The Rest Of The Story

As Paul Harvey would say.

I know many of you feel like my blog news yesterday came out of nowhere and while the last couple of days HAVE felt like a living nightmare, it's actually something Jason and I have been quietly dealing with for a few weeks.

About five or six weeks ago, Jason asked me if I noticed a lump in his neck. We both just played if off as a swollen lymph node. But two or three weeks later when the lump was still there we thought it might be time to get it checked out. Luckily we have several great ENT doctors at church, one being an elder, Dr. Jerry Templer. So one afternoon while we were in the car, I called Dr. Templer at the hospital and asked him if we could come by his office that afternoon if he had time to look at this lump in jason's neck. Instead, he invited us out to his home that evening. After he looked at the lump he said that it was probably nothing, but that if it was a member of his family he would have them have it checked out and he told us that he would set us up with another one of the doctors from church, Dr. Jeff Jorgensen. The next day, nurses from Dr. Jorgensen's office were calling Jason to schedule an appointment. Three days later we were sitting in a room with Dr. Jorgensen, and he was saying that he wanted to needle biopsy the lump which he did that same day. That day was also only the fifth day that we had been married and Jason's parents had driven to Columbia with a trailer to help load up my stuff. It was a Friday. December 11th.

On Monday, we were literally headed out the door to go to financial peace at church and Jason's phone rang. It was Dr. Jorgensen. The results of the needle biopsy had come back "inconclusive" but it was suspicious for lymphoma. That was the first time we'd heard the word in regards to a possible diagnosis for Jason.

That night, instead of going to financial peace, we went to eat supper at a Chinese buffet and process the information that we'd just gotten. We decided to hold out hope that the lump was just nothing and by not making a big deal of it, the only people we told were our parents.

Since the needle biopsy had come back "inconclusive," the next step was for Jason to have surgery to remove a larger piece of the lymph node to be biopsied. The ball got rolling very quickly, and he ended up being scheduled for surgery on the 18th. Last Friday. Just four days after we'd gotten the phone call from Dr. Jorgensen.

Jason's parents and his oldest sister came up to Columbia to wait with me while Jason was in surgery. We had been told that the plan had changed from just taking a larger piece of the lymph node to actually removing the whole node, but when the operating surgeon came to talk to us after the surgery we found out that he couldn't remove the whole node and that by his guess we should bet on it being lymphoma. But in the very next breath, as doctors do, he gave us a sliver of hope that it still could turn out to be nothing. I tried facing reality... Jason clung to hope... And in the meantime we told all of the kids in very general terms what was going on. That was all on Friday the 18th.

Monday the 21st Jason and I were in the car headed back home to the farm after being in court in Columbia all day. We stopped at a mcdonalds for drinks and Jason went in to get them... Leaving his phone in the truck... Which he never does. And don't you know... It rings. And it's the hospital. Dr. Jorgensen calling to give us initial findings from the biopsy. It's been confirmed. Lymphoma. And I'm left to break the news to Jason. Not only that... But he started using specific words that I knew from Internet research were BAD!

One of the hardest things I've ever had to do in my life was go with Jason that night over to his kids moms house to give them the news in person that their dad has cancer. At that point we still didn't know for sure how aggressive it is but Jason had a follow up appointment on Wednesday with the operating surgeon and we figured we'd get more answers then.

Wednesday we went for the follow up appointment. The doc removed the stitches from the incision then shook jason's hand and told us to have a merry Christmas. But I had questions and wanted answers!! I told him what we'd been told on the phone from Dr. Jorgensen the night before and asked him if he knew anything about it. He told us to stay for a minute while he went to check and fifteen minutes later finally came back. He told us that the final report from pathology had just come back that day confirming that Jason does have a very rare and very aggressive type of lymphoma. The bad word that I knew from Internet research. Right then and there, that doctor set us up an appointment that very day with a specialist over at the cancer center. And after meeting with the specialist who is internationally reknowned for his research on this specific rare type of lymphoma he decided to admit Jason to the hospital that night. The type of lymphoma Jason has is so aggressive and rapid spreading that it has the ability to double every 14 hours. The specialist wanted to get CT scans and a bone marrow biopsy to find out the extent of advancement and staging of the lymphoma in Jason. So that's what we did last night and today. Jason stayed overnight in the hospital last night but got to come home today praise the Lord!! The results of the CT scan was that there is no evidence of any other tumors anywhere else in his body which is rare for this already rare lymphoma!! When I say my husband is one in a million I literally mean it! Had the results been different, he would have started chemotherapy today and we'd be spending Christmas in the hospital.

We won't know the results of the bone marrow biopsy until early next week which will determine the strength of chemotherapy jason gets. It is my prayer that you never have to watch someone you love go through a bone marrow biopsy!!! That was SO not fun.

Jason starts chemotherapy on Thursday. We are asking for prayers during this phase of our life. Prayers that of course the cancer will be beat. That jason's body will be healed. And also prayers for us as a newly married couple and combined family. There's no doubt that this journey is going to be rough on ALL of us.

I guess I will sign off for tonight. There is a rule in our house that there's no talking about cancer on Christmas. :)












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