How it all began!

On Saturday, 8-29-09, Emily called from school and said she found a lump in her neck. I immediately thought," mono", and told her to go to the clinic at school. Of course the clinic wasn't open on Saturday, so on Mon. morning she went in for a checkup. Dr. S told her it looked like thyroid cancer. Needless to say, she had a crying meltdown. At the time, I couldn't believe the Dr. had said the "C" word to a college kid by herself. I thought it was just revenge that he had to deal with her. However he prepared us for what was to come, and did a great job in referring us where we needed to go in a timely manner. So for that ...Thank you Dr. S!


Tues. 9-1-09, Jim and I drove to her college for an appointment with an ENT/head and neck surgeon. Dr. C was great! He told us it had all the symptoms of lymphoma,and he recommended a lymph node biopsy, and asked to do it on Thurs. We were moving fast! It was to be an outpatient surgery, and we started the pre-tests to make it happen: blood work, and neck/chest CT scan. Blake, Emily's boyfriend, was there throughout the process and was a rock! Emily was amazing, strong and probably in shock as we all were!


I stayed in college town, and Jim headed back home. Did I forget to mention that Tues. Matt woke up with a high fever, and went to the Dr. that morning? Sure enough it was swine flu, well only flu type A, because they don't test for swine, but the Dr. reassured us it was indeed swine. Emily went to class on Wed, took a test, and kept busy. I cleaned her apartment, went to the grocery store, and cooked dinner for a bunch of hungry college kids who appreciated a home cooked meal. And we waited. The waiting is tough!


Thurs. 9-3, Jim drove back to college town, and we arrived at the out patient surgery clinic. Emily had great attitude, and people were amazed at how well she was doing. Jim's parents were there to wait with us, and people all over country were praying. That is a good feeling! To make a long story short... an out patient procedure became complicated. Emily had a negative reaction to the anesthesia during surgery and was intubated. Dr. C said it was like she was having an asthma attack. Dr. C removed 4 lymph nodes and then sent us to college town hospital. We were transferred by ambulance, and they put us in ICU. They wanted to make sure she did not have any more reactions while there was still anesthesia in her system. She started feeling better fast, and by dinner time was able to eat Wendy's. By later that night, had a whole room of visitors(Blake,Lauren, Clay, Callie, and Adam). She has a great group of friends at college! Many others had texted her to find out how she was. Went home on Friday morning, and she felt great. We took her home to my parents house while Jim and I disinfected our house from top to bottom to get rid of the piggy virus! Matt was cured by now, thank you Lord! Tamiflu is an amazing thing!
Saturday she felt well enough to go to the big game with friends!


Tues. 9-8, Jim and I drove to college town to meet with Emily and get the diagnosis from the biopsy. It was nodular sclerosing Hodgkin's lymphoma. If you have to get cancer, this is the kind of lymphoma you want. We went home that night and asked a family friend for a referral to an oncologist. He gave us Dr. P's name. We called Wed. morning and got the ball rolling for treatment. After sending all records, we had an appointment on Wed. 9-16. Apparently our prayers were being answered for things to move fast, because we were moving faster than most people in similar situations had told us to expect! We have had people praying for us all over the country, and we have felt God's presence and his hand on us time and time again. In the mean time, Emily kept busy with school and friends to keep her mind off cancer!

http://lymphoma.about.com/od/hodgkinlymphoma/qt/nodularscler.htm


Wed. 9-16 We met with Dr. P, the oncologist. The oncologist's office was a little overwhelming. You were faced with the reality of cancer. There were some very ill people, and a few bald heads. But We were very impressed with the cancer group, nurse Rachel, and Dr. P herself. Everyone was incredibly kind and went out of their way to make things easier. Dr. P was very matter-of -fact and very kind! She was highly encouraging about this type of cancer and said repeatedly, "It is very treatable!" She asked Emily what her biggest fear other than that was, and Emily said going to school. The Dr. said, if that is her priority, they would work to make it happen. Dr. P said they would work treatments around Emily's school schedule. I think this was a huge load off of Emily's mind. They then set up a multitude of tests to determine what stage the cancer is in, and prepare for chemo.


Mon. 9-21 We had "chemo class". We were not sure what this would entail, but it was very helpful. They went over the reason chemo works, how it works, and then broke down many of the myths and fears involved with chemo. Emily was by far the youngest person in the room by 30 years, but once again, everyone was very kind and supportive. They talked about specific drugs each person would receive and how to deal with the side effects. It helped to take away a lot of the fear from the unknown. Tomorrow is her CT scan and pet scan. Talk to you tomorrow!