Today is the day! I hit my 5 year mark. Today is the day after my last day of treatment 5 years ago. I completed chemo and radiation on 7/25/2012. What that means to me is that I hit a milestone I've been waiting for. I went over to Seattle this afternoon to Swedish for my appointment with colo-rectal doc/surgeon Mindy H. and for the all clear. I had gotten a CT on my chest and lungs (weird I know because I had anal cancer) but that was to follow up on some suspicious "spots" that I've had since my initial PET in 2012. She told me the spots were stable, my lungs are fine, and after inspecting my darkest regions, THAT is perfect too. I'm all clear. Isn't that fantastic? I'm super excited about it.
I had stage 3a which means that one lymph node near the tumor was 1 cm (or larger). Anyway, I've always been worried about the spots and the stage because if one lymph was affected there could be more later, or spreading, or worse go to my lungs or liver (I have spots on my liver too but they are likely the more common ones a lot of folks have and not concerning). I remember the first couple days after I heard I had cancer, I read an article that the statistic listed at the time (from stats in 2010 tests) for making it to the 5 year mark without a reoccurrence was only 40% for people who had stage 3a anal cancer How depressing is that? Yikes! I quit reading stuff after that And this was way before I found BFAC website. Still, after all this time, that statistic stuck in the back of my mind and I continued to wonder. I'm sure by now, someone has come up with a better, newer, and much more optimistic statistic regarding the various stages of anal cancer. I sure hope they have. And, if they have not, I hope that others will have hope when they know it's possible to come out of this alive and mostly well. <smile>
So, today was my big day. Maybe I can relax just a tiny bit more now. Or at least now I can find a different focus or milestone to work on. This past week I've reflected a great deal about all that has happened in the past 5 years after my diagnosis and treatment. I feel so fortunate. I think my very first post in this blog was titled "Lucky Me" if I recall correctly, without looking back, some things you just can't forget. And boy oh boy was I lucky! Completely dodged a bullet. Beat the big "C". Went the 5 years!!! Yay me. Yay you too. Keep fighting.
NED means "No Evidence of Disease" :-)
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