Good News!!

This is a random photo but I miss my long hair and my non-puffy, pre-decadron face so much sometimes that I need reminders of how I used to look and how I used to have such great health. I hope that doesn't sound shallow. I am a woman, though, and sometimes we just need to feel pretty and feel good about ourselves, right? Soon, I will again!!!!! My sister took a photo shoot of me in my wedding dress a couple days before the wedding. I felt like a princess! Isn't she a great photographer! If you ever need someone to take pictures, she's your gal! She's taken family portraits, wedding pictures, and just for fun photo shoots! She's very talented!

A lot of you have probably already heard from my mom about the good news! I went to the hospital for my MRI last Monday and ended up staying till Friday night. I had my MRI of my brain on Tuesday, nothing on Wednesday, then Thursday I went down early for a PET CT scan. They had to put an IV in my arm Monday night before the scans and the lady kept poking me and missing. I tried to stop them but the tears just rolled down my cheek like waterfalls. Finally after about the 4th poke she got it! It was horrible! Luckily my sweet hubby was there to comfort me. What was awful was it was right in my inner arm so I couldn't bend it meaning I couldn't even floss. I absolutely hate not flossing! It was hard to do just about anything. Eating, showering, dressing, etc. Oh well. That's over now. Thursday after my scan I also got an Echo cardiogram and an EKG. Tuesday night my brain surgeon, Dr. Chu, came in and told me that my MRI looked great! A little while later my neuro oncologist came in and asked if I had heard the news. I told him yes and he said, "Ah man...he beat me!" They both wanted to be the first to tell me the great news! Oh the power of prayers! My PET scan also looked better than it ever has. Still not completely positive, though, if the mass in my chest is all dead, but the stem cell transplant will clear up any confusion. I met with the Doc yesterday and she gave me a few different plans of treatment. I don't want to be greedy but can we all pray that we can go with plan A. This plan goes something like this. I get blood work done on 2/15 and if my counts are all good then I come to the hospital Monday, 2/18 at 8a.m. for chemo and stay for another dose at 8p.m. then I go home. Then I come back on the 3rd of March and they collect my stem cells. This may take 3 days. Now I'm not sure if I go home for a week and come back but either way I get high dose chemo for 7 days. I think I stay in the hospital and when my counts drop to just about nothing they put my stem cells back in. I will be in the hospital another couple weeks until my counts get back to normal and then I go home to recover. The doc said this should have me finished up my March 31st. Anyway, the other option is doing two rounds of chemo before the SCT instead of just one which would push things back about 2 1/2 or 3 weeks, which isn't all that bad. So that's where we are at! The end of March sounds excellent and hopefully that would mean I will have a little hair growing for when summer and my birthday come! Well, I'm gonna go so I can bring my hubby lunch! Love you all and I hope you are all doing well! P.S. If you need soap, make-up, hair products, perfumes, colognes, sandals, shoes, purses, etc. check out my Avon website! Thanks!