We heard the words we have been waiting for today - Henry is cancer free. His last bloodwork showed a thyroglobulin of 0, which means that there is no thyroid tissue, cancer or otherwise, detectable in his body. His latest chest CT showed that the spots in his lungs that were metastatic thyroid cancer were gone. At his doctor's appointment today I asked, point-blank, if we could consider him cancer-free. The PA smiled and said, "yes!" So we'll go with that.
We have periodic - say every 4 months - blood work and follow-up appointments with our pediatric endocrinologist. But the active phase of his cancer treatment appears to be over. He'll be monitored for the rest of his life - both for a good TSH number (his needs to be low) and an undetectable thyroglobulin (a rising number could indicate a recurrence). We'll take that kind of medical monitoring and be grateful for it.
We celebrated by letting Henry choose where we ate lunch. He chose The Pie, a pizza place near the University of Utah campus. Then we made a quick trip to Ikea to buy a new TV stand. We could have stayed for hours there - I seriously could have gotten lost in that store - but Henry kept asking if we were done yet. Turns out browsing in furniture stores isn't his preferred activity on a Friday afternoon, even a Friday on which we had great news. He perked up with a Slurpee and a doughnut on the drive home.
Other than that, things are going well for the Wrights of Hyde Park. The boys have basketball on Saturday mornings and are having fun. The weather isn't too terrible or too cold. The Pinewood Derby is coming up this week. All in all, January 2011 is OK.
1 comment:
That is so awesome, Rhonda :) :)
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