We have just gotten home from visiting the doctor to get the results of Shannon’s PET scan. It’s fantastic news! There is no sign of the cancer and the lymph nodes are clear as well. This means that it is very likely Shannon will not require any sort of surgery. He will be scheduled for one more PET scan in 3 months as a follow-up to be doubly sure and if it is still clear he will have to have yearly scans to be sure it stays gone.
This is the result we have been hoping and praying for. It is going to take a long time for him to heal from all the treatments and the doctor said that his ability to eat will never be exactly like it was before all this. He might not ever get back full use of the salivary glands and his taste may not ever be the same. The good news is that it will be much better than it is now and much less life altering. It is just a gradual thing and will take a long time. We are still both extremely thrilled with what we heard today. Knowing the cancer isn’t an issue right now is what we needed to hear. There will be time for being patient with the healing process now.
I will continue to update this blog now and then. Especially when there is a scan or a follow-up of some sort but also in between too so please, feel free to stop by and see how Shannon is doing. If you would like to leave us a message, we’d be very happy to hear from you. All your support and prayers is what has seen Shannon through this so far and I want you all to know that it is deeply appreciated.
Tonight we will celebrate. We are going out to dinner.. the first time since this all began.
Today was the day Shannon had his PET scan to see if there is any cancer remaining and to help the doctors and us decide where to go next. We are hoping and praying that this scan is going to come back clear. We’ll go in to see the radiation oncologist a week from today to find out what the results are. I think it’s going to be a long week waiting for word on this but we plan to try and stay busy and occupied until then.
We had to get up very early this morning. It takes quite awhile for them to prepare him for the scan so we were there about 3 hours. He says it is an easy test to take. They inject some dye in that contains a small amount of radiation so that it will react with any cancer in the body and this shows up in the scan. He tells me they gave him a comfy bed to lay on and dimmed the lights for him to relax while he waited to be ready for the scan itself. That only took a few minutes.
The doctor we saw last told us not to be alarmed if something shows on the scan. Seems the dye will also react to any damage that is left unhealed from the radiation treatments he has had. If that’s the case another scan will be given further down the road, but they still may be able to see what they need to know.
The CT scan he had earlier showed us that the tumor is either greatly shrunken so it doesn’t show up or gone all together. We really feel hopeful that this scan will confirm that result.
Shannon continues to improve since his treatment. It is a little frustrating for him that the improvement is so slow but we are both very pleased that the he keeps getting better as time goes on.
He is still using the Boost as his main source of nutrition and he’s getting quite tired of that. He is able to eat a little more than before. One thing that is hard for him is that things don’t taste the same as they did before. We are hoping that his taste will continue to improve though and soon eating will be easier because of it.
Shannon has had cravings for Mexican food all through this. Part of his Texas heritage I think. 
With an extremely sore throat it hasn’t been possible for him to eat anything like that. I made a pot of very mild chili for him though and it went down very well. It didn’t completely satisfy his craving though. One day he had run a small errand in his truck and passed by a Taco Belle restaurant and just couldn’t resist. He went in and ordered a beef and bean burrito and brought it home. No, he wasn’t able to finish it but he did manage nearly half with a lot of water on the side to help wash it down. It was a huge milestone for him and we were both so thrilled! He says it still doesn’t taste like it used to but that it was still very good and helped with his craving.
Things like that are scattered all through his recovery so far. Small things that feel like huge milestones. We are very grateful for each and every one of them. We both feel very strongly that these things will continue and will begin coming more and more often until he is feeling much more like his normal self again.
We both do our very best to dwell on the progress he makes. Sometimes there are little set backs and they are a little frustrating and worrisome for us. Still, we count all our blessings every day and it is clear that even though progress is slow, there are many more accomplishments than there are setbacks. As long as that continues we know everything is going to be okay.
Shannon continues to improve in just tiny amounts each day. Even though it’s slow we are both extremely happy to see this progress continue.
Yesterday Shannon had an appointment with the chemo doctor as a follow up to make sure he’s had no trouble as a result of that treatment. There were no problems. He did have a chance to look at the CT scan and said he and the other doctor were having a hard time seeing any tumor at all left in the tonsil area where it all started. There is still some very soft tissue where the swollen lymph nodes were but nothing to say that’s what it was from.
He recommended Shannon suck on hard, sugar free candies to help stimulate the salivary glands to begin to work again. Shannon has been having trouble eating much more than a liquid diet. Your salivary glands play a big part in anyone being able to eat I suppose.
The good news is that Shannon has begun to eat small amounts of things and the flavors of the food are beginning to come back to him.
His PET scan which is the most comprehensive of the two scans will be on Valentine’s Day but we likely won’t find any info for a week after that when we go to see the radiation doctor again.
We will also see the original doctor… the surgeon who wanted radiation and chemo done before hand to make it at least shrink small enough to make the surgery minor. We’ll see what he says. He is our expert on the need for surgery so we will just have to wait until then to find out for certain.
At least we know for sure the main tumor is gone. That is the most imporant thing… and means there is possibility of remission.
Shannon is getting stronger as time goes on. He is now able to pop over to the neighbors houses and have little visits with them. It does him so much good to get out even if it’s just across the street. He’s even gone back to doing some of the household chores he used to do before he was sick. Twice a week we take our rubbish out to be picked up by the truck. He’s been gathering it from all through the house and then taking the bag out to the curb for the truck to pick up. He says it makes him feel useful and much better about things.
So, Still nothing but good to report. We’ve had lots of people praying for us and I know that this has helped get us good results. I hope you will all continue to remember us in your prayers because it will be a long time before we can relax and not have to worry about this cancer taking our family apart. Thank you so much for all the support we’ve been given. It means the world to us.