the rest of the story (aka the latest doctor's appointment)

"Nothing . . . amazing . . . this is fabulous news . . . a blessing."

All words Dr. Tauer used to describe my mom's latest all clear CT scan last Monday. Mom didn't believe him at first, because she's been feeling this knot in her abdomen that she just knew was cancer. She was all ready to negotiate with Dr. T which chemo she would and wouldn't take again, ha. Turns out the "knot" is a stent that was placed in her pancreatic duct during the Whipple. It has since migrated out of said duct into her intestines. No big deal, apparently. Dr. T says we'll just leave it there as long as it's not hurting anything.

Dr. Tauer continues to be amazed that a)there's been no recurrence of Mom's pancreatic cancer in the last 6 months, and b)there's been no recurrence of Mom's already-recurred-once breast cancer in the last 6 years! However, as great as that news is, he's still cautious. For most cancers, this is probably the point where he would switch to scans every 6 months; but, given the high recurrence rate of pancreatic cancer, Dr. T wants to do another scan on Trish in 3 months. So . . . July 18th is the next big scan day to be praying about!

Trish is doing great, by the way. She's pretty much back to normal with the exception of her sleepless nights. She still has trouble sleeping, so Dr. T gave her another new medicine to try. She was not impressed with it and gave up on after just two nights. Oh well. Insomnia is a walk in the park compared to everything else she's been through lately. 

Oh, and her breast cancer and pancreatic cancer tumor markers were both normal. 

A friend of ours ran into Dr. Tauer later last week and asked him, "Are you the one who's been keeping my friend Tricia alive for the last ten years?"

"No," Dr. T replied. "That's the Lord."

Amen, Dr. Tauer. Amen.