Best. Gift. Ever.

I've always wanted a brand new car for Christmas.  A beautiful new car.  Parked in the driveway.  With an obnoxious red bow draped over the top.  You know, the ones you only see in t.v. commercials during the holidays.  Think..."da na naaa na naaaa na na' na na naaa" (my attempt to put into words the Lexus December to Remember theme song!)  Yep, nothing could beat a brand new car for Christmas.  Or so I thought!

My gift this year wasn't parked in my driveway.  It wasn't under the tree.  It didn't come in a box (although my husband did give me the most amazing diamond earrings!!).  And there were no bows.  In fact, it was nothing you could even see...and that's what makes it so perfect!!!

The gift of being CANCER FREE!!  Whoa...it's still pretty crazy to say out loud.  Actually, I'm pretty sure it hasn't even sunken in yet.  The reason it's taken me so long to even blog about it is because I was afraid if I put it in writing, I would jinx it.  But the news is just so great, I finally had to share it with everyone.

The final pathology report confirmed that the residual cancer in my breast was minimal.  And of the 17 lymph nodes they removed from my right arm, only the two that they already knew about had cancer!!  The bad news-they removed all of the lymph nodes from my right arm.  Talk about pain!!  The recovery has been horrible and the risk of permanent swelling/numbness is much greater.  But the good news-the cancer had not spread beyond the initial two sentinel nodes!!

There are absolutely no words that can adequately describe the sense of relief, gratitude and pure joy that my family and I are feeling.  While we know I still have a long way to go, it simply doesn't get any better than this.

I hope your 2012 is filled with great health, family and friends.  (It's already started for me!)  But more importantly, I hope you always remember to never take a single minute for granted!

She Nailed It!

Hello fellow Sheyanne fans!

I'm happy to report that Sheyanne is out of surgery and doing great! Her surgery went very well! On behalf of Sheyanne and myself, thank you all for your love and support! I'm sure Sheyanne will post an entry when she is feeling up to it, but we can all wait together with the comfort of knowing that Sheyanne is now CANCER FREE!

Dan

Christmas Came Early for The Banes!

Last Wednesday, I went in for my first PET scan.  And for anyone that knows anything about cancer, you're probably wondering "your first PET scan??"  "Shouldn't that be the first thing they do when you're diagnosed??"  That was definitely what the technician thought.  So of course, throughout the entire one hour exam, and the four days that followed, my mind was spinning.  Maybe all of the headaches I've had weren't actually routine headaches.  Maybe my leg and body aches weren't caused by the medication after all. 

And then I received the email... from my surgeon...at 7:30 p.m....on a Sunday night! 

My first thought was that it was an automated reminder for my upcoming pre-op appointment.  But then I saw the subject line- "PET."  My heart was racing.  No way she would put in an email that the cancer had spread, right?!!  (Hey, you never know...I mean, I never would have imagined that my first surgeon would basically tell me I was going to die!)  And when I finally opened the email, I read the most AMAZING news....

The PET scan revealed that I was negative for distant metastatic disease (which means the cancer did not spread throughout my body!) AND my tumors and lymph nodes were almost completely negative for cancer!!!!!  The last 12 rounds of chemo had actually worked and I was truly on my way to becoming cancer free!!! 

I've said all along that I AM going to beat this...but actually hearing confirmation from my surgeon makes it all very real!  And while I'm still nervous about my surgery next week, I can go into it knowing that it will remove the last of the cancer and I will come out cancer free!!