Scan News, Family Funeral, and Prayers and Friends

After three long but great days, I am home and in my pajamas. 

 

Friday morning our day started out super early as we had to be at UVA hospital by 7 a.m.  This was the most stressful part of the day for David-taking Versed the amnesia medicine to help his transition to sedation go smoothly and to help him not remember a thing.  It does taste horrible and Rocktar David really hates it.  He hated it so much he actually threw it up:(

But he did get enough in him to make him loopy -love this silly David smile!

After he woke up from sedation we took him by wheelchair to clinic in the gorgeous new Battle Building.  We saw several friends we have met along the way, and it was great seeing everyone. 

 

Truly the highlight of the day was taking the toys and unloading them into the new toy closet with Ms. Meghan!  We love her so much and it was wonderful to take these toys to fill up their new space.  To all our dear friends that came to Hope and David's party and brought gifts for the closet THANK YOU!! A cute girl named Izzy got to pick a toy from our stash as she was leaving clinic.  It was awesome to see her have a hard time picking out a new one from all the great toys.  Hope and David were so proud of their toy stash!

Overall David's checkup went very well. Labs were good and Dr. B thought he looked well.  We were not gone long from UVA when we got the call that the scan was clean!  Praise God for two years cancer-free! 

So here is the tricky part.  Now that David is two years cancer free the risk of relapse decreases which is great.  BUT, now he needs to start being monitored for late effects of all that chemo and radiation he was exposed to.  Late effects could include a secondary cancer, organ failure, stunted growth, heart problems, etc... They went over these very carefully with us when he was first diagnosed and now I am remembering them all.  So now we will switch from a sedated CT scan to a chest xray and ultrasound.

It will be wonderful that he will not be exposed to all that radiation and sedation! But, I worry that the xray and ultrasound will not be as thorough and it will not be done for perhaps four to six months down the road.  I did not like the sedation and radiation from the CT scans, but I do love how thorough they are and how much peace of mind they give us every three months. 

After leaving UVA, Hope, GG, and I headed to the eastern shore to a beautiful town of Gloucester for a funeral for my great Uncle.  It was a sad reason to get together, but it was great seeing the family.  Friday evening we went to Susan and Jeanette's house for a family dinner.  Susan and Jeanette live on the water in a gorgeous house.  Hope loved checking their crab pots to see how many crabs they had caught!!

Here is Hope on their pier with their house in the background.  It was a great evening, just sad we were all together for a funeral. 

Saturday morning after the funeral service we went to Yorktown for a yummy seafood lunch across the street from this beach on the waterfront in Yorktown.  After our lunch we had a long drive home back to our mountains of southwest Virginia. 

This morning it was wonderful to be in church praising God for all that he has done in David's life.  It was a great morning of worship and afterwards we hit the road for a tennis tournament in Bristol for Kyle.  Here is our little tennis dude playing his heart out!

Kyle's match came down to a ten-point tiebreaker and David started praying for Kyle to win!  It was so cute!  Kyle lost in a heartbreaker but he played very well and had fun.  With siblings to cheer and pray you on-how can you go wrong?

 

We ended this whirlwind last few days with a sweet treat with the Jonas family at Sweet Frogs in Bristol. 

 

Thank you all for your prayers and love over the last few days.  We are so blessed with so many great friends who encourage us on our hard UVA days.  It will be an early bedtime around here tonight!