I have had it - if you ask...!!

[Colleens_Husband]

Dear Norwegian:

Colleen had an oncologist visit yesterday and she was finally pronounced NED. Hurray! I guess. I'm not sure how that makes me feel. Maybe that means we need to be even more vigilant.

I also had an opportunity to ask the doctor about most of the issues you talked about. A PET scan will only realistically find tumors larger than two to two and a half centimeters. Often there are other manifestations of a tumor which can be detected before it gets to be big enough so a PET scan can find it.

The oncologist said he didn't want to scare us by telling what to look for in a tumor, otherwise we will be scared of every pain and bump. He said if we insisted, he would tell us signs to look for, but he asked if we would be better off not worrying about everything all of the time and we just live our life as best we can? He said Colleen is going to be coming in for a checkup every three months for the next five years so he would be the vigilant one and we can have some peace of mind.

So are we still afraid cancer could rear its ugly head once again. Absolutely. Even so, we are starting to think about getting out of 'cancer mode' and moving on to 'living a good life' mode.

Anyways, I will keep you in my thoughts and prayers.

Lee