CANCER FREE - NO cancer in the bone marrow!!

It was just a routine follow up oncologist appointment for me today, Monday, March 18.  The plan is to have a CT scan every 6 months for two years, then go once a year for five years just to make sure nothing shows up.  The doctor is very optomistic, but best to be proactive with cancer in the body.  I told the Doctor that Dina cleaned out her garage last Thursday...I told him that because I felt that was a really good sign...her energy is back, and if she can clean out a garage she must be feeling good, which is a really good indication of maybe NO cancer!  After going to scheduling for my next appointment, the doctor caught us before we left and said that he called the radiologist to get a preliminary report on the bone biopsy from last Friday for Dina...It came back CLEAN!!  NO sign of cancer at all!  YEAH, Thank you God!  You answered our prayers!  He asked us to tell her!  And of course Scott is thinking of a way to surprise her with the news.  so we call and ask if we can take the family to Red Robin for dinner...I told her that Scott had a surprise for them...I also called Lacey's family and invited them.  And I called Jamie's mom and invited her and Jack to join us.  I did NOT tell anyone the news.

Scott talked to the manager of the Wilsonville Red Robin store and told him we wanted to surprise Dina with a 'group song' but instead of their normal "Happy, Happy Birthday" song, we wanted it to be a "Today You Are Cancer Free".  We brought a dozen roses with us and Scott presented the roses by telling her he ran into his good "friend" Ian (that would be Dr. Schnadig!!) and her eyes got big (she didn't remember that I was seeing him today) and he then proceeded to tell her what Dr. Schnadig told us about her bone marrow biopsy...SHE IS CANCER FREE!!  NO CANCER IN HER BONE MARROW!!  We all cried!  OMG, the best news EVER!  And the employees brought a big bouquet of balloons and sang the cancer free song (made it up on the fly!).  And the sweet manager gave us a couple of appetizers for FREE!

Can you see how happy she is, such a relief!  We can now go to AZ without worrying about the results!  We can have fun and be carefree!  We are missing a couple of "littles"...they went next door to the "Critter Cabana" (an animal store) so we are missing Addie, Tristan and Jalen in the picture,, but they were there for the meal!  (we do have an extra "little" in the picture...a neighbor girl, Lily's best friend...they have a choir concert to go to after dinner.

Friends and family, I want to thank you all for going on this tumultuous journey with us...every step of the way we felt your prayers and were so very thankful for them.  Even in the darkest moments, the painful ones, the ones filled with fatigue and worry, we were always "lifted" by the power of your prayers.  I cannot speak for Dina, but for me, the pain and suffering, the worrying about the unknown, only brought me closer to the Lord...taught me in sometimes painful ways to Trust in Him...to keep the Faith and to know that He will be with us every step of  the way...He will not abandon us.  He loves us and He asks for our love in return.

Dina will have another PET and CT scan in a couple of months, she still has a slight spot on her spleen, which we are hoping will be totally gone when she has her next testing.  The fact that it is NOT in her bones is HUGE...we are ready for whatever is to come!  We can handle it with the help from Our Lord!  God bless you all!