Skip to main content

One Year Scans

I recently had my routine scans and ...(Drumroll), I am still showing no evidence of disease. Very exciting and relieving news. I am so lucky and fortunate to be in this position. Lets keep the clean scan streak going.

I am still having scans every three months, but will transition to every four months when I'm two years out from completing treatment. The next one is at the end of April.

I still have my port installed. Occasionally I will notice it when exercising or my seatbelt rubbing against, but for the most part it does not cause me any discomfort. It is annoying having to get it flushed every six weeks. It is a simple procedure and only takes like 5 minutes, but it is an extra trip I have to take. We are a bit hesitant to remove the port due to my recent track record. The last thing we want is to remove it and have to reinstall it soon-after. To reduce the chance of this happening the best solution is to wait. During my last appointment we talked about getting it out in the summer, (about two years after completing my most recent radiation treatment). To me getting the port out has more of a symbolic meaning to it. It is more than being done with the inconveniences of having it, it is being one step closer to being done with this disease.

In my last post I mentioned that I purchased a kettlebell to exercise with. Well, I'm still keeping up with it. I've been exercising 5-6 times a week and feel great. A lot of the exercises I perform are dynamic full body movements which are easier on the joints, the most important being my right shoulder. I don't run into the same amount of pain that I have had when doing traditional barbell training which is a huge reason why I have stayed dedicated to this routine. I'm really glad to have found a workout routine that works well with my body. I'll provide some more details about this in a future post, but just know I'm continuing to get stronger every day and that I feel the best I have in years.

I'm still working from home and the plan from leadership is that we will be working from home through labor day. Receiving that news was disappointing to me, but I am making the most out of it such as visiting family. I'm really excited to visit them soon since they just got a puppy. His name is Peanut.

Please stay safe everyone, and as always keep those battling life threatening illnesses in your prayers.

Comments

  1. Rock on Mike, Greta news! If it is an option now or at some point in the future when the world starts reopening;g, I might recommend transitioning from free weights to Nautilus or other machine assisted weight training as they are generally much fore forgiving of the joints. T

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks for the input, i'll have to give that a look.

      Delete
  2. HI MIKE. SO GLAD TO READ THIS 'NO CANCER' POST. WITH HOPE, FAITH, BELIEF AND ENCOURAGEMENT AS YOU CONTINUE TO STAY CANCER FREE!!

    ReplyDelete
  3. LUCAS, TOO, HAS HAD "NO CANCER SHOWING' SCANS AS OF FEB. 24TH. HE STARTED THIS TRIAL FOR MAINTENANCE: SM-88; https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/record/NCT03778996?term=sm88&draw=2&view=record

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. that's awesome news Dolly! So how long is the plan to stay on SM-88?

      Delete
  4. HI MIKE, PLEASE HOW ARE YOU DOING?

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

First Entry!

Today is my first post on my blog about my battle with Ewing's Sarcoma. The main purpose of this post is to get my readers to know a little bit about me, and to provide a little background of this cancer that I have. First and foremost I am 19 years old, live in a family of 5 with two great younger brothers, and loving parents. I love to play sports, video games, and I'm very passionate about technology. I don't really have a favorite sports team because I don't like to watch sports, but my favorite sport to play is basketball. I'm not much of a bragger, but I am very good at basketball because I'm very athletic. I can dunk easily. Check it out...  mike's dunks on youtube . I am a sophomore student at Penn State University majoring in Computer Science. I'm also from Pennsylvania, in the small Mountaintop area.  Personally, I am a very reserved person, I like to keep to myself. It might be surprising to you that someone that is so reserved would mak...

10 Year Survivor

Hi everyone, its been a while. I think this might be the largest time gap between posts. I've had a tough time with this entry, coming back to it from time to time over the last several months. Every time I finished editing I just did not like it and scrapped it. Hopefully take 4 is the charm, lets get into it. Late in 2023 I became a 10 year survivor and also turned 30. It was a deep time of reflection for me. There were many questions I asked myself, but the most challenging ones included:  Why am I still here?  Am I happy?  What changes do I need to make to become happier?  Am I ready to make those changes?  What are my goals?  What has gone well these last 10 years?  What do I want to do better going forward? Very deep, uncomfortable topics and questions I had been stressing about, but avoiding for years. It was both empowering and deeply saddening to reflect on these topics. I hated to admit it at the time, but I was very unhappy. I was going thro...

It's Back Again

Since my last post I have had two sets of scans.  I had my first scan in March, and with that came uncertainty. It appeared to have grown on the scan, but my primary oncologist, and surgeon from last summer remained skeptical of this being a recurrence. My oncologist in Cleveland believed it to be a recurrence. His opinion was that it would need to be taken care of sometime this summer. My most recent scan has now put both of my oncologists in agreement. It's now 99.9% likely to be another recurrence. It is now measured at 9x8 mm, up from 6.8x6 mm in December. Luckily it is growing slow for Ewing's, and at least nothing else has come up on the scans yet, but it is still terrible news. This will need to be taken of, and will be soon. The best option for me after consultation with both of my oncologists is to enroll in the Vigil trial ( https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT03495921 ).  It was originally slated to start taking patients at the end of June, but has ...