My Princess Bride

Get used to disappointment.

I love that line from the Princess Bride. Dang, I love just about every line in the movie. But I hear myself remember that line frequently. In the movie as Westley and Inigo Montoya (you keel my father) are fighting Montoya asks Westley his name. When Westley refuses to answer he tells Montoya "Get used to disappointment." When I am let down I remember those words and certainly at Joan's last visit I remembered to try and get used to disappointment.

Joan had her most recent set of scans last week and her follow-up with Dr. Capone gave us some good news and some bad news. As mentioned before Joan has lymphatic nodes that have cancerous growths in them. (Scroll down for wicked awesome graphics.) There were some nodes that have remained at the same level of cancerous growth as before. That means that they are metabolizing enough to remain constant in size and not growing. That is better than growing, but not as good as her nodes that have started reducing themselves in size. In her chest or armpit area (somewhere in between) where Joan's cancer has not only stopped growing but has reduced in size. The "net-net" was that her cancer has not grown in the past three months. As those of you that know Joan have seen, this level of cancer has done nothing to change here activity level. She still works out five days a week like nobody else in the gym and she still enjoys spending one of her days off with her mother and the other day in the yard. If the cancer stayed at this level forever we would have no problems. But that is not usually how cancer works.

Thank you so much for bringing up such a painful subject. While you're at it, why don't you give me a nice paper cut, and pour lemon juice on it? - Love that movie.


Anyway, we are exactly where we were three months ago. The good news is that her lymphoma is not worse. But when is that ever really good news. We finished with the Dr.'s appointment and went to PF Chang's for dinner to discuss getting a second opinion from another oncologist. It sounds like Joan would like to do that and I guess it makes sense. Joan has pointed out that when a professional athlete receives a diagnosis they generally keep seeing doctors until one tells them what they want to hear. In her case she has a doctor who still is not recommending the dreaded chemotherapy. Maybe since she has the plan that she really want we should just take it right? But in the last four months she has had two CT scans, two PET scans, three surgeries, and bone and marrow aspirations. All of these tests have been read by the same oncologist. Joan's friend Christy who recently crushed her Breast Cancer has recommended her doctor and Joan is pretty keen on letting someone else confirm our doctor's recommendation to continue to do nothing until something changes. Pretty much this is her game and I am just a sideline reporter. So what could I say?

As you wish.