Last one

Josh has just survived the somewhat easier part of the last of six chemo rounds (the actual administration of the "healing juice" into his system) and is in the very start of the recovery period. We're mixing things up a little bit this time and instead of driving home in the middle of the night, are staying the night down at a hotel nearby MD Anderson so that Josh can go to an acupuncture session Friday afternoon before we head back to Dallas. He opted for a massage this morning before chemo rather than acupuncture. He loves massages, so it was a real treat (although, according to him, it didn't last long enough).

The doctor appointment today was short and sweet - the doctor says that the scans are showing tremendous reaction to the chemotherapy, better than he's seen in a very long time (I resisted the urge to press to have him quantify that more precisely). The primary tumors in the chest are significantly reduced in size and are showing significantly reduced activity. They're not seeing anything now in the liver and the bones all show healing. As an added bonus, he's topped just over 200 pounds for the first time ever in his life - so he's at a very healthy weight even with feeling lousy every three weeks.

The nurse helping him tonight gave him a hearty "congratulations" (saying that she thinks they should do something more for those who are undergoing their final treatment, but figures most patients are not quite up to it right then). And Josh's brother replied with "I hope we never have to see you again!" Nothing personal, of course.

So now we come back again in 3 weeks for another round of scans and a meeting with the doctor. Likely Josh gets a break (other than the bone drug Zometa every 4 weeks) until early October when he'll come back down for more scans. If no negative activity, he'll go another 2 months until another set of scans and so on. If at any time Josh starts feeling bone pain (or anything else out of the ordinary) or they see something appear on the scans, they'll figure out what the next course of treatment is from there. It's likely he'd be a part of a clinical trial - there are a few that should be good options if we ever get to that point.

Cancer has forever changed our lives, but with this last chemo we'll now adapt to a new routine, hopefully one that sees clean scans every two months for a long, long time.