Today, Gunnar was officially declared as cancer-free! He finished his last round of chemo on September 1, again tolerating all of his treatments extremely well with minimal side effects. On Monday, Gunnar had labs drawn, complete body scans including a PET scan and CT scans, along with a pulmonary assessment to determine if there is any lung fibrosis secondary to chemo. Today, he had an audiology assessment to assess for hearing loss, followed by an appointment with Dr. Rowwas (pediatric oncologist) and an oncology nurse. During the appointment, we went over all of his scans which showed NO CANCER or possible areas of concern! On the PET scan, no areas lit up that shouldn’t have!  So essentially the 2 small areas of concern on lymph nodes that were identified prior to starting chemo are now gone! His audiology testing showed no change from baseline in his hearing while the pulmonary testing showed no indication of lung fibrosis! His labs are all normal or near normal (with the exception of low hemoglobin of 9.6), but trending in the right directions. His beta HCG (one of the tumor marker labs) which was highly elevated at over 5000 prior to chemo is now undetectable!! Yay! The other tumor marker, alpha feta protein, has remained undetectable since his surgery (but was quite elevated prior to surgery). He is still down about 12# but I doubt it will be for long because his appetite is about back to baseline and between him and Brody, we can barely keep our kitchen stocked with food! He will have his central line (port) surgically removed ASAP, probably next week, which is an outpatient procedure. He started his senior year of high school right on time and has gone back to his part-time job of delivering pizzas as well as working out and lifting weights, all in his desperation to get back to being “normal” again. He plans to train hard for the next 2 months and try out for the high school varsity hockey team this fall. He knows he has to work hard since he has not been on the ice since May but if anyone can do it, he can, thanks to his stubbornness and determination.💜 Gunnar will go back every 3 months throughout the next year for CT’s, labs and physical examinations by Dr. Rawwas and his team. Throughout the 2nd year, he will do the same but with a frequency of every 4-5 months. Provided he remains cancer-free during the next 2 years, he will then go in yearly for the subsequent 5 years. Fortunately, he can still have all of his cancer-related tests and care at Children’s until he is in his early 30’s since he was diagnosed at age 17. We feel good about this because Children’s knows what they’re doing and have been amazing throughout this (for lack of a better word) “journey.” In fact, the outcomes of those treated at Children’s using their cancer treatment protocols versus traditional cancer treatment protocols (typically all outpatient treatment) are far superior with significantly higher survival rates.