John's doing great!

In the entry before last I wrote that John went in for a check up with his oncologist.  He went in to see if there were any signs of the lymphoma coming back.  Fortunately, Dr. Ford said there were no signs of cancer.

Let me digress for a minute.  Many of you do not know John's story.  John is my boyfriend.  Six years ago he was diagnosed with Non Hodgkin's Lymphoma.  When he found out he was devastated.  The doctors told him he was in stage 3B and gave him only a few years to live.  Maybe a lot shorter.  It didn't look hopeful at all.  But John was a survivor.  He fought with everything that was in him to stay alive.  At different times he had doctors who were saying it was just about hopeless, telling him that he would need a bone marrow transplant, and to start looking for a donar, and that this wouldn't save his life, just buy him time.  Finally he got a doctor who tried a new experimental chemo cocktail on him, and it did the trick; it saved his life.  That along with his will to live.  Praise God for that!  

There were a lot of ups and downs during these times.  Sometimes we felt like it took everything to just keep going.  John had more of a positive attitude than I did though.  I looked to him for strength to get me through.  And to the Lord.  John was upbeat trying to have a positive attitude, but often the chemo made him very, very tired and sick.  Another thing that was hard at this time is that many people disappeared from our lives.  They just couldn't face the fact that he had cancer because it was too sad for them.  So we had to go it alone to a degree.  Well, not really.  We had my wonderful family, and his also.  

Shortly after John finished chemo, the doctors checked to see if the treatment "took".  It seemed to.  At first they were apprehensive because such a short time had passed.  With every new check up the doctors were more and more excited.  So were we!  There came a day when John was officially declared cancer free.  I still remember that day clearly in my mind.  We were in the doctor's office.  I said "What did you say?" because I didn't think I heard it correctly.  I thought I would pass out or something.  Just like I thought I would pass out when I found out he had the cancer.  But this was a good kind of shock this time!  He was not going to die from a cancer that many who get it die from.  He was truly fortunate. 

Every six months to a year John goes back to do a sort of routine check up to make sure he is still fine.  He passed with flying colors the other day.  Sorry I left you all hanging! 

Thanks for all you who were concerned about him and left comments and emailed me.