It's been a while and I know some are wondering and wanting an update. 
I've now come up on the 1 year mark since having the surgical biopsy to finally get the answer to what was going on with/around my lungs. 9/7/2021 was the surgery date and 9/11/2021 was the day that I got the call from my thoracic surgeon letting me know that it was in fact cancer, B-Cell Lymphoma. Also little did I know that I was only a week away from being admitted back into the hospital to start the intensive chemo process. Feels like yesterday and a lifetime ago all at the same time. 

But the good new is, it has been 8 full months since I discharged from the hospital for the last chemo cycle. I've had two clear scans in that time, and being the first post chemo PET scan looked so amazing, I was right away allowed to step down to CAT Scans with contrast. Everything continues to look good. Some scaring on the left lung from where the mass was, but so far it has not been anything that I notice affecting my life or activity level. 

Speaking of activity level, I was determined to get my strength and stamina back. I have a household that needed that, and I personally needed that. It's been a process, and shocker to those that know me well, I apparently have a tendency to push the limits a bit too much. I have an amazing team that I work with from my Oncology team, to my functional medicine team, my coach as well as all those that have to put up with me in day to day life. I've been told more than once to stop doing all the things, the body is still healing. But I figure I am just creating job security for my acupuncturist. That is the one thing that keeps pulling my body back together when I've gone too hard and everything flairs up. He has also caught on that I'm a unique one. The typical protocols that oncology patients tend to need, they don't work for me. I require a sedation protocol😂  with a twist of energy.

While it isn't much fun to deal with systematic pain, I'm learning my limits, and continually challenging them. And I know once I've pushed over the limit, I might as well just keep on going, because it won't get much worse, and I usually have an acupuncture appointment schedule. Yes, that really is how I roll some time. 

Everyone in the family was happy and excited to be back to camping this year at State Parks. Again I pushed some limits, but being able to achieve some lofty goals has been amazing. All of the good really helps to make the hard stuff a bit easier to work through. There are still plenty of hard things for the family to continue to work through and process. Let's be real, having one parent hurt/injured with life altering stuff isn't easy, having both your parents go down at the same time can really be a challenge. But let me tell you, the boys have been come a long ways. We keep working together and building back a bit more each week. (Lets be real not all days are a step forward, but the weeks usually are) 

School is back in session now. That is probably why I finally had the chance to sit down and write up and update. I'm also back to doing the insanity of volunteering at the elementary. Both boys are now onto the middle school, but I still have a pulling force to give back to the school that helped create such a support and foundation for us. So this will be the real test on my immune system post chemo!