4 Months Post Treatment + Scans + Life Update

I don't like to dwell. Dwelling doesn't do anything, it isn't productive, it can't solve problems. Instead I just busy myself, but the thoughts are always there, bouncing around inside my brain, never fully coming to a complete stop. 

Eli is doing amazing. A couple of week after treatment, something clicked and he mentally shifted into moving on mode. I don't think that he is a dweller either. Treatment was hard. There were so many awful days and days that I knew he was angry and frustrated that he had to go to an appointment or check in to the hospital, but he soldiered on anyway. He would say "I don't want to go" and then he went. Sometimes life is about doing the things that you don't want to do.

He has gone to the gym 6, if not 7 days a week. :) He is back to school and enjoyed his last HOCO dance with Riley. He goes to all the football games and cheers in the student section with his friends. He is back to baseball practice. 

We had our 3 month follow-up scans in late September. First was the CT Scan on the 19th. Everything is clear in his chest. 

The next day was homecoming. 

The following week on the 24th was the xray of his knee/femur and hardware and a visit with Dr M. I told him that Eli said that he can jog. Dr. M cautioned Eli again that the chemo has slowed everything down and a fall or break would be devastating. I then discussed with his surgeon, Dr. G and he said progressing to a light jog is probably reasonable and that baseball in the spring isn't crazy. What?!

The left image is the day after surgery, middle is June and right is recent (September). You can see a faint line around the impant on the right side that is new bone growth. In theory, it should start to form an elephant foot that will grow around the implant.

Next was the PET scan. The last one we did in June after treatment still had a couple of lymph nodes that lit up, but oncologist was certain it was just from a couple of infections he had in late May and the healing happening in the right leg. Nevertheless, I was nervous for this one and my scanxiety was ramped up. The imaging department is down in the basement and they have a waiting room where your loved ones sit while someone that you love most in the world is getting scanned for something. The beeping of the nearby machines was giving Eli PTSD, reminding him of all of the days in the hospital room and the sounds that are permanently tattooed in our brains.

The PET scan was scheduled for first thing in the morning and Eli went off to school afterward. Who gets a PET scan and then heads to class?! Probably not many teenagers. He came home after school and got ready for the first official baseball "field" practice of the season. Coming down the hall and seeing him in the doorway in his baseball gear brought tears to my eyes. He's come so far and he wants this so badly. There was a time when he had taken baseball off the table and to see him feeling good and fighting back is awe-inspiring and so special.

I was sitting on the couch when the results of the PET scan came through in his online chart. I opened them right away and start scanning quickly. The best words to read was that there was NOTHING concerning AT ALL. The reactive lymph nodes were just that, reactive, and nothing more. I think all of his cardio, working out, walking on the incline treadmill at the gym has got that lymph moving. 

We met with his oncologist the following Friday on 10/3, exactly 365 days from when we were first told that we were possibly dealing with a bone tumor. These last 365 days have changed all of us forever and I know it has changed Eli in ways he has yet to discover. We have a repeat xray of the knee/femur scheduled for mid-December and then, but no other imaging scans OR any medical appointment visits until after the new year. He won't need anymore routine PET scans. The only imaging that will take up a spot on our calendar is another CT scan and bone scan, which we will repeat every 3-4 months. 

I wasn't sure how I would feel when October showed up this year. Last year it was heavy and soul crushing. But October has always been my favorite and I don't want to live in a world without Octobers. We've got so much to celebrate - birthdays, Halloween and Dodger baseball! I love fall flavors, colors and smells. October is still my favorite.