All Clear

I know it's not medically correct to say until I think you are 5 years clear but I'm going to say it anyway. I'm still cancer free!!!

Yesterday was my 9 month follow up. 9 months, 11 days since my surgery to be exact. I was back in to see both my oncologist and surgeon which I must do every 3 months for the first 3 years. I had a pelvic x-ray and chest CT last week in preparation for this follow up and blood tests when I arrived. With Ewing's sarcoma the biggest concern, other than a recurrence in the bone, is the cancer spreading to the lungs. This is why they are keeping an eye on mine with repeat CT scans. Here's how my oncologist likes to present the results, "there are no signs of disease". How I like to say it,  "I'm still cancer free!!!". Scans were good. Blood tests were good. Everything is GOOD.

It wasn't even my actual oncologist who saw me yesterday, it was his fellow. So the doctor working directly below/for him. I suppose I'm too healthy now and no longer an interesting case for him. Which I suppose is a good thing. As I went to leave though my actual oncologist was heading into one of the other exam rooms and when he saw me said, "don't leave." But then went in with the other patient. I waited though and when he came out he just wanted to chat casually and see how things were going. This was quite surprising as he doesn't really do casual conversations. He's always rushing off to the next thing and seems like he constantly has a number of things on the go. Sometimes it's even hard to keep him around long enough to answer a question. So it was pretty cool that he genuinely just wanted to see me and talk to me even though he wasn't giving me any results or discussing my case specifically.

Then it was time to see my surgeon. While waiting in an exam rooms for him, one of his medical students came in to ask me a couple questions first. I'm pretty used to this as both my doctors are world renowned and always have several doctors working along side them. I often end up answering questions and being examined a couple time. The medical student asked me a couple questions and had me walk around a bit and do a couple things to show mobility/range of motions. Then she admitted to being absolutely fascinated by me. What I had done. How I was doing. She almost seemed giddy when she mentioned that she had seen my x-rays. It kind of has that effect on people who understand what they are looking at. Well, that or shock.

Next I saw the fellow working with my surgeon. Again, I guess I'm too healthy for the bigwigs now. He informed me that everything with the pelvic x-rays looked good. He wanted to see how well I was moving around so he had me walk up and down the hallway. He was so impressed with how well I was getting around on my forearm crutches he asked if he could take a video of me. Not only did he think it was an amazing recovery/progress but he wanted to show other patients who were just starting out the process. He said it would be great to show them how positive the "after" could be. I think that's also part of the reason he had me walk in the hall. There was a guy waiting in one of the other exam rooms who was there to get the details about he's upcoming surgery. Not as drastic a surgery as mine but still an orthopedic surgery on his leg. So I think they wanted him to see me up and about and happy.

That's also when I got the attention of my surgeon. And everyone else around at the time it seemed. He was in his office discussing a case with a couple other doctors and completely stopped their conversation when he saw me walking around and got all excited about how amazing I was doing. He wasn't just impressed with how well I was walking but how fast I was moving as well. He almost couldn't believe it and he's the one that performed my surgery.

It's a great feeling to have everyone make such a big deal over my progress. Not that others haven't but amongst my friends, family, coworkers, at physio, everywhere, my situation is pretty unique. But to somehow standout and evoke that kind of reaction in a place that sees bone cancer and radical surgeries everyday, it's pretty amazing. I'm sure it doesn't hurt that my surgery is nearly unheard of, even for them. But their amazement and enthusiasm stems from me being ahead of the game and progressing much faster than anyone ever anticipates. In short, they managed to make me feel special and pretty good about myself.

I want to touch on this quickly because I did mention it in my previous post. The other big moment of the day was that I went to work with my forearm crutches rather than the full length ones. I was too nervous to take the subway with them, I have twice before but not during rush hour. I didn't see it going well. Instead I took the bus and a streetcar. It took longer but wasn't nearly as scary. Being at work with them wasn't a whole lot different other than opening doors. We have a lot of self closing doors and they're all fairly heavy, so that was annoying. Other than that things were pretty much the same.