HANNA'S CANCER: ONE-YEAR CHECKUP AND CELEBRATION!!!

We spent the last couple of weeks traveling to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota for Hanna's one-year Cancer Check Up. The annual checkup at Mayo will be a life-long routine from here on out. I'll share some of the fun pictures of our experience, and then near the end, what the Doctor had to say about Hanna's condition. (Don't worry, it's good news, but keep reading anyways for entertainment value.)



The day started out with the usual blood test. (And in case you are wondering, yes, there was a 24-hour urine test where she peed into the jug of shame. But, this took place at home and a sample of the urine was mailed to Mayo. We still have not informed our unsuspecting mail carrier what kind of toxic waste is in the packages we mailed............) Notice how cheery Hanna is while having gallons of her blood removed from her body. She has learned that beating cancer is a lot of good attitude and that being negative accomplishes nothing. Plus the medical professionals treat her more special because she smiles at them.)


Folks that have heard about the Mayo "Subway" always ask about it. Well, here is a picture of it. The first time we came here, we expected to ride a train. No train. Just a long underground tunnel connecting the various Mayo buildings together. The subway is a total of 1.5 miles of tunnels. Note here that in prior visits, Hanna navigated the subway by racing other cancer patients in their wheel chairs. This visit there was a huge change. NO WHEEL CHAIR!! She walked the long subway with only the help of a cane and of course, holding my hand. (Not really necessary, but very much wanted and enjoyed.)

After the blood tests, Hanna was subject to a CT Skeletal Imaging Exam to check on her prior bone lesions/breaks. 

Next up was an Echocardiogram/Ultrasound of her heart to check for possible damage from that Amy disease.

Finally, after lunch (I had the Canadian Walleye Sandwich, which I don't think even exists in Washington), we met with Dr Gertz. If you have followed the story closely, then you'll remember that he is one of the most renowned MM Doctors in the world and has studied MM and treated MM since his days at Harvard Medical School. That's all he does. And he requested Hanna's case due to its uniqueness, yet another blessing.


Here we are entering the part of the clinic entitled the Mayo Building. Dr. Gertz's lobby is just down that hall.




Dr. Gertz's office is on the 10th floor of the Mayo Building. Here is the view to the east. This is after meeting with him. We, too,  were giddy by this point.


Dr Gertz had been studying Hanna's chart and test results prior to coming into the exam room and was nothing less than GIDDY! After the bedside chit chat, quick physical checkup, he went over the results. It pretty much went like this:

Dr Gertz, as he read off each blood test:
"Normal..."
"Normal..."
"Normal..."
"Normal..."
"Normal..."
"Normal..."
"Normal..."
"Normal..."
(There obviously were many more tests than that, but I got tired of typing... certainly you get the idea.)

On two tests:
"Trending up just slightly, but still normal. Considered clinically insignificant."

Also:
"No malfunction of the organs, heart, liver, kidneys, has been detected..."
"There is no reason to change your treatment plan."
"Your bones that had been damaged from the cancer are mostly healed and no new wounds have been noted."
"There is no indication that another biopsy is even needed at this point."
"Your current status is 'Stringent Complete Response.'"  (aka "In Remission!!")

Then the most interesting conversation of all:
Hanna: Can you tell me how...........
Dr Gertz, interrupting her abruptly: No, I can't.
Hanna: I was just hoping you could give me some hope. Is it possible that I could live to age 80?
Dr. Gertz: Given your current great healthy condition and the results of your tests, there is no reason to think you wouldn't live to be at least 80. 

(For those of you trying to guess her age right now, that is just over another 20 years.) TWO DECADES!!! For the record, MM patients that have a transplant at Mayo Clinic have a 59% 20-year survival rate, the top ranking result in the entire world. The place is definitely worth the trip.

Dr. Gertz then wrote a letter to Dr. Gay, our local Doctor in Post Falls, instructing him on how things went and what the treatment plan is. He deemed Hanna's immune system to be at 100% and took her off the barrage of antibiotics she has been on for the past year to prevent disease and infection. Her monthly bone strengthener treatment will be changed to quarterly. And she will continue on with daily Chemotherapy pills and monthly Immunotherapy Infusions. That will probably continue for life, but at least for another year minimum.



We immediately celebrated the great news by going to Flapdoodles and consuming mounds of Cancer Killing Ice Cream. We are still not sure if the many trips last year to Flapdoodles killed the cancer cells or if the actual Stem Cell Transplant did. I'm guessing it was a combination of the two. Proof: ice cream makes you happy and cancer cells hate happiness. They shrivel up and die inside happy people's bodies. Ice Cream = happy people = dead cancer cells. Easy and obvious scientific formula.

This ice cream is the best ever and we have seriously considered moving to Rochester just for the ice cream.


