From Mike to N.E.D.

Mike has a new name, according to his oncologist. It’s N.E.D. Those of you who’ve ever been in the cancer world might be familiar with this term. But for those of you who aren’t, keep reading for the latest update. I promise it’s a good one! (FINALLY!)

What Is N.E.D.?

I know it’s been awhile since I’ve updated here (10 weeks, actually!). Life has been very hard and exhausting since we got home from Duke. Lots of things needed to get done at home. I’ll do a separate life update later. Let’s get to the cancer update for today.

Mike had his post-transplant follow-up PET on July 31st. I told you in our last update about going home from transplant #2 that we would be in SCANxiety for 100 days. Boy, that was nerve-wracking! Finally, Thursday came and we went to the scan. God bless Duke Health for there quick turn-around time on scans and other testing!!! He had the scan in the morning and we saw his oncologist in the afternoon for the results.

Once more, Dr. Ramalingam was elated and so encouraging to Mike. He walked through the PET images with us and showed us how there is currently NO EVIDENCE of DISEASE (N.E.D.)!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (There aren’t enough exclamation marks!) Like the scan in December that had improved drastically from September’s, Dr. Ramalingam used words like phenomenal and I’m so pleased with this scan. He congratulated Mike over and over and told him he’s like a boxer who keeps getting knocked down, but hangs in there to finish the tenth round. Mike has officially been declared in remission!!!!

I have so much more to share about the last two and a half months (we moved, Mike’s excellent beard!, some really cool God-moments, and more!) but for now, rejoice with us. He has to do PETs every three months for a year, so we’ll be hopefully awaiting more excellent results. When you see Mike, be sure to call him NED. Just don’t confuse him with the guy below!