Cancer Free!?!

More good news!  I met with my thoracic surgeon, who told me that the pathology report from my mediastinoscopy did not show any cancer, or anything else serious.  It indicates sarcoidosis, which is essentially an inflammation or immune response to something… or medical speak for “we have no idea…”  The tissue has been sent off to be cultured to see if they can determine what may be causing or have caused it.  There is a about a six week wait for the cultures, but even though it is possible that the sarcoidosis was a result of something serious (TB, a fungal infection), my system has likely dealt with it and there is probably no reason to treat it.

This is what I was hoping to hear.  While there are some caveats on the MRI results due to the hardware, and we don’t have definitive information from the intrathoracic lymph node biopsy, taken together the CT scan, MRI and biopsy results seem to indicate that I am cancer free.  There is no obvious cancer in my lungs, and no new chordoma tumors on my spine.  Wow, I am cancer free.

I have been a little stunned by the news and have only told a few people.  I am not sure why I was not more excited by it, but it took a day or two to sink in and for me to process it.  Managing medical appointments, treatments, symptoms and side-effects has been my life for ten months, and now I get to move on.  It is time to put this behind me and focus on recovery.

I feel great.  I had a fabulous yoga class this morning.  I slept well last night.  I now can focus on wellness, not on cancer, chordoma and illness.  I will eat well, sleep, exercise, be mindful and be strong.  I have an opportunity to be who I can be.

I certainly did not choose to undertake this journey, and I hope no one else ever has to follow me in it, but I also learned a lot from it and am a stronger, healthier and better person for having undertaken it.

It isn’t over, but it sure feels good to be here!