Christmas Comes Early . . .

I had every reason to believe that the news would be good, and honestly not a single reason to believe that it wouldn’t – and still I had trouble sleeping last night.  There is always that tiny bit of doubt.  But it wasn’t just me – Mom’s blood pressure was quite high this morning, all because of stress.  So the four of us sat in the examining room, waiting for the oncologist to come in to deliver the results.

The news was good – everything we had hoped.  Mom’s PET Scan was completely normal.  He will check her again in six months.  And he made a comment that I found interesting, after asking Mom if she had seen her family doctor recently for any kind of routine checkup.  She hadn’t (of course, she and Dad just got back from Arizona last week) – and the oncologist told her that she needed to start planning regular checkups and paying attention to the little aches and pains of life.  I can’t quote it directly, but he told her that since nearly a year has passed since her last chemo without any signs of recurrence she needed to shift her focus from “I’m dying of cancer” to “I’m planning to live a full and healthy life.”

And so we will.  Our traditional “Christmas Cookie Night” is tomorrow, and it will be even more special this year.

To those of you who have walked this path with us these past 15 months, my family cannot thank you enough.  You have lifted my mom up – with your prayers, your e-mails, your notes, your gifts, and with your kind words to her son.  May you all have a most joyous holiday season.