Sunday, July 01, 2007

Not sure how to start this, so I just will. Obviously I haven't posted for awhile, but I know I have blogger friends out there that would care about what I'm about to say, so I'll just jump in...

Last Friday my oldest daughter had a surgical biopsy for what her doctors are assuming is Hodgkins Lymphoma. It's been going on for about four months now, leading to the biopsy on Friday. The good news is that it's highly curable, as her oncologist confirmed last week. The bad news is that it is a form of cancer and treatment for it would very traumatic, even though the prognosis for this type is very good. After four months of doctors, tests, CT Scans, etc., I feel like we're finally in capable hands. The first time we met her oncologist, he hugged her and kissed her forehead and said, "Don't worry sweetie. I'll treat you as if you were my own little girl." He's my new hero.

When we went for her pre-op appointment last week, I took this picture with her holding her urine sample in her lap. Yeah, I know it's gross. And the look on her face indicates that she thinks she's surrounded by idiots! :)



Then we went to the biopsy at 6 AM Friday morning. Here she is in her little purple hospital gown. The picture isn't very clear - I took it on my cellphone.



The doctor removed three lymph nodes. One to send for cultures, two to send to pathology, looking for Hodgkins and other types of lymphoma. We won't get the results for about a week. At times I have so much to say about this, and normally I would give a lot more details. Now I'm just really tired. I'll try to write more about it later. For now I would appreciate your prayers.

Thanks.