Final Round Complete!

This is Christopher and his teacher, Ronda, the day after "THE END" of chemo! He celebrated the milestone with his classmates...and a big chocolate cake of course!

Late Thursday evening, 9 very long months later, Christopher completed his 18th and final round of his chemo protocol! Somehow this day seemed so far off and now it is behind us.
Fortunately, it was an uneventful week. He had a mildly rough start with nausea, but he finished up feeling pretty good.
There was one minor setback, or disappointment rather. Chris was experiencing pain in his hip area (where the 2 screws are located) so he had a couple of X-rays taken to make sure all was intact. The films looked OK, however, small fractures may no be evident and given the brittle nature of the bones in that leg the Orthopedic Surgeon thought it best that he stayed off the leg until he has his complete series of tests on the 15th. It would make sense that his pain is muscular in nature and caused by not being used to his prosthesis. It weighs 8 pounds which is a lot considering he had been immobile for almost 6 months. Chris was not happy as he was doing quite well adjusting to his new leg. He was also looking forward to physical therapy this week so that he could be that much closer to losing the crutches. But all minor issues considering the road he has already traveled.
So on December 15th Christopher will have a chest CT, a full bone scan and an MRI to rule out any evidence of disease. If he is clear he will only have to repeat these tests every 2-3 months.
On the 17th he is leaving for California and very excited about a change of scenery and spending the holidays with family.
I am so proud of Christopher for the way he braved through this and also for the many people's lives he has touched. He continued to amaze me each step of the way.
We are both very grateful to have had such a strong support group behind us. I don't know that we could have hung in there as well as we did without the encouragement, love and constant prayers from everyone. I have to say, although it is just Christopher and I in this home, there was never the sense of being alone with so many of you always close at heart. So again, my heartfelt thanks and appreciation to all!
Thank God for the end of this chapter!!

I wanted to put up this picture from Christopher's very first day of Chemo. I still cannot believe how much he has grown both physically and more importantly mentally.