YES!!! Finally Cured!!

Today is a glorious day that many times I had wondered or been fearful that we would never reach. It is the 5 year mark of Austins Stem Cell Transplant and the day we count as his

5th year in REMISSION!It brings tears to my eyes just thinking about all that he was going through 5 years ago. I sometimes wish that I could forget altogether his cancer but then I would miss out on all the good things that we learned and were able to take from that experience. It has shaped who we are and gave us an outlook on life that I truly am grateful for.
Austin was diagnosed with a diffused large cell non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, stage 4b, six years ago in August. If not treated he would have had about 2-3 months to live. After the Doctor called us and told us Austin had cancer we cried for a little bit and then Austin made up his mind that it didn't matter what his prognosis was, he was going to do all he could to fight his cancer with all he had and leave the rest up to the lord, and he did just that.
He went into his treatments with such a great attitude and hardly ever complained. He started very aggressive treatments every 2 weeks until his white cells wouldn't bounce back quick enough and they moved the treatments to about once a month. In October after one of his treatments he developed a infection is his stomach called c-diff and was hospitalized for 2 weeks. During this time his mom and I took turns being with Austin and taking care of our 1 1/2 year old Allie because she was not allowed in his hospital room. It was such a difficult time where Austin was in constant pain and literally fighting to stay alive. He couldn't eat any solid food and had to receive all his nutrients through an I.V. As I look back it was one of the bleakest memories of my life. He luckily recovered and then the next month got hit with the same infection after his next chemo. He was in the hospital for 3 weeks this time and in ways even worse off because he was still so weakened from the first bout of this infection and of course the aggressive chemo treatments. Luckily, because of the amount of pain meds he had to be on there are large portions of this time Austin doesn't remember. I am so glad because it was really terrible to say the least. I think I will forever hate the St. George Hospital just because of the memories of this time.
He recovered and continued his regular treatments. His treatments usually consisted of 3-5 days where he would go in for anywhere from 2-5 hours and get the chemo through a central line he had in his chest. This would pretty much kill his white cell count and he would be weak and all he could really do was lay in bed and only get up to use the rest room.There is a lot more I could say about the chemo treatments and how hard they were but I will just leave it at... I pray that they find a better way to treat cancer because this course is really such a difficult one. In Feb we had our second daughter Kaity and Austin got to deliver her with Dr. Oakden. The doctor who actually found Austin's cancer and who I am forever grateful for. Six days later he went in to surgery to have his spleen removed. It was not responding well to the treatments and was still about the size of a pineapple (should be the size of a pear). This was quite a time...new baby, a almost 2 year old, me recovering from having a baby, and Austin recovering from surgery. All I can say is Thank goodness for MOTHERS! My mom came and helped me with the baby and Allie and Austin's mom was our right hand through his entire cancer treatments. I really don't think we could have done it if it wasn't for the help of his parents.
I think he had one more chemo treatment before his bone marrow transplant. Making that 8 chemo treatments. He went in towards the end of March for his bone marrow transplant. They hit him with total body radiation for I think 3 days and then infused him with high intense chemo that is about 8x stronger than regular chemo (basically all but killing you with out actually killing you). After it showed that he had 0 white blood cells they infused him with his stem cells on April 6th. (luckily his cancer had not reached his bone marrow so we were able to use his own stem cells making the procedure a little less risky) At this point he was in a hepa filter room up at the University of Utah. He could literally had to crawl to the bathroom because he was too weak to walk. It was for him the hardest time of his life. He soon began to regain a little strength and he pushed himself to eat all the food they put in front of him (even though it made him sick) and to get on the stationary bike they had in his room every day even if it was just for a short time. He dropped down to about 140 pounds and literally looked like a Holocost victim. It was basically his faith in god and the thought of our little girls that kept him fighting during this time. He was in the hospital for about a month which is a miracle (as most BMT patients are in much longer) and during this time he never had to receive a blood transfusion which is really a miracle in its self. After he was released we had to stay up in a hotel in Salt Lake 15 min from the hospital for 3 weeks in case he had any problems. Our girls were such troopers being cooped up in a hotel for 3 weeks. Austin was very weakened from the BMT and he was also dealing with withdrawals from the pain meds he had to be on during the BMT. He literally felt like he had ants crawling inside his veins and couldn't do anything about it. When they did the final check up on him so we could go home the Dr. said that his recovery was probably the fastest recovery from a transplant he had ever seen. After we got home Austin had 6 more weeks of spot radiation every day on his pelvis where the cancer had gone into the bone and he was finally finished with treatments 1 month shy of a year.

I know this is a very long post and I am sorry for that, but to fully understand what a great day this is and what it means for us him being in remission for 5 years it helps to know what a battle this was for Austin. I barely scratch the surface describing what a horrific experience this was but it gives you a rough idea. Basically, if you make it 1 year in remission you have a 50% chance of staying in remission. If you make it 2 years you have a 90% chance of staying in Remission. If you make it 5 years you are considered CURED OF CANCER!
I want Austin to know what an amazing man he is and how much I truly love and appreciate him everyday! I am so proud of him for fulfilling, and making his dream of becoming a physician a reality. He is so disciplined in his studies and he will make an awesome Doctor some day. He is such an inspiration to me and I thank god every day for letting me be a part of his life. He is my best friend and my perfect half. He is such a good father. Our girls look up to him so much. I love to just sit back and watch him play with them. You are inspiring and you did it....
5 YEARS baby WOO HOO! I love you!Also, I would like to say Thank You to all of you who helped us during his cancer and for all the prayers that were given in our behalf. I know that god does answers prayers and we could feel the strength we received from them.