An Early Anniversary Gift

Sid and I got to go out for a date night tonight. While we were in the thick of the intense treatments, some amazing friends offered to watch our kids so that we could have a night with just the two of us. I'm sure they intended for us to take that time together much sooner, but we finally took them up on it and celebrated our anniversary a day early.

Dinner was exquisite and then we repeated our first date with a stroll around Utah State's campus. Happy 11 years to us! Each anniversary has been happily commemorated but we were especially grateful for this one.

With that in mind, we have GREAT news/results from Sid's CT scan from last week. There were no signs of metastatic disease! In other words, there was no visible detection of cancer.

Absolutely incredible.

We are obviously over the moon about this. As time goes on we are understanding more and more how unexpected this was. I know I'm being a bit of a wet blanket when I say it's a little bittersweet when we know families that aren't getting this kind of good news.

This leads me into being a realist and grounding things a little. We aren't done fighting. There is still a high chance of it coming back, particularly in the next 5 years. Dr. Nevala said he "doesn't want to rock the boat". Sid's treatment is working so he's set to continue taking chemo pills and every 3 weeks getting immuno/targeted therapy infusions. The infusions could potentially be a life long thing.

As for how things are going now, the only prominent side effect is fatigue. There are a few episodes of nausea every now and then, as well. This is nothing like what we dealt with when he was getting the heavy duty stuff. But it does have it's weight in it's own way. There are many nights when he is fully exhausted after work and doesn't have anything left to give to the day. I hold down the fort on those nights and there are days where I am only hanging on by the smallest of thread fibers and only because we ran out of adults in the house. But tonight was a good night spent together; our kids are healthy and strong; we have a really deep well of blessings to drink from. So cheers to great test results and more anniversaries together!

Comments

Sunday Will Come

I had a good cry about a week ago. It's been a while since I let it all out when thinking about Sid's diagnosis. But as this day (and week) has crept closer all of the memories of this same week, last year, have come flooding back. A year ago today life shifted for us. Honestly, I feel like I've lived 6 years in the past 365 days (give or take some). There's a part of me that wants to try and explain what I was feeling and experiencing; it somehow seems significant to do so, even if just for documentation purposes. But trying to put it into words seems impossible; it's a bit too personal to lay it all out, and at some point it's only really comprehended if you're actually experiencing it. I obviously don't wish that on anyone. But even in reflecting on the gloomy and painful memories I am reminded of many kindnesses. There was, and is, a lot of support and an incredible amount of love. I do love remembering that part. I also want to express gratitude fo

Complete Response

Last night Sid went to the Huntsman for his scheduled CT scan. This afternoon he spoke with his doctor to discuss the results. Dr. Nevala had mentioned at their last appointment that he was anticipating good things when his next CT appointment came around. HE WAS RIGHT!!! Everything has continued to shrink; so much so that the lymph node up by his trachea hardly lit up in the scan. He is literally having a "best case scenario" response, or as Dr. Nevala put it, a complete response. In the trial study that Sid's treatment has been based off of, 11% were considered to fall into that category. If it's not broke, don't fix it. So, Sid will stay on his current treatment plan for at least the next year; chemo pills, immuno and targeted therapy infusion every 3 weeks, and regular CT and echocardiogram scans. So many thoughts are racing through my head. Overall there's just so much gratitude. I should probably take time to more thoroughly record my thoughts somewher

Finding Out

Hey, it's Taylee. In an attempt to keep everyone informed I've started this blog. I'll be posting informational updates here. I don't foresee Sid doing much writing at this point. So in general, assume that I'm the one writing. A few weeks ago much of my family was in town for a family wedding. This included my brother Josh. He is a psychologist/pharmacist and works in Texas at a VA helping veterans with their mental health. Sid had been trying to find the right combo of meds for his anxiety for a while and asked Josh for advice. After learning what Sid was currently taking, Josh urged him to get in to the doctor and adjust them. Sid was able to get in to his doctor on August 16th. In almost a throwaway kind of way he mentioned that he'd had pains in his stomach and was having trouble swallowing. Since we had met our max out of pocket he had no problem doing some additional tests. His doctor set him up with Dr. Bryce at Franklin County Medical Center for an end

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