While at Flapdoodles, we ceremoniously, between delicious slurps of ice cream, removed our MM cancer wrist bands in a sign of recovery, health, and happiness. We really want things to get back to normal. The wrist bands will from here on out reside on the ears of Hanna's cancer fox, which of course resides by my cancer fox's side.


DEATH TO CANCER!!!!
times two




We found this sign hanging in Flapdoodle's. We are pretty sure it is about us. We can't wait to go back next year and smile at the Medical Professionals, make Dr. Gertz giddy, and consume more delicious Flapdoodles Ice Cream.

We are so eternally grateful for the myriad prayers, thoughts, gifts and support we received from you all. And to every single dedicated Medical Professional we have worked with. Miracles happened! Hanna has gone from being grounded to a wheel chair with a "maybe two years" outlook to walking with very little help and a good chance to live two more decades. Thank you so much!

For even more smiles and entertainment, watch the video below. Weeks before our visit to Mayo Clinic, Hanna and her siblings and spouses celebrated her one-year anniversary/re-birthday like a bunch of young kids. Life is beautiful and should be happy. Now smile and beat the bad stuff in your life!


NOTE: Hanna does have a two bits message. It is below the video.








Hanna's Two Bits:

Since this is my Two Bits I'm going to hit two different topics this time. Thanks for sticking with me. :)

Bit 1:

If you've made it this far you know a couple of things--I have been blessed with miraculous healing, and Longhursts are a LOUD and crazy family, lol. 

But seriously, all our friends and family (not just those in the video) have been incredibly supportive and encouraging during this cancer battle. You who are reading this should know that all you did for us helped bring my healing. This includes every:
prayer
positive thought
comforting hug
wave
smile
comment on Facebook
phone call
email
gift of flowers, gift cards, and other wonderful things
card
meal/food delivered
encouraging word

We will be forever grateful for you and what you shared with us!

Bit 2:

I have recently lost some good friends to cancer so I'm acutely aware of what this disease can do.  I also know that whether I live another 20 years, or 40 years, or just another day--whenever I die and pass from this world I know I will be taken home to God, to a paradise of happiness, peace, and rest. So I'm not afraid of death. 

Rather, I'm concerned about using each precious moment of my life to love, and to share, and to reflect God's infinite goodness and light. To bring much happiness to others.











Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

THE BAD DAY (NIGHT) FINALLY ARRIVED

Image
Here is the lovely Miss Hanna at about 1am this morning, trying to figure out what sort of dinner her system will handle.  The softer the better.  Taste doesn't matter any more as her taste buds have been eliminated by the Chemotherapy Drug. Until today, our daily routine was, check in at the Transplant Clinic.  Get examined and consulted by a variety of medical professionals.  Go back home.  And usually that was it.  If something were to be wrong with the blood tests, etc., they would call and have us come back in for treatment. The closest we ever came to the "call back in" was a week ago Sunday when her Potassium levels had dropped drastically, likely caused by the extreme hydration during the transplant itself.  They had us come back to the Clinic to pick up some Potassium tablets at the Pharmacy. That all changed yesterday. They called and asked us to come back in as her platelets had dropped drastically.  The nurse told us to finish our lunc...
Read more

THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE BEAUTIFUL

Image
 The hair loss was expected and was eventually going to happen.  Happy Early Halloween!! THE GOOD:  This week the Transplant Team here at Mayo Clinic is celebrating their 10,000th transplant.  They were pretty excited.  Amazing to us was the fact that their very first Transplant patient from 60 years ago is still alive and was going to attend the party.  Note that none of us current patients, even the 10,000th, are invited.  Every one of us is immunocompromised and if someone brought in an infection or virus, the entire staff would be very busy for a long time.  But we can say we were there when number 10,000 took place.  We are in very good hands.  The average employee tenure here is 14 years.  Many we meet have been here for over 20 years.  Most of the doctors did their initial fellowship here and are still here decades later.  Having the right specialist, a doctor that does nothing but MM, is key to a proper recovery an...
Read more

TOXIC WASTE!!

Image
Hanna is doing well and appears to be on track to a miraculous recovery.  In this picture, please notice her beautiful hair. The cool chart below (cool, because us accountants LOVE charts like this) shows the level of misery the transplant causes and when.  The numbers are days.  The more the line drops, the more misery.  They call the bottom the "basement".  We are right now on Day 8.  Yes, in the basement. And even though we are in the basement, Hanna is doing quite well.  Things are not nearly as bad as other MM patients that have gone before us have said they would be, nor as bad as the Transplant Team prepared us for.  This is all good.  The main symptoms Hanna (and me too, indirectly) have and are struggling with is massive fatigue and EXPLOSIVE TOXIC DIARRHEA.  She spends a lot of time sleeping, although some days are better than others.  Her endurance level has dropped significantly as well.  It is a struggle for her to...
Read more