Remission! Time for watch and wait, it's maintenance time

So this week has been a little crazy and I am a bit behind in adding this entry to my blog.  But on Wednesday, my birthday, I got the awesome news that my cancer is in remission.  The best part was pretty much all NED, and that means no evidence of disease.  The shoulder, which was the biggest hotspot was clear.  At my doctors recommendation, we started maintenance Rituxan and that will be every 12 weeks.  I will have a regular CT scan after that, to see how things go.  Rituxan targets a marker called CD20 on the B-cells where NHL starts.  Healthy B-cells help your body fight infection, but some become cancerous and form tumors.  So the Rituxan maintenance will help keep the bad cells that try to form to a minimum.  Thats the best I can explain it. Ha.   So, my day was pretty crazy with all that wonderful news and the fact I got it on my birthday.  Couldn't have been a better present.  But good things sometimes come with bad things, and unfortunately the 2D echo of my heart showed a bit of concern.  I guess the heart isn't pumping the right way and I need to eat better and get in shape.  This is something I can control and will have to do so to help this out.  Unfortunately, I think that the stresses of my day job are getting the best of this, and either I find a way to control it or make some changes to lessen that stress.  Thats the tougher one, but we'll see how it goes.  For all those that have asked or wondered if I am not including any of the bad news, this is the first I have had to include, so yeah, it's all real.  But I am doing great and look forward to getting my fitness on.  I challenged my niece to run the Kentucky Derby Festival mini-marathon next year in 2012, to which she accepted and also said there was one in November too.  LOL  Not sure I can meet that one, but who knows.

That's it for now.  Gosh, 12 weeks till the next treatment, that sounds so far away, but I am sure time will go by fast.  Thanks for all the prayers and support over these past 5 months!  It has truly helped me get through this. :)

Rob