The Latest is Good News

The news from our latest scans is great but first – a little WDE 1st anniversary update.

As most will remember it was on the same day that Joan was told she had lymphoma that I was let go from a job that I had for 15 years – to the day. So we called that day “Worst Day Ever” and vowed that we would always celebrate that terrible day’s centenary in some special way. This year for the “Paper” anniversary we tried to win some in Las Vegas. Although the winnings were minimal we came back rich in amazing vacation memories.

The most amazing happenings had nothing to do with gambling at all. First we went to see Spam-a-lot, the musical written by the Monty Python gang and it was absolutely riotous. Also fun was spending a Saint Patrick’s Day together for the first time in fifteen years. Joan was so excited about it that she made her own dress for the occasion and no less than ten slightly (to mostly) inebriated young girls begged Joan to make one for them too. And finally we spent a day in the dessert with a scientist as a guide. Red Rock Canyon in Nevada is beautiful. Like most of the sand stone in the west it all started as massive dunes in a Sahara-like desert which was eventually buried by time and pressurized into sand stone. The unique feature of this desert is the high amount of iron caused a red color to emerge in the stone. It is a miraculous place.

Anyway, Joan had her latest scans read a couple of weeks later and the results look pretty good. The same area of inflamed nodes in her left arm pit seems determined to make things interesting for us, but the rest of her cancer has stopped growing. Even that little guy under her arm has slowed in its growth to the extent that our doctors are allowing Joan an extra month between scans – and that was truly the best news of all. So although there is still growth, it is growing at a slower rate. For the last 14 months Joan has gone no less regularly than 90 days between scans, and now she gets to wait 120 days.

Much of follicular lymphoma’s progress is random. Its very nature is to “Wax and Wane” throughout a person’s life. But in an effort to be proactive in her healing, Joan is taking shots of Wheat Grass Juice several times per day. For those of you who might not have had the pleasure of drinking this vile cocktail it tastes like the last three letters in the word Wheat Grass. She has started every day for the last three months drinking a 2 oz shot of freshly (and loudly) squeezed juice at five AM and following it with nothing for 30 minutes so as to give her body its maximum effects. Then at other times during the day she hits the grass again and again looking for 8 – 12 ounces per day. I have read many times that dogs eat grass when they need to vomit because of an upset stomach. I have to tell you after sampling this swill that dogs are smarter than you think.

As I tell friends and family that this is a big deal they generally seem to get stuck on the fact that the cancer is still growing. But having so recently seen so glorious a testament to God’s creativity and power – and so wonderful a demonstration of patience – we are renewed in our belief that we will continue to keep the harmful effects of her cancer at arms length.