Well, I am LONG overdue for an update on this blog. It has been over a year since my last post.
Many things have happened and some things have changed, but to just sum everything up, we are all thriving. Of course, there are moments which don’t feel so happy – go – lucky, but in the grand scheme of things, we are doing very well.
Luke has been growing and changing every day. He is learning something new almost hourly and enjoys his new skills. Jeff is busy between work and home. He was able to take off quite a bit of time in the summer so we could all spend quality time together. We were able to travel a little bit around Canada. It was so nice to get out of town for a little while after being ‘stuck’ for such a long time.
As for me, since my last update, I have had more scans, more bloodwork, more appointments, have gone back to work and most of all enjoyed my time watching Luke grow and explore. Now, lets go into more detail on all of it. I should probably start with the health update, since that is probably what you are interested in most.
Health Update
Looking back on my last post, I kind of left a lot of questions unanswered. Like the pain in my side that we thought might be liver related. After many more tests, including an MRI, it was found that I indeed have a tumor in my liver. However, it is completely unrelated to my Medullary Thyroid Cancer. It is also benign, meaning it isn’t cancerous or harmful. It is called a focal nodular hyperplasia which is a common benign tumor in women my age.
The kicker though, it was not the cause of the pain. The tumor is way to small to be causing this intense of a pain, according to my doctor. That meant, I was back to square one in trying to pinpoint the reason I was in pain. After some back and forth, I decided to mention it to my chiropractor. He simply touched my side and could tell that everything was very tight.
Once he started working on the area, the pain was even more intense. After multiple visits, everything seemed to improve and the pain was becoming less and less. I was so happy that we had finally found a cause as well as a treatment. I still have to have regular visits with both my chiropractor and my massage therapist, but overall I am able to manage it just fine.
Now on to the actual cancer update…
Cancer Update
In July, I met with my oncologist again. I also had more testing done, both bloodwork as well as scans. As you might be able to imagine, these tests and meetings, always are accompanied by quite a bit of anxiety. This was no different for this time. Maybe even more so.
This was the second time that I had bloodwork done since my last post. Before that, my calcitonin numbers had spiked, which had caused all of the investigations in January of this year. In April the numbers had dropped significantly, but my doctor was still quite pessimistic in what that could possible mean. So July we did them again. Again they were lower. They were actually as low as they had been before my pregnancy, almost lower actually. It was absolutely amazing. Such a relief again.
The CT scans also showed no major progression in the disease. No new tumors to speak of and the ones that were there, are unchanged. Praise GOD.
Now we will follow up again next year. Since everything seems to be more or less stable, we can space out the blood tests as well as the scans. I am very grateful for this, since it means less anxiety, hopefully.
Life Update
Life has been busy but oh so good. I am loving being a Mama so much. Luke is literally the sunshine in our lives. Sure, some nights are longer than we would wish for but then he smiles once, or gives me one of those slobbery kisses and everything is alright again in the world. He is a busy body and a little bit of a crazy climber. He will get onto and into everything.
It is so fun to watch him discover the world and learn new things. We are working on speech at the moment. It seems like he is picking up words very quickly these days, but refuses to simply repeat anything when asked. So we have to listen carefully and make sure its what we think he said. He has been walking since he was 10 months old. Now he is just cruising everywhere, running away anytime he can. He climbs on everything and seems to have no fear of falling.
We have been able to have two vacations last summer. One to Kelowna with my family which we combined with a few days in Penticton with Jeff’s family. We also went to Ontario to visit Annika and her family. All of those trips were really good and so needed. Plus, we had a lot of fun, took a lot of pictures, ate a lot of food and got some sun.
Luke loves his cousins so much. It is such a joy to see their excitement anytime they see each other. Luke is also picking up many things from them such as how to play hide – and – seek, counting and running in circles around the island.
Our family has added another 2 almost 3 people to the family since my last update. Melissa (my middle sister) had another boy, Benjamin (Benny) in August. My little sister (Ines) got married and is about to have her first baby any day now, another boy. Apparently, us sisters are only having boys as of now. Honestly though, they are all so good together and are loving playing and making a ruckus together.
Life is Good
Overall, life is good. God is good. We are all doing well. We are thriving like I said and just trying to soak in every second of our little life together. Summer/spring can’t get here fast enough in our opinion. I think I speak for almost everyone here in Edmonton, when I say we are sick of Winter and this constant snow and we cannot wait for spring/summer to fully get here. We are looking forward to spray park and zoo visits, maybe getting some travelling in and just having a great summer.
In June I will be going back to the oncologists office for another update on bloodwork as well as a new round of scans. Until then, my bloodwork has been quite stable. We hope and pray it will stay that way and we will get to enjoy the summer as we are planning to do.
Thank you for sticking with us as we navigate this disease and are trying to live life to the fullest, despite and because of it.
