CANCER FREE!!!

We got the news today while walking in Central Park. David Rice (nurse practioner handling my care with Dr. Moskowitz) called to give me the news. My PET scan report came back with NO ACTIVITY and my CAT scan showed all of my bad lymph node sites decreased in size. I am ecstatic, and Mom and I stopped immediately to offer a prayer of thanks and then called both Brant and Dad.

This is a HUGE milestone in my journey and one that I had been praying would happen. The first two rounds of ICE chemo have wiped out all signs of the cancer. Studies have shown that people who enter the high dose chemo/stem cell tranplant step with no sign of cancer have much higher cure rates or at least much longer periods of remission. This is why we came to Sloan Kettering to be in this Phase II trial. The ICE chemo is a higher intensity than standard and they offer a yet-to-be-approved-for-Hodgkins GND chemo before transplant if your PET scan is still positive after the ICE chemo. I won't have to do the GND chemo because I am already PET negative!!!!

For those of you wondering, a CAT scan is a highly accurate scan of your insides - the pictures are slices, or cross sections, taken just millimeters apart. Imagine looking from your head down thru your body to your toes to get the idea of what a CAT scan picture looks like. They use contrast, iodine dye, to help differentiate tissue and see any abnormalities better. But with my type of Hodgkins, the lymph nodes often have scar tissue and may be enlarged but not cancerous. For a PET scan, they inject you with a radioactively tagged sugar substance after you have fasted for 6 hours. I even got a little card saying "Rachel Cox may emit small amounts of radiation for 24 hours". I guess this comes in handy if you are travelling thru security at an airport! Any active sites in your body absorb the sugar as energy and "glow". A special camera passes slowly (about 20 minutes lying in the tube) over your body and records a front view of your body. It is mostly dark with any "hot spots" lighting up. The PET scan does not have much detail, and can often glow for other things - like infection or inflammation. So the doctors use the anatomical detail of the CAT scan along with the "glowing" of the PET scan to decide if you have a cancerous spot. Although not 100% accurate (is anything??!!), this combo of scans has been very useful in lymphoma cancers.

OK....so back to today. This morning I went to collection and found out there are still no stem cells, but my WBC climbed from 0.4 to 0.8 which is the right direction. However, my platelets fell from 16,000 yesterday down to 6,000 today even though I had a transfusion yesterday. This is pretty critically low and I have started some nose bleeding along with bad bruising at my Neupogen injection sites. So it was back to outpatient clinic (yes, the nurse knows me by name) for another transfusion of platelets this morning. They give you Tylenol and Benadryl in case there is a reaction. Today I took my Benadryl as a tablet instead of thru the IV. The IV version knocks me out like tranquilizer dart and I feel like I could be on Animal Planet. While waiting, Mom took a break from her usual intellectual reading to check out some "high society drivel" magazine. She was glad to learn that it is "vulgar" to pour champagne all the way to the top of the glass. Important stuff to know. We will be back again tomorrow to try for those cells. I know they will show up eventually!

We took public transportation home today (got the all clear since my immunity is rebounding) which required a few blocks of walking. I have lost 10 lbs since my treatment started last month so I was glad to see the guy selling belts 2 for $5 on the sidewalk to help with my jeans. I feel like I have experienced New York now. Maybe tomorrow I will get one of those purses.... We also stopped in Children's Place just to look at clothes for the kids, and then found a nice courtyard bench to share my freebie PB&J box lunch from the clinic. Nothing like some good ol' Brisbin "schloss" dining. After a brief stop at the apt to relax, we headed out in the 78 degree sunshine to enjoy Central Park.....and that is when I got the call that started this whole blog post. The park was gorgeous and I took tons of pictures for my scrapbook "day in the park" spread that I can imagine doing before long. Sorry for the long post, but I hope you can share my excitement of the day. Here is a pic or two from the park:

Sharing the good news on the cell phone!! Are you sick of this hat yet? I am, but it is the only one I have for going out and a slight rash on my head has prevented the use of my wig.

The happy mom/nurse/cheerleader:

Scenes from around the park:

A view that only Richard and Bernadette can truly appreciate: