Coaching Through Cancer

It’s this fellas birthday today!!! 🙌🥳🎄💚

It’s been a bit since we shared so I will give you all a quick update. It’s been a challenging fall for Tony’s health but we are finally on a path to healing.

Around October he picked up some kind of bug and was out for about a week. We thought he was doing better but after a routine trip to Mayo at the beginning of Nov they found that he had an infection around his trach that had settled in his lungs.

Two antibiotics later he was still not feeling awesome. We received test results from Mayo that suggested he had a fungal infection, black yeast, which was treated with an antifungal and an appt with the infectious disease doctor was set up.

For two weeks he struggled to breathe, couldn’t eat, was exhausted, night sweats and all we could think was that he had this awful fungal infection that was slowly growing in his lungs! Ugh. 😣 He simply wasn’t getting better.

Finally….we made it to the infectious disease doctor on Wed this week, praying for answers and direction. And come to find out, the “black yeast” was a non issue and would have already been cleared up after a week of the anti fungal meds.

So…what was the issue? Pneumonia. 🥺 We were relieved to hear that it was all fixable! 🙏🙏 The same day we met with his ENT and she said his trach looked good and we needed to continue his normal trach hygiene routine.

And to add to our good news, we received scan results the next day and everything is STABLE! No new growth. No new spots. No changes.

He’s been on medication for the pneumonia and is finally starting to feel like himself. Today was the first day in weeks that I’ve seen him eat an entire day of food that wasn’t a protein shake. Actual real food. 💚🙏

To say that we are grateful, is a complete understatement. The anxiety leading up to his appointments this last week was at an all time high, not fully understanding what was happening we were so relieved to hear good news two days in a row.

This holiday season we decided that we did not want to get each other gifts and asked that all we get from our kids was time with them. Togetherness and the continued opportunity to make memories and enjoy time with them was and is all we want. Not just during the holidays, but every day.

Today is more than just Tony’s birthday but another day we get to be together. Which means every day is a day to celebrate.

He will continue his biweekly immunotherapy treatments and scan again in 2-3 months. Our journey the next few months is to get him healthy so we can get back to living.

If you haven’t already, be sure to send him a birthday shout out! He loves hearing from all of you. 🙏

🤟🏻 Stacey and Tony