Sunday, November 20, 2005

Anthony's 1 year 9 month post treatment checkup and chest X-ray were good! He is now going to move into the long-term study group. We've agreed to let him participate so that more can be learned about the long-term effects of chemo on children. Dr. Pan also confirmed the statement Dr. LaQuaglia (the surgeon) had made this past April saying that at the 3 year post-diagnosis point (that will be April 26, 2006), Anthony will be pretty much considered cured. At that point, the recurrence curve flattens out and the probability of getting cancer again at that point is about the same as is would be for someone at 5 years post diagnosis.

With each passing day, I tend to worry less, but there are times when it still bothers me and causes me to get nervous. I look at him once in a while and think "what has all that toxic medicine done to my little boy?" and "why him?". But, I am a firm believer of making the best of what life deals you and I think he is a stronger person for his ordeals. We are a stronger family for what we went through, too, and will treasure the time we have with our children and each other even more than we would have before.