Trifecta!

Three appointments and three successes! 

Monday the preliminary PET report showed no cancerous mass.  This was confirmed by the final report, which we received from our medical oncologist on Tuesday. 

Although there was a "faint uptake" of the nuclear markers in the lymph nodes on the left side of the neck that could indicate cancer cells, Ernie's team is recommending that they observe him for another three months and then repeat the scan.  They feel confident in taking this approach because the size of the nodes is smaller than typical for cancer tumors.  Also, it is not unusual to have some residual swelling that can be confused with cancer cells in early scans.  This decision will be reviewed by a 10-doctor "tumor board" on Monday. 

If, in three months these lymph nodes do turn out to be cancerous, they can be surgically removed.  Given their location, the doctors believe the surgery will be relatively easy and not cause any long term problems.  Had there been residual cancer in Ernie's neck or throat, this would have been a different story altogether.

Finally, today we visited the infectious disease doctor.  After examining Ernie, she concurred with the surgeon and radiation oncologist that the coating on Ernie's tongue is most likely "radiation debris" and not a fungus.  Therefore, she took him off of the antibiotics that were causing daily bouts of nausea. 

It will probably take another 3 to 6 months for Ernie to completely rid himself of all of the side effects of treatment (ie-weight loss, hoarse voice, lack of taste buds) but we feel that we are finally closing the book on this part of our life.  Accordingly, this will be the final blog. 

Thank you again for taking this journey with us.  I can not stress how important you were to us reaching this point.  The silver lining in this storm cloud is clear: we emerge with deeper relationships that we will continue to enjoy for many years to come.