Essentially Gone

"You had alot of hodgkins in you." These are the words of my oncologists' nurse practitioner. She proceeded to tell us that the specialist who looked at my first PET was shocked to see so much cancer.

This PET scan was taken in early December. I am to have follow up PET scans every 3 months to keep up with me progress. I had my first scan since starting my treatments this past week. When we were finished, of course I had them burn a CD with the images for me because I often think I know what I'm talking about.

I pulled up the images when we got home and saw that my bladder, kidneys, and other organs were bright orange. The "bad stuff" shows up this way in the scan so of course, I thought "remission" was still a ways off!

That night my nurse practitioner called me, "Your hodgkins has melted away." Was the first thing she said. We were so excited so hear that my cancer was "melting" away so fast! She also told me that one of the chemo medications had caused some lung damage which is what put me in the ER with shortness of breath. She said I needed to start a high dose of steroids ASAP and to stay on them for two weeks. We were also instructed to keep our fingers crossed that this would treat the lung damage otherwise, it will be permanent. We were coming up on 8:00 PM so I told her to get on the phone with the only wal mart in orangeburg county and I let her know that we would be purchasing a few pair of sweatpants along with those steroids! I certainly hope this lung damage isn't permanent. I'm going to need to train for a marathon to get this weight off by the time this is over with. I'm 15 lbs in the plus so far.... and counting!

The next day I had an appointment right before my treatment. "Your cancer is essentially gone." Hold on... gone!? I know she said it melted away but... It didn't really all melt away!? "but my kidneys, and my bladder and other places were all lit up still?" I said. As it turns out, those are some of the few places that will show up bright orange on anyones PET scan, bad stuff or no bad stuff. "The only cancerous spots left are no longer active. It's essentially gone." She said. "Well, were we expecting things to happen so quickly?" I asked her. She just shrugged her shoulders and said, "One of the reasons I like hodgkins is because it responds very well to treatment."

Barely out of my first cycle and my cancer is "essentially gone." No... Freaking... Way...

Two years; stage three; minimum of six months treatment; "you had alot of hodgkins in you." toxic medications; possible infertility; and now... "essentially gone." How do you go from all of those scary reports to "essentially gone" in just two months!? I feel like I don't even have to say it. It speaks for itself. Our payers have been answered in that God used me to be glorified.

A couple who we have become good friends with joined us for church this past Sunday. Before we left they told me, "Taylor, the day before your scan we were praying so hard that it would just be GONE. That the doctors would find NOTHING." Oh my goodness, wow. They proceeded to tell me, "We don't mean to make this about ourselves, but we feel like we have such a big part in it. Your situation had us put our faith on the line by praying for such a miracle." I'm so glad that they felt they had a part in it :) Our prayer has been that this would benefit OTHERS.

"Take my life and let it be, all for you and for your glory."