Happy Dance!

So, we had our annual appointment at the Children's Hospital today. Josh had a visit with his amazing oncologist and we had an MRI tonight. Thank goodness we only do this once a year - it's exhausting! I remember how hard it was when we were dealing with this every day and I'm so glad that's not our life anymore.

I hope I'm not jinxing us (although I really don't believe in stuff like that...) but it looks like Josh has been issued another clean bill of health. Two more years of annual scans and then we are DONE! Crazy exciting. Our oncologist, Dr. D, told me today that the long range data from the clinical trial that Josh was a part of looks really great. That hopefully translates into many more years of great health!! Honestly, it's still amazing to me how good Josh's health is, even after all the poison we pumped into him... I'm very thankful that we were able to avoid radiation therapy because I'm pretty sure Josh's health wouldn't be where it is if we would have had to do that. So thankful that our oncologist had the foresight to enroll us into that clinical trial and that it worked as well as it did.

We'll get the all clear call on Monday, but Dr. D did happen to mention that if there was anything suspicious on the MRI, Radiology would call him before we left, so if they let us out the door, we're probably good  :) No one stopped us on the way out, so I'm taking that as a good thing. Besides, Josh passed all the "how is your cerebellum working" tests with Dr. D and that's usually a good indicator that everything is fine. 

Josh was a little stressed about the blood draw today. Funny story, though - John, from the Hem Onc Clinic did the labs (as he ALWAYS does every year!) and Josh had a hard time with it. First he asked whether or not they had to do it (to which John replied "Absolutely, because even though you were young and don't remember how hard it was, your mom remembers, your dad remembers, your grandparents remember and I remember. And no one wants to go through that again.") and then he cried just one tear during the poke. When the poke was over, John asked Josh how bad it actually was (which it really wasn't bad at all), and then told him that he bets that at some point this weekend Josh will do something to himself that hurts worse than the poke did. About half an hour later, Josh was dancing in his socks in the room and wiped out flat on he floor - which hurt significantly worse that the poke did  :)

The whole point was that the worrying about the poke was worse than the poke itself - and Josh wasn't worried about hurting himself any other time this weekend, but we thought it was funny how John's prediction came true before we even left!

So, here we are - 8 years out - and there is light at the end of the tunnel!!!!