Green Lights

Well, I've just seen three members of my Medical Team over the last three days:

-- My E/N/T guy on Wednesday
-- My chemo doc on Thursday
-- My neurologist on Friday

and all three of them have the same message for me: Although we will monitor your situation for months or years, there continues to be no evidence of cancer in your head/neck area. And it's quite possible that your salivary duct cancer is something to be seen only in the rear-view mirror.

And I will be getting a scan of one sort or another in the next couple of weeks to check on the possibility that the cancer has metasticized and spread. But there's certainly no sign of that having happened.

It's not completely "clear sailing," however. My E/N/T doc (who has a wonderful sense of humor, even though he's Canadian) thinks I'm being obsessive/compulsive about staying hydrated and keeping my teeth clean -- thereby giving me something new to obsess about. (I told him that I was concerned about a small bump on my chin, and he told me "Aw, you've like an old dog -- lumps and bumps everywhere. You're fine!") My chemo doc says I should stay on the Coumadin blood thinner for another couple of weeks, and continue to use the compression stockings. And the neurologist says I have minor nerve damage -- probably from the Cisplatin chemotherapy -- in my right leg and arms (resulting in some numbness and tingling), although this may heal and in any case, shouldn't get any worse.

But compared to where I might have been at this point in my health, things are splendidly good.

And I thought you'd like to know that.