Good with the bad

Hope everyone had a good weekend!

We finally have an update regarding Alec's throat. Both good and bad news. It is confusing, so I am going to try to explain best I can.

First, the bad news: the pathology came back as "B-Cell Lymphoma". Good news: it is very curable, and it appears to be isolated in his throat only.

We find it quite unbelievable that Alec has 2 types of cancer and the second one was diagnosed only a couple weeks after the colorectal cancer. However, when I asked the throat doctor if this was possible he said "you may just be that unlucky." Gee, thanks doc.

Back to the good news...Alec had another CT scan on Wednesday and everything came back negative. :) Yay! This means that the cancer has not spread to other parts of his body. We are meeting with the hematology oncologist Tuesday afternoon to discuss the B-Cell Lymphoma. I ran into Dr. Allen in the hallway (Alec's oncologist) and she said she was not too worried about the throat and felt reassured with the negative scans.

Next step...Since even the doctors are perplexed by Alec's condition, there will be more tests done this week to see if the lymph nodes from his throat are related to the lypmh nodes that are infected near his colon. It is highly unlikely, however they just want to make sure. He will have another colonoscopy on Wednesday so they can biopsy the lymph nodes and compare to the throat tissue. Has anyone seen the show "House"? We feel like we are living through an episode.

B-Cell Lymphoma would require a different chemo regimen, so we are really hoping this was isolated in the throat and they got it out completely and he can continue with this chemo plan.

I saw Julie P at MGH and she said her Uncle (who also has colon cancer) just started a clinical trial and is fighting really hard. Please pray for him and his family!

Alec is feeling good, a few side effects from chemo, but nothing major. Just a little tired, headaches and a little nausea.

He got off raking again this weekend! My mom came up and made us my favorite meal and helped me with the yard. Thanks Mom! I secretly love yard work, but I do not want Alec to know, only because he feels kinda bad and tells me how wonderful I am for doing it all and how great the yard looks. :) Now I know what it is like to have one of those lazy husbands who plays video games and lays on the couch...only I can not be the nagging wife who complains. (he is fighting for his life after all.)

The Lombardos were in Maine too, I got to meet the newest addition to the family...Teddy, a brown lab. He went to the beach for the first time...too cute! Then we went to our favorite store...Mardens...bought a ton of stuff we don't need!

I got to see my favorite niece last week, she is so adorable and makes me so happy, all she does is smile! Except for the camera, we are gonna have to teach her the famous "DeMarco Girl Pose". Bobs mother gave us a beautiful prayer shawl made by her church. It is so warm and comforting and now we each have one. Thank You! And Tina's mom made us some delicious sauce, yummmy! I am going to forget how to cook it has been so long! Thank you!

I guess that is all for now. Not that the above isn't much! We are feeling even more optimistic with the news that the stupid throat thing is curable and has not spread.

Thank you for your prayers and support! We disagree with the doctor who said we are "unlucky". Who could have the friends and family we have and be "unlucky?"

Not us :)

All our Love,

Heather & Alec
and Millie too.