But I also know the rep of pancreatic cancer in general, especially when it's not caught until it's advanced to the inoperable stage. And I know what he went through with all his radiation/chemo treatments and how dire the prognosis seemed from the start.
I called down to Alabama and spoke with him not only to tell him how wonderful it obviously is, but also to help allay my own lingering disbelief, to really convince myself it was true.
I freely admit that Dan is inherently a much more upbeat, positive person than me. Where Dan makes bold proclamations, I myself will usually hesitate and spout caveats. In this caase, it's partly out of some silly superstitious fear of "jinxing it" and partly out of just my annoying tendency to look for clouds around silver linings. So I'll just present it in Dan's own words:
Went to Dr. today to see results of CT Scan on Tuesday. The tumor is gone!!! No longer there. Kaputz!!! History!!! She has scheduled some Chemo just for good measure, but all looks well for a complete recovery. Thank you Jesus!!!
When I spoke to him on the phone, he said he went into the Dr's office to get the results of the scan and the Dr said "What tumor?" And Saturday was Dan's birthday. Presents don't come much better than that!
Apparently the extra chemo is precautionary (though certainly understandable). I'm sure the chemo still won't be "fun" to say the least, but I also suspect that getting chemo with a now radically altered and good prognosis is a whole other thing entirely from before. And my back-up hope is that should the tumor return at any point (assuming they keep a very close watch on things for a while which I think is a very safe assumption), maybe then it would be operable. But that's just a "what if" speculation on my part all the while hoping that won't be the case.
Of course, we in the family will all continue to keep him in our thoughts and prayers, but suddenly out of the blue there's significant reason to have more than just the age-old cliché of a mere ray of hope. Dan attributes it to the power of prayer and I won't disagree.
If ever a post deserved one o' those smiley thingies, it's this one...
:-)
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9 comments:
:):):):):):):):) -- and lotsa more of those smiley thingies! What amazing news! My goodness... Wonderful. (Miraculous?) OK, let's settle on just wonderful. :)
Hey, I don't know Dan, but I sure know good news when I see it. :) Yay!
Thanks, Elizabeth and Jen for joining me in a collective "Yay!"
And thank you Jen for stopping by as well as for your inaugural comment. (Pun intended, of course.)
;-)
P.S. I updated the post to include a link to my earlier one about Dan's situation.
Count me in on the power of smilies...and of prayers, of course.
:-)
Well, of course an angel would believe in the power of prayer! ;-)
Thanks...
P.S. DimSkip (what an amusing nickname), I didn't want you to think I ignored your comment on another blog so will answer you here because to answer it there would mean posting on an old (maybe even ancient by now) message.
You wrote:
I just went back to the article ["Is it Really Bad to Be Sad?"] myself and this is the full paragraph:
What's more, says Paul Keedwell, a psychiatrist at Cardiff University in the UK, even full-blown depression may save us from the effects of long-term stress. Without taking time out to reflect, he says, "you might stay in a state of chronic stress until you're exhausted or dead". He also thinks that we may have evolved to display sadness as a form of communication. By acting sad, we tell other community members that we need support."
[DS continues] The author is actually quoting someone else, but I still read it as the idea that depression is a built-in means of the mind to pull back from overwhelming stress and depressurize. The depression is essentially the mind's way of reflecting on all that's going on. So depression is the "cure" for overwhelming stress in a sense, a pressure valve. As I said, at least that's how I interpret it.
Jen replies: Yes, that is my interpretation, too. The "death by sadness" slant I added was mine and mine alone. I think depression must be one of those "necessary evils" we actually do need in order to function as nature intended.
OK, thanks for responding, Jen. I probably would have seen it had you responded there, though. I try to track SHAMblog comments by having my iGoogle page set to display the comment feed from there. I can't guarantee I always see and read every comment, but I think I keep up reasonably well despite any delay between when Steve approves comments and when they then get included in the feed to show up on my end.
Obviously, I just didn't get that that was essentially your extension of the thought. Sorry 'bout that.
wow.
i guess that hamburger made the tumor run for the money :-)
all kidding aside.. good news!
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