My diagnosis

First I am going to tell you about Dina.  She had her hair cut on Tuesday...just shoulder length, but it looks so cute.  Scott says it makes her look younger!  She was surprised to hear that!  Her bone marrow biopsy came back positive for the lymphoma in her bone.  The doctor said he was not surprised as it was quite hard to get the "drill" into the marrow...it was "packed with lymphoma"....he also said not to worry about that, it does not change the game plan at all.  Okay, but I could see her face and it was a let down to know that it has truly invaded her bone.  But we already did know that the lesion was eroding the bone, so it makes sense that it has taken up residence in there.  If her back didn't hurt so much, she really would not know that she is filled with lymphoma throughout her body!

She and Jamie had a date night last night.  Teale, my niece came over to be with the children.  Dina wanted to have a night out with Jamie before all the chemo starts (THIS FRIDAY, October 12)...I don't know what movie they saw, I hope it was a funny one!!

Now about me.  I will cut to the chase:  yes, I have a cancerous tumor of the lung.  Yes, it needs to be removed ASAP, although if I have to wait 4 - 6 weeks, that is not a problem.  The good news is that all that high tech OctreoScan did NOT show any other abnormalities in the pelvis, abdomen, or chest!  But I have to interject here that it also did NOT show (non - visualized was the wording on the report) the one tumor that is already known!!  Ha, how is that possible?  I know it is a low grade tumor, maybe that is why, but seriously, one gets radio active substance in their body and I lay for hours on a table and it doesn't even show the existing tumor?  That seems crazy.  Not to mention that I did it for THREE days!!

The contrast CT Scan that I had directly after the octreoscan showed everything...right down to the size! 1.7 x 1.4 cm!  Oh, and surprisingly enough it showed more kidney stones  (8 to be exact...with their sizes)!!  OMG!  So now I am thinking, maybe I was not crazy and really did have a kidney stone back in August which is what brought me to the Kootenai Hospital in Coeur d'Alene and which in turn prompted a CT scan showing no kidney stone, but oh, "we do see a 'nodule' on the lower left quadrant of your lung that should be checked out"  and that in turn led me to where I am today!!  Do you suppose "someone" had a hand in this?  I have to believe so...I guess with this type of cancer I could have developed something that is called "carcinoid syndrome" and the symptoms would be flushing and diarrhea...but I would have believed I was having flu symptoms...so this is not just a coincidence.  This is my Comforter and my Healer looking out for me.

The next step is a PET scan; because the octreoscan did not show ANYTHING the oncologist wants to confirm with a PET Scan.  Then I see a thoracic surgeon on Oct. 24 and find out when I can be scheduled for surgery.  I will know a whole lot more after that office visit...lots of questions for him.  The oncologist did say I would be about a week in the hospital and at least a month if not more to recover...oh and he used the word "pain" in there....I guess I will be offering up a lot of suffering to the Lord!!  Seems a small price to pay for my life, though, huh?

I know this was a HUGE relief for me and my family...just knowing that it was something that had not metastasized is huge for my husband and kids (not to mention me).  So we all walked (yes, the whole family was in the doctor's office...we invited Lacey to join us) away feeling like this was good news and something we can deal with and move on.  The doctor's office staff were so nice and so helpful in setting everything up ASAP...they had NEVER had a case with a mother-daughter (any any two family members) at the same time.  It was really unbelievable to them and they were so quick at getting things scheduled for me so that we could proceed.

So there you have it...good news mixed with the inevitable bad news.

Stay tuned for more updates about Dina, Friday will be a big day for her...over 6 hours sitting in the chemo chair!!  Pray for her...please.