Complete Response!!!!!!!!!!!!

Wow, what a rollercoaster ride it's been the last few weeks. I just recently wrote a blog about finally getting my Mojo back, making plans for the future, yada yada yada then all of the sudden, my world came crashing down, or so I thought. What I initially thought was a cancer recurrence or progression turned into severe pneumonia which as I mentioned was welcome news compared to the alternative. Well, today the news got much better as Dr. Ram handed me the dictation of my PET Scan and the magic words that have been so elusive ever since I relapsed over three years ago were sitting there magically on the piece of paper, "patient is showing a Complete Response to Treatment"!!

Like I mentioned previously, I had suspected that I was pretty close if not all the way there from listening to my body. To actually see it written down on a piece of paper, right there in black and white for some reason validated all of the hard times I've been through over the last several years and the feeling was oh so sweet. Sweet enough that I forgot about having pneumonia for a second and wanted to capture the look on my face so I can remember this moment for as long as I live. As I mentioned to a good friend earlier and to anyone out there who is refractory like I am, I know that this remission is tenuous and at any given time, the beast can decide it wants to wreak havoc on me again and I'll have to do what people who are in my position do, try and take it in stride.

But for now, for this moment, I plan to savor the news and enjoy it the best that I know how. As a refractory cancer survivor, there are very few times when you can sit back and "smell the roses" so to speak. Even though I try and live my life like this all the time, when you have active disease in your body, the roses may smell great but there's always a pesky little voice in the background telling you that "yeah, they smell great now but don't enjoy it too much because they're not going to smell like that forever" if that makes sense. Today, I can honestly say that little voice just got a lot quieter and hopefully as each day goes by and I enjoy this blessing I've been given, the voice will eventually go away.

I'm so excited for what the future holds! I feel once again that the world is my oyster and I want to get out there and drink it all in. I wrote on a caption earlier when I posted the news on Facebook that "life is so good right now, I just want to go out and eat it all up". I really like the ring to that and hopefully, once I get over this infection, I can start to begin my feast.

Once again, to everyone who has supported me, my deepest heartfelt gratification. I appreciate every positive comment and you should know that even during the hardest times, you are the reason why I keep this blog going. I just hope one day I can somehow pay it forward and affect someones life in a positive way the same way that you have affected mine.

So, without getting any more sappy than I already have here, I hope everyone who reads this has peace in their lives and you are blessed with some of the good fortune that I have been so lucky to be part of.

By the way, another bit of good news, my Mom's scan report came back today and her tumor has shrunk by 25%, yesss!! Just need to get Rich feeling consistently better now and I think it's going to be a great spring/summer.

Here's to the fine folks at Novartis who make RAD001!

Cheers!

Chris