T-Minus

It's a big week for us. On Thursday, I have the MRI that will help the doctors assess how well the radiation treatments worked on the remaining disease. It will be a long weekend of waiting, and then we meet with my oncologist on Monday to get the results. It seems black and white most times, like next Monday they'll tell me either "Great, yer all done, get on with yer life" or "I'm sorry, but there's nothing more we can do". It's not really going to be like that. No matter what the MRI shows, we won't stop fighting this bugger. The best case scenario is that the MRI shows no remaining visible cancer cells, and I get periodic checkups to make sure that it hasn't come back. At one point, doctors told us that these checkups would likely be every three months, and that because of the aggressiveness of this type of lymphoma, that if it hadn't reappeared in two years, I would likely be in the clear. The worst case scenario is that the cancer has grown. We think that this is highly unlikely considering the way that I've been feeling. Even if this is the case, there are more treatment options (although no more major medical interventions that I know of right now) including alternative therapies, traditional medicine, and fly fishing in the Bahamas.  My energy level is getting better every day, and Meg and I are doing our best to get more and more exercise. Hadley keeps us on our toes, but all in all, she's a pretty easy little girl. There's almost always a reason for her crying, and fixing that reason usually stops the wailing. Having Grandma and Grandpa McGuire out here for relief sure helps too.
  Some days are better than others, but on the whole Meg and I are doing well. Dealing with uncertainty will be a skill we'll need to hone over the next little while, but we help each other out, and of course all of your support helps more than you can know. And then there's Hadley. . . I'll leave you with a couple of samples of how she makes every day brighter, and if you're really interested, you can see more here. Have a great week.
We'll let you know about our results when we do.

 

 

 

 

2 weeks old

Hi there. Taking care of a brand new human being takes up a lot of time (somehow), especially if you're the person providing the food, and even more so when dad needs to sleep almost as much as baby. So that's been our story for the last couple of weeks. My family has all gone home, and we think and hope that they got enough quality time with Hadley while they were here. We certainly had some great times together, and it was definitely a Christmas that we'll never forget. Meghan's parents will be here for the next few weeks to help us get through this initial time where my energy levels are low, Hadley's needs are high, and the learning curve is fairly steep. We're thankful for that. We're also thankful to all of you who have sent your well wishes and thoughts and for all of the cute little baby things we've received. We've posted some photos of Hadley and her family online here so as not to overwhelm the blog with parental pride. Peruse at your leisure. Here are a couple of highlights for those of you who don't need to look at 50 photos and videos of someone else's baby:

 

 

  So we're now in a waiting period in terms of my treatment. We're waiting for an MRI at the end of the month and the results that we'll get from our oncologist on February 1. We'll see what happens there. More on that maybe in the next post. We hope you are all having a great 2010 so far. We're really enjoying Hadley, and are taking her on her first road trip today as we escape the city for Whistler for a couple of days. Thanks again for all of the love sent our way.

M&M