The pictures from our drive to Pasadena this past Monday are a bit dark and foreboding, I know. But the news we received at the end of our trip is so great: My husband's cancer is in remission; his hepatitis C is gone; and best of all, to judge by the doctor's facial expression, his liver is coming back!!!
My husband is not out of any kind of permanent woods, but we both will have time to relax now. Relax over the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays and see in a New Year. Every day is a gift for both of us, but this news was like one large present wrapped in red, with a huge silver bow on top.
As so often is the case with medicines that work to cure serious illness, the HepC medicines, although wonderful drugs for which I am very grateful, are very debilitating. My husband has to take vitamins to maintain his red blood cell count, but he still suffers from extreme fatigue and other side effects. He began taking the the HepC drugs in the beginning of June and will finally be done with them on November 19.
The doctor said he's most anxious to find out if the treatment worked, so more blood tests are scheduled and another MRI needs to be done at the end of January. We go back to Pasadena to see the liver specialist in the first week of February and that's when we will have a better knowledge of how well both the the cancer treatment and the HepC drugs worked.
I brought my camera along, hoping to take some pictures of the gorgeous San Gabriel mountains that border the 210 freeway to Pasadena. As we came out of the high desert, driving toward the huge interchange of freeways heading toward Los Angeles and Pasadena, we saw this:
and into those gray clouds we drove and, since I had the camera, I decided to try for some more "industrial" looking pictures. What can I say, they certainly are a nice break from the blue skies and constant sunshine I'm faced with here at home.
Thank you for your prayers and healing thoughts, you are the best.
