The verdict is in....

Hi everyone. This was the day that we were waiting for and dreading at the same time. So, let me start from the beginning. We left fairly early this morning because we had a few things to do before we would make our appointment. Wes tried to distract me by taking me to the mall for a bit so that I could spend my gift certificates from Christmas, but it didn't work all that well. Before we knew it we needed to find a quick lunch and it was off to the hospital.
When we arrived we were told that Wes was supposed to have blood work done before he saw Dr. Butler. That threw us for a bit of a loop and seeing a bright yellow sticker on there that said 'urgent' didn't help my nerves at all!
After the bloodwork we went back to the brain tumour clinic and waited. We filled out the required form that wanted to know details of how Wes was feeling and shortly after that we were called in. I took Wes' hand and thought 'here we go!'.
They weighed and measured Wes, just like when he was a baby - haha. Actually, it is something that they do every time he comes in. His weight and coincidently his height hadn't changed, so that was a positive, but I was waiting for the big verdict.
Well, Kim, our nurse came in and asked a LOT of questions, never taking her eyes off of Wes and that didn't make me feel that comfortable either. Why was she so serious?
'When was the last time you've had a seizure?' she asked.
'I've never had one.'
'Have you had any tingling in your hands or arms? What about speech or memory problems? Headaches?' and on she went.
After Wes had answered all of her questions with a negative response she left with a very serious demeaner.
'Oh great, this is not going well' I thought.
Dr. Butler came in and I could feel my heart going a hundred miles an hour....'here we go!'
'How are you?' he asked as he shook our hands 'Did you have a good Christmas?'
Ok, now I'm really feeling the pressure, can we just get on with this!
'Well,' he said flipping open Wes' chart 'Everything looks good, it looks really good. We were all so pleased when we were looking at the MRI results together today' Now, I don't know who 'we' is, but I kept focusing on the fact that they were 'happy' with the results.
He then flipped through his papers with the tiniest of smiles on his face. 'It looks really good, really good. There is the area where the brain is disfigured from the tumour, but it looks really good.' That's all he kept saying, that and the fact that everyone in the room looking at the MRI were very very happy with the results.
He then pulled out another report and began reading. 'It's a genetics report' he explained.
A genetics report? I didn't even realize that a genetics test had been ordered.
'They took a piece of the tumour from the surgery and did genetic testing and there were four strains (I think that's what he said) and only one matched.' and out came that little smirk again, 'that's a very good thing.' he never took his eyes off of the report 'It means that this tumour responds well to chemotherapy and that is a really good thing!' he kept shifting in his chair and then continued reading the entire report. It was like we weren't even in the room. He shifted continually and kept muttering 'this is a very good thing a very good thing' I leaned forward to hear him because he was speaking so softly into his papers.
I don't know if I've ever mentioned it but Dr. Butler has severe astigmatism and he holds his reports about 2 inches from his face so he can read them. He turned to us and grinned, 'This means that we only need to do chemo for one year because this tumour responds so well to the treatment.'
I was ready to jump for joy, one year! He was going to push for two, but now was more than confident that one would be sufficient. In fact he even mentioned the fact that since Wes was doing so well physically, that his blood work was very good and he had still had had no seizures that he would see Wes in another three months and then evaluate whether they could perhaps take him off of the Dilantin!! Wow, this was even more good news! I looked at Wes and he was grinning and I knew he was really excited about that idea.
After Dr. Butler shook our hands again and walked out the door with a huge smile our clinical pharmacist Danica walked in. She had her usual papers for the chemo schedule and the prescription for all the new meds. So, this is what it will look like...
Starting January 14 Wes will begin his new regime of chemo. It is the exact same chemo, just a much higher dosage. Wes will take this new round of pills for five days in a row and then he will have 3 weeks off. And this will continue throughout the year. They will however up the dosage again for the second month after giving his body time to adjust to the chemo again. And then this will be the dosage he will continue for the rest of the year.
He will be having bloodwork every week here at Boundary Trails and then every three months he will need to go back to HSC for an MRI and a visit with Dr. Butler. She told me to make sure that I monitor his temperature because it is very important that he goes in the minute his temperature is on the rise. She also gave him the idea of taking a spoonful of peanut butter after swallowing his pills to get rid of the bad taste. Wes' eyes really lit up when she told him that, he was really dreading the taste of those pills. She laughed when she gave him the idea of the peanut butter because she said it's the same thing that vets do for dogs when they can't swallow pills.
We laughed together and she expressed such excitement over our positive news and how well she could see Wes was doing, she really is such a kind and gentle young thing that I began to cry. She simply leaned forward in the chair and smiled as she consoled me. I wasn't upset or sad, just so relieved. When you see the doctor nearly skipping out of the room because he's so happy with the test results and the pharmacist also walking in with a huge grin knowing that the news was positive. The feeling of excitement was so evident with them that it was overwhelming.
After Danica walked out Kim came back in and I could tell right away that her demeanor had changed completely. Her smile was just as bright and happy as Danica's and I realized that she must have had to stay serious before knowing that the doctor would have wanted to give us the news himself. She gave us our final instructions and after a bright smile and a quick wave she was gone.
That was it...do we still have a journey ahead of us...you betcha...but, we also know that God has been sooooo faithful in bringing us this far. He has been surprising us and the doctors, he has given us time, healthy time together.
We also know that you have been walking with us every step of the way and that is a gift this is immeasurable. Not one of you has any idea of how precious your prayers, support and friendship has been to us...we don't know how to say 'thank you'...really...I know I've said it before, but we really don't know how to express our appreciation to all of you and the funny thing is that we know that we have our family behind us, friends we have known forever and even made a few new friends, but then there are many that we don't even know. WOW, we are truly blessed.
Please continue to pray...pray that Wes can continue to do as well as he is doing, that he will stay strong when he begins this new chemo, that his bloodwork will stay healthy, but most of all, please please thank God for this positive news!

"My mouth will speak in praise of the LORD. Let every creature praise his holy name for ever and ever." Psalm 145:21