Game on.

A great visit with the oncologist today (what a strange sentence).  

Dr. McCoy spent a lot of time explaining all of the results from last week's tests.  Here's my take (and save your heckling--I realize webMD and mayoclinic.org don't qualify me to explain much of anything). Chris aced them all...bone marrow is clear, PET scan didn't show any additional rotten spots, literally blew them away on his lung test, heart was perfect, LDH was normal and some blood sedimentation test rated him as a 1 (the lower the better).  He's pretty much the picture of health except for this lymphoma thing.  He is officially staged as having 2A Classic Hodgkin's.  Given what we already knew, this was the best possible news he could have gotten today (second only to "Just Kidding").  

So, it's time to get after it.  Chris chose to start chemo this Thursday rather than wait until next week.  He'll have chemo every other week for the next two months with a radiation chaser.  We've gotten some great chemo pointers from Allison and Josh, but any other ideas about how to prepare and/or pass the time in the infusion center are welcome.  We do have a bootleg version of Slumdog Millionaire to watch on the laptop.  (I would thank the neighbor who dropped it off, but it might get her in trouble with the feds).

Janie was very concerned and quiet tonight after I picked her up from MMargaret's.  She asked very sweetly (and to know her is to know that is not her normal tone of voice), "But what are they going to do to Daddy on Thursday?"  I pulled the car over and tried to explain how they would put the chemo into his body to start fighting the cancer.  "Like karate?  Yes, Tate--a lot like karate.  And the chemo will be  hi-yahing so fiercely that it will make Dad pretty tired and probably make his hair fall out."

"HIS HAIR WILL FALL OUT?  HE WILL BE BALD?  Yes, for a while."

I braced myself for tears or at the very least more questions.  And then they started cracking up... I mean we had to race home to avoid people wetting their pants they were laughing so hard.  

Janie even tried out her new joke tonight (taught to her by Maggie, I think).  "Dad, why did the eagle get his hair cut?  Because he wanted to be a BALD eagle!"  Usually our kids' jokes don't even have a punch line--much less one that is topical.  

So, they appear to be tough like their Dad and slightly warped like their Mom.  Both will serve them well.  

Thanks for all of the calls, notes, e-mails and especially your prayers. (We got a very sweet prayer-gram today from Germantown Baptist in TN.)  God is good, life is good and while Hodgkin's was not something that Chris wanted on the '09 calendar--he is ready.  
Good night--K