to happen pre-op and she didn't get into the OR until close to 2pm. Didn't get to see her again until around 6pmish (and only after suggesting they take me to her before I wrecked the place.. but that's a story for another time).

Surgery seemed to go fine, again been managing pain and handling kids while somehow maintaining a job over an hour away.. I have a pretty solid management team under me, and my peers have had my back for the past six months with this shit. I haven't been 100% for 6 months, and while they bitch to me about what they need they haven't once complained elsewhere or to my boss. Owe these guys.

Anyways this week my wife comes down from bed (its around 11pm, I assume she's coming to tell me to go to bed as it was getting late).. She's got "some leaking from the incision". That should have been rephrased as "there's fucking liters of reddish liquid pouring out of me". So here we are in the middle of the night, with the kids asleep and just myself there (her mom went back home on Monday as it appeared everything was out of control). She drove herself to the hospital (I had to stay with the kids, and once we got some gauze on it -- it slowed the flow enough I was less paniced). Ends up one of our neighbours is a nurse at the hospital, sees my wife and gets her to the top of the list behind a few others that are more critical (this woman runs the ER we found out.. good person to know). ER Doc isn't concerned, says it's normal and doesn't look infected. Patches her up and sends her home.

The next day we speak to the surgeon who wanted to see her in a day or two (yesterday) to make sure the incisions weren't getting infected, we already had an appointment for the 15th to get the pathology back but he felt it was necessary to come in and have him do a quick 2 minute check. He does the check, and says "I'm not sure if you're going to like this or not.. but there's nothing wrong. So the good news is no infection, bad news is the pain is the pain and we have to continue trying to manage it". While we are sitting there talking with him, his wife (the receptionist) walks in and says "No point in making these people come back next week, the pathology just came in". We weren't really prepared for what that might say, but he had prepped us that it's normal to still find live dividing cancer cells, and what's really important is that the margins around the cancer are clear and that he took enough lymph nodes to have a few clean ones at the end of the chain.

So he starts flipping around through the papers muttering, then states that they usually summarize the report and he can't find it, then says he's got to be missing something... Wife has a deadlock handhold on my hand.. clock keeps ticking while we sit there waiting for him to flip through 10 pages of writing and to get to the point.

"Who's your oncologist again?"

We respond. He rubs his face a little.

"She's going to be really happy with these results, and so should you".

He then starts going into medical terminology again (I won't bother transcribing it) but it was painfully slow. I reached out to tap his desk and stop him "Doc, what exactly is the outcome here for all tumors and the lymph nodes".

"There is no evidence of disease in any tumor site, nor was there any evidence of disease in the lymph nodes. While this doesn't mean you are cured, it's the next best thing to it and I'm really really happy to deliver this news to you".

Holy. Shit. The cancer is gone. Only traces of fibrosis where the tumor had been. No living cancer cells found, the chemo totally wiped it out.

At that moment it felt like a 300lb man took his foot off my chest -- by having a pathologic complete response to chemo in both tumors and lymph nodes her 10 year survival rate is over 90% (vs 56% without). Radiation is still happening in January and will be another trial of stamina and stress -- at least we can go into this knowing it's largely preventative and not palliative.

So Merry Christmas to my family, I have a headache from celebrating a bit too much last night. I woke up at 5am like a kid on Christmas morning and took my dogs out for a run in the fresh snow, made a pot of coffee and enjoyed breakfast with my family before heading to work today.

So with that I think I will close this thread out on a good note. Never know what the future is going to bring, but it's a little brighter for us for the forseeable future.

Fuck you cancer!

Isgrimnur · Post by **Isgrimnur** » Fri Dec 09, 2016 12:00 pm

Congrats on the awesome news.

Paingod · Post by **Paingod** » Fri Dec 09, 2016 12:00 pm

Fuckin' AWESOME!

The Meal · Post by **The Meal** » Fri Dec 09, 2016 12:07 pm

Skinypupy · Post by **Skinypupy** » Fri Dec 09, 2016 12:10 pm

Hell yes, that is fantastic news man.

Fuck cancer, indeed.

Smoove_B · Post by **Smoove_B** » Fri Dec 09, 2016 12:12 pm

Great news for you and the family; happy to hear it.

El Guapo · Post by **El Guapo** » Fri Dec 09, 2016 12:13 pm

Awesome!

MHS · Post by **MHS** » Fri Dec 09, 2016 12:21 pm

Teared up reading the good news, mega congratulations!

TheMix · Post by **TheMix** » Fri Dec 09, 2016 12:27 pm

MHS wrote:Teared up reading the good news, mega congratulations!

Glad I wasn't the only one.

That's great news. Merry Christmas (early)! Sounds like the best present you could have asked for.

Lassr · Post by **Lassr** » Fri Dec 09, 2016 12:28 pm

MHS wrote:Teared up reading the good news, mega congratulations!

I'll admit, I did too.

Awesome news!

Zarathud · Post by **Zarathud** » Fri Dec 09, 2016 12:29 pm

Great news, really appreciated that you shared.

Roman · Post by **Roman** » Fri Dec 09, 2016 12:32 pm

Great Christmas present indeed! Happy for you all.

Jeff V · Post by **Jeff V** » Fri Dec 09, 2016 12:33 pm

Congrats! Very happy news indeed; and I hope it continues!

Pyperkub · Post by **Pyperkub** » Fri Dec 09, 2016 12:55 pm

Merry Christmas to the whole dang family! So glad to hear it FP!

Kraken · Post by **Kraken** » Fri Dec 09, 2016 1:08 pm

Always a relief when these threads resurface for good news.

Exodor · Post by **Exodor** » Fri Dec 09, 2016 1:21 pm

I'll admit I've been selfishly avoiding this thread but I'm glad I checked today.

