Tuesday, June 18, 2013

My Relationship with NED

That's right: No Evidence of Disease!

I'm pretty sure my oncologist saw the stress lifted off of my chest when he stuck his head into the exam room last Friday and told me the news, "you're fine!"

I was so nervous--maybe even more so than usual--because this trip was different than all of the others: my mom wasn't with me, I was in the big city with my sister, and I have an upcoming wedding! I admit it, I'm totally a girl who loves a routine, so with things being so out of our typical pattern, I was concerned about what kind of news I would receive. (I wasn't the only one who was nervous about the change in our usual routine--mom was back home in Virginia, and she had her bags packed just in case the news wasn't what we wanted!) I know what you're thinking, we shouldn't act like that, we need to believe everything will be OK, and this just shows that we're letting melanoma have control. Yes, I agree those behaviors do show our true fear of melanoma, but...

Wait, I won't apologize for that. Melanoma is freaking scary, of course we fear it! 

But anyway, once again, I feel very lucky to say that my scans show no evidence of disease.

*Perks of being a woman: I do have a new 5.2 cyst on my right ovary. The cyst on my left ovary is gone, so they think it's just hormonal. I'm not going to stress it as we are going to scan again in September! I do plan on passing along the info to my lady doctor though!)

We had a wonderful time in the city and I will share that with you in a few days! We arrived back home to a neighborhood that was pretty beat up by some horrible weather! I got back into town Saturday evening and we just got our power back on yesterday! Needless to say, I'm enjoying the electricity. I'm not a gal who enjoys camping, even if it is in a house!

I will update again soon--I have some pictures to share with you! ;-) Thank you for your prayers and for your comments on my last blog post. My heart was heavy when I wrote it. XO


3 comments:

Titus 2 Thandi said...

Why hello NED, thank you for entering Chelsea's life!

Joeli said...

Congratulations! I started following your blog a year ago-after I was diagnosed with melanoma. Luckily, it was a stage 1 and I just have to keep regular check ups with my doctor! I am starting my master's in nursing and much to my joy, melanoma was a topic we could pick to write our paper on. Do you have any good sources you could tell me about? I also would love to use you or your blog as a reference. I just think that still, melanoma is something that people just say "oh, it's just skin cancer." People don't get it that it kills! Anywho! My email is joeliwbeckum@hotmail.com if you could email me!

Lisa Hanley said...

I'm glad your scans were nice and clear. I had my CT scan on Monday as well and was thinking about you a lot as I hung out at the cancer clinic. Something must have been in the air (or a full moon or something) because I was more nervous than usual as well. I actually dipped in to my Ativan supply to ease my nerves. But all was for naught since I was NED too. (Yay us!)