Good News for Mike and Mara

Mike got some unexpected good news during an appointment with his lead oncologist last week. We were thinking that Dr. Henderson would be scheduling the next scan in about two months, but Dr. Henderson liked Mike's progress so much that he doesn't see a need for the next scan until this coming December! And, Dr. Henderson has set Mike's "remission clock" at two years, so we did a little (actually, too much) celebrating for that anniversary. There is no exact date when that clock started, but they generally consider sometime around the middle of treatment, if the ensuing scans are clean.

And, we have great news to report on our niece, Mara. After many weeks of slow or no progress (and several serious setbacks) she is now fully on the road to recovery. Her progress in the last 2-3 weeks has been nothing short of miraculous. She is off the ventilator during the day, and uses it only as a precaution at night. While she is still very weak, she has almost full range of movement with her arms and legs, and even walked a few steps this past weekend. She had been practicing her walk for about a week and surprised her father by walking with him watching--unknown to him that she had made that much progress. She is scheduled to leave the hospital in April 21st, over three months after her surgery.

She still has a long ways to go, and there is no way to know how much she will recover--but she is light years ahead of where she was just a couple of weeks ago, and the sky's the limit for her. She got great news that she has been accepted into three universities, with offers of partial track scholarships. After many weeks of thinking there would be no way for her to graduate high school this semester, or even attend the ceremony, it looks like both things will happen. It will be a very emotional scene when she walks up the stage to get her diploma.

Several of you have been asking about Mara, so we know that Team Mike has been hard at work with your Good Vibes for her. Much appreciated, by us and Mara's family.

Mike and Terry

April update on Mara, and Mike

Since the last post in late February, Mara's condition turned much for the worse for several weeks, until she started to make some positive progress. And that progress was very small, with many setbacks. Then, about 10 days ago she started to take larger steps in the right direction and recently has made huge gains. She's now off the ventilator while she is awake, has a good range of movement with her arms and legs, and speaks very clearly. She is scheduled to be released from the hospital around April 21st. She still has a long way to go, but her improvement is now steady and very noticeable every time we see her 3 or 4 days apart.

As for me, no news continues to be good news--so I've not needed to post to the blog much in the last several months. I have some of the life-long side effects from the radiation and chemo, but nothing that can't be handled or should cause worry. My next scan will be in about two months.

I was slack with my running over the winter, but will get back to it soon, now that I know I'll be running in the Peachtree 10K in July.

Over the summer I plan to work on a book that tells the story of my cancer treatments and recovery. I showed the blog to a consultant with the American Cancer Society and he thought that would make a great source for the book--he loved the Prairie Dog stuff! Of course, a big part of the book will be about all the love and support we got from Team Mike, and that will be the major theme for the book. More on this as it progresses and I can find the time this summer to do the writing.

mike