Congrats on the awesome news!

Rip · Post by **Rip** » Fri Dec 09, 2016 1:33 pm

morlac · Post by **morlac** » Fri Dec 09, 2016 1:48 pm

(Cancer on the left)

Great news! And thank you for sharing this journey.

Ralph-Wiggum · Post by **Ralph-Wiggum** » Fri Dec 09, 2016 2:09 pm

Awesome news! And man - the doctor was really playing up the moment with the "Who's your oncologist line".

silverjon · Post by **silverjon** » Fri Dec 09, 2016 4:21 pm

A suspenseful read with a happy ending. Glad to hear it.

Holman · Post by **Holman** » Fri Dec 09, 2016 4:47 pm

Such great news! Awesome!

LordMortis · Post by **LordMortis** » Fri Dec 09, 2016 5:08 pm

Happy Day!

AWS260 · Post by **AWS260** » Fri Dec 09, 2016 5:24 pm

That's wonderful.

Madmarcus · Post by **Madmarcus** » Fri Dec 09, 2016 5:55 pm

Thank you for sharing. Glad to hear the great news!

naednek · Post by **naednek** » Fri Dec 09, 2016 8:31 pm

Anonymous Bosch · Post by **Anonymous Bosch** » Fri Dec 09, 2016 9:09 pm

Congratulations for your wife's success, and best wishes for the next round of treatment.

cheeba · Post by **cheeba** » Fri Dec 09, 2016 9:26 pm

Great stuff! Congratulations!

Grifman · Post by **Grifman** » Sat Dec 10, 2016 1:58 am

Congrats! Great to be able to enjoy the holidays!

Octavious · Post by **Octavious** » Sat Dec 10, 2016 2:23 am

Great news!

Post by **FishPants** » Sat Feb 25, 2017 12:06 am

So hopefully the final update of this thread evar.. On Tuesday she finished her last radiation treatment, and has now completed all active therapy. According to the docs she has a "really good chance" of not having to deal with this again due to the complete response + surgery + radiation. All of this has taken it's toll on Amy and I, but we got through it and the recovery process can now fully complete. Some day she says she will want some reconstructive surgery, but for now -- enough fucking doctors. Seriously. They did great work, hope to never see them again.

She's off this weekend on a girls weekend away (Sisters, aunts, friends etc) in wine country -- and I hope they have a great time. Now I just need to figure out what to worry about next -- I've never been one to worry much about anything, but in the past year I've learned how to worry well.

In the meantime, trying to make the best out of every opportunity given -- we've been hiking a lot as a family (especially with the weird ass warm February we are having here..), and saying 'yes' to every invite we get if we don't already have plans (at first I thought we would be really tired from doing this.. ends up we aren't, and enjoy the experiences and company).

So folks that's it, a close brush with a really aggressive cancer and we've bought ourselves time. How much nobody knows, but I'm counting on a lot. In the meantime, fuck cancer. Seriously, it can fuck right off.

Thanks for listening/reading. I don't have many outlets, so this was nice to be able to turn to sometimes.

Carpet_pissr · Post by **Carpet_pissr** » Sat Feb 25, 2017 12:16 am

Thanks for sharing, FP, and congrats on such a great outcome.

gbasden · Post by **gbasden** » Sat Feb 25, 2017 12:28 am

I'm really thankful you guys had such a successful outcome. I know the process was hellish, but it's awesome to hear you guys have a good future ahead.

Xmann · Post by **Xmann** » Sat Feb 25, 2017 1:05 am

FishPants wrote:So hopefully the final update of this thread evar.. On Tuesday she finished her last radiation treatment, and has now completed all active therapy. According to the docs she has a "really good chance" of not having to deal with this again due to the complete response + surgery + radiation. All of this has taken it's toll on Amy and I, but we got through it and the recovery process can now fully complete. Some day she says she will want some reconstructive surgery, but for now -- enough fucking doctors. Seriously. They did great work, hope to never see them again.

She's off this weekend on a girls weekend away (Sisters, aunts, friends etc) in wine country -- and I hope they have a great time. Now I just need to figure out what to worry about next -- I've never been one to worry much about anything, but in the past year I've learned how to worry well.

In the meantime, trying to make the best out of every opportunity given -- we've been hiking a lot as a family (especially with the weird ass warm February we are having here..), and saying 'yes' to every invite we get if we don't already have plans (at first I thought we would be really tired from doing this.. ends up we aren't, and enjoy the experiences and company).

So folks that's it, a close brush with a really aggressive cancer and we've bought ourselves time. How much nobody knows, but I'm counting on a lot. In the meantime, fuck cancer. Seriously, it can fuck right off.

Thanks for listening/reading. I don't have many outlets, so this was nice to be able to turn to sometimes.

Stories like these are why I love being a nurse.

Congratulations!!

Rip · Post by **Rip** » Sat Feb 25, 2017 1:09 am

Awesome news.

Blackhawk · Post by **Blackhawk** » Sat Feb 25, 2017 1:15 am

That's fantastic. It cheered me up.

Kraken · Post by **Kraken** » Sat Feb 25, 2017 3:13 am

Default · Post by **Default** » Sat Feb 25, 2017 3:49 pm

I have not checked in on this thread in a while, due to some stuff I had to deal with, but holy crap, I am glad Amy is OK. I wish you both the best of health and much happiness.

You fucking rock, dude.

Lassr · Post by **Lassr** » Sat Feb 25, 2017 7:09 pm

Zarathud · Post by **Zarathud** » Sat Feb 25, 2017 9:39 pm

Silver lining to all the craziness in the world. Very happy for you and your family. Best wishes.