Today’s message is short, sweet, and to the point.

It is also AMAZING because my results from Monday’s PET scan are proof positive that we are kicking cancer’s ass! It is the first PET scan I’ve had since diagnosis in which there are no hot areas. Click on the image below to see the whole report. Hooray!

Monday, August 29, 2011 – Today was my “halfway there” PET scan! Recall that the chemo treatment this time around is 3 days a week, every 3 weeks, 4 times. That makes it a 12 week cycle, and we are halfway there. We finished the 2nd set of 3 days on Thursday, August 18.

I started feeling better about a week ago, last Tuesday. It was about 5 days post chemo. It feels good to feel better. I will go back for the next 3 days of chemo starting on Tuesday, Sept. 6, the day after Labor Day. After those 3 days I will only have 1 more set of 3 days to go, which will happen the last week in September. We’ll talk about what happens after that shortly.

First, today was my PET scan. Another wonderful day of not eating anything for a very long time before my scan. The purpose of today’s PET scan was to see what kind of effect the current chemo treatment is having on the mass in my chest. Our hope is that the chemo is shrinking the mass, and making it get smaller. If the mass gets smaller then the stem cell transplant should be more effective.

Perfect segue into what happens after finishing my fourth chemo treatment that last week in September. Sometime in October, Jacqui and I will be going on an extended vacation to the west. That right. We’re going westward to Nashville, more specifically to Vanderbilt. There we will begin the stem cell transplant process. I will be getting my own cells, so it will be an autologous transplant.

First, the doctors will harvest my stem cells. Second, I will get high dose chemo, which will hope out my entire immune system, including any cells that have, might have, or are thinking about having having cancer in them (translation: SERIOUS ass-kicking!) Third, The doctors will put my stem cells back into me, and I can begin the process of regrowth and healing.

We hope to finish the stem cell transplant process sometime in November. However, I will be very weak for at least a month, and my immune system will be greatly compromised. We will have to be very careful with me. More careful than we were last fall when my neutrophil counts were so low.

Our extended vacation in Nashville may last until the end of the year. I will look forward to coming home. We will miss all our friends in Knoxvegas, and hope to visit with a lot of you before October.