In July we celebrated Jayna’s 2nd birthday. We continued to enjoy summer, and yard work kept Mike occupied when he felt good. It was a nice distraction. In August we looked forward to his last chemo treatment of the 4th cycle. After that Mike had 2 scans that we had been waiting for. The first was a CT scan in Winkler which would show the size of the tumours and to see how much they had shrunk. The second was a PET scan in Winnipeg. This test would tell us how much cancerous activity was inside the tumours. The PET scan needed to take place at least 3 weeks after any chemo treatment, and we were told that Mike would have a break until September 17, another heart.
For one month we felt like we were in heaven! Mike was loving life! He regained much of his strength and made up for lost time. He had so much energy, and our yard and house showed it! He organized, sorted and cleaned out almost every inch of our house. He painted our window sills outside, trimmed bushes, and completed many more little projects. Not to mention keeping our home tidy at all times! Plus, he was able to catch up with co-workers and friends. But more than that, it was so good to see my husband back to his young, healthy, energetic self!! Suddenly it was me that had some health setbacks. I developed extreme back pain, to the point where I couldn’t walk sometimes. I believe it was due to stress, and now that Mike was himself for a while, my body was shutting down.
The date for the PET scan was September 17. Mike was told to relax and do nothing strenuous the day before or the day of the PET scan. He was also supposed to avoid carbs those days. The nurse suggested that he eat bacon and eggs for breakfast that morning! Those words were music to his ears! He literally ate an entire package of bacon over a period of 24 hours and at least a dozen eggs!
We went to Winnipeg together for this lengthy appointment. After meeting with the technician, Mike got changed into lovely hospital attire, and was ushered into a back room. First, they injected radioactive sugar (FDG) into his body through his PICC line. Then he was instructed to lie down with absolutely no movement for an hour. The FDG attaches itself to cells showing abnormal activity (cancerous). Any movement, even talking, could cause the FDG to attach to muscles, resulting in inaccurate readings.
After an hour, Mike’s body was scanned for cancerous activity. Any areas that were glowing on the scan meant that those are quite possibly cancerous cells. I sat in the waiting area for the duration of the 3 hour procedure.
We met with our oncologist via Tele-health a week and a half later to discuss the PET scan results. The results were mixed with some good and bad news. The CT scan report showed that the tumours had shrunk considerably, but were still a size that was of concern. This news was a bit disheartening. Mike was really hoping for better news. The good news was that the tumours in Mike’s chest did not show any signs of cancerous activity during the PET scan and the tumours in his neck showed only mild activity. The specialist was very pleased with the results of the PET scan and said that Mike would only need to complete cycles 5 and 6, meaning only 3 more treatments!! Initially we were told that the treatments would take 6 to 9 months, and so far it had only been 4! Another heart! This would be followed by another CT and PET scan. Assuming those results came back negative, (and the oncologist said he would be surprised if it didn’t) that would be the end of the chemo. We clung to that hope. Of course, he would get regular check-ups and scans for some time to insure the cancer had not returned.
The bad news was that they discovered during the PET scan was that Mike’s thyroid showed intense “glowing” activity, usually meaning it is cancerous, and possibly a different kind of cancer. They scheduled a thyroid biopsy for the following week to check for thyroid cancer. A thyroid biopsy (aspiration) is a relatively simple procedure in which they insert a fine-needle into the thyroid nodule (located near the Adam’s apple) They extract some fluid from the gland. This fluid was to be tested to see if it was malignant. In all this, Mike wasn’t terribly concerned about this news. God had been so faithful and real to us over the past several months, and we continued to have faith. Mike said that for the first time he was able to see some light at the end of the tunnel, despite the thyroid news. God proved Himself faithful by healing Mike’s lymphoma earlier than expected! Again, we chose to see the hearts, the blessings.
It was around this time that Alicia began Kindergarten. It meant more driving for me, but Mike was so thankful to be there when she came home from school. He looked forward to walking her to school and picking her up. Another heart! We all enjoyed having Mike at home for the most part, especially when he was feeling well. He, on the other hand, began getting antsy to get back to work.
We received the results of the thyroid test 2 weeks later. The results were inconclusive due to not enough of a sample to test. For Mike this was great news! It confirmed to him that there was NO cancer! His faith again soared! After doing a second biopsy a few weeks later, the results again came back as inconclusive! We praised God, believing that no news was good news! Another heart.
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