Great News!!

We met with Rachel's Oncologist on Wednesday.... to receive the results from her PETScan. That test looks for cancer anywhere in the body.... the results were great!  No Cancer anywhere!!

What this does tell us though it Rach had Stage 2 Cancer.... we were unsure about the chest area... if it was a second cancerous node or her thymus gland glowing on the tests. With no glow now... it was a cancerous node and made her a Stage 2 Hodgkins patient.... but that being said... it's gone now!

She meets with a radiologist on Monday to discuss her radiation treatments. We'll do those in Joplin, Missouri at Freeman Cancer Center. Rachel will have two areas.... neck and chest radiated.... 15 days, Mon-Fri in a row. Those will start in early January. She'll have her consultation with the doctors and have the areas tattooed (marked) before the end of the year.  

She's almost done.... and we couldn't have received any better news than we did this week!

Thanks to all for your continued prayers and thoughts.... 

Update Monday December 8th

Rachel had a rough Sunday.... she was at her boyfriend's house and her resting heart rate hit 150.... she eventually calmed down, but her rate was still over 100 the rest of the day. On Monday, Jan called her oncologist and we are to take her to the emergency room should this ever happen again. Later on Monday, Rachel and Jan decided to take her to Girard Hospital when her heart rate reached about 125-130... She was examined and given IV Fluids... that brought her rate down to 80... she might have been dehydrated?? She has to continue to monitor her heart rate throughout the day.

It was also decided that she doesn't have to have any more Chemo treatments!!! So we decided to celebrate... Eric, Jan, Rachel, Tyler and I went to Olive Garden and had a great time...

We all made sure she drank LOTS of water.....

Treatment #7 12-3-08

This is Rachel's 7th of 8 treatments.... met with her oncologist before her treatment. What we/she determined is that she will not have any more of the drug that can affect her lungs. That will not be given to her anymore.... a relief for all! Rachel has also decided that she wants to have the radiation treatments for Phase 2 instead of additional chemo treatments.

So here is the plan... Rachel gets a new PET Scan on Wed December 9th... this is the "glow" test to show any cancerous areas in your body. We are assuming there will be no glowing in the neck area, but we are unsure about the heart area, where the 2nd lymph node is... If there is no glow.... we will assume that she had Stage 2 Hodgkins and that it is gone from the chemo. If there is a glow in that area, we will still not know if it is Hodgkins... since the lymph node is next to the Thymus gland. What we don't know is if she still has her Thymus gland...since they go away as persons reach adulthood. If it glows... we can: 1) radiate the area without a biopsy 2) biopsy the area, which is fairly major surgery...

We'll just wait for the test results before we decide what to do...

Rach had her treatment afterwards... did well for the rest of the week.....

Treatment #6 11-19-08

Another strong week for Rachel.... This was her 6th of 8 treatments and she had it on Wednesday and spent ... came home and laid low for a couple of days...then a weekend in Kansas City. Went to the PSU-NW MO game on Saturday and returned home that night. Still going to class and working a bit at the Love Bubble Coffee Shop.

Her overall energy is lower, but she is resting when needed and learning to pace herself pretty good.

As always, we're pretty amazed at her approach to all of this!