On August 26th, Melanie and I went to see Dr. K, my mom's oncologist. He's a very positive man in need of a comb. He must have just pulled off headphones because his hair was sticking up. LOL ...Melanie and i both had the biggest urge to offer him a comb.
We were there for about 2.5 hours. About 30-40 minutes was with the doctor telling us all kinds of things. Just by looking at her, he thinks she is at stage 2. But a PET scan needs to be done to know for sure and you can't perform a PET scan on a pregnant woman. He tells us it's OK to wait until she is 37 weeks pregnant to be induced. But to be ready, because we are going to move quick after the baby is born. They are going to wait about 10 days after delivery to do the PET scan, then probably start chemotherapy a day or 2 later. He tells us he is confident that he can cure her. He felt the lumps on the right side of her neck (left side is lump free) and checks under her arms. He found another lump under her right arm. The PET scan will tell us where all the lumps are, which determines the stage of the cancer.
Next, we went down the hall to see the chemo room. It's not really a room, it's a big open area in the shape of a U with lots of recliner type chairs lining the walls and the nurse's station in the middle. Each recliner has an IV pole and a straight back chair next to it. There are flat panel TVs and individual DVD players. They try to make it comfortable, after all, patients are there for several hours at least. In Melanie's case, she'll be there for 3 hours on chemo days.
Melanie's proposed treatment consists of 4 different kinds of chemo meds given through an IV every 14 days with blood draws 7 days after each treatment. She's going to have 8-16 treatments, which is 4-8 months. After 2 months of treatment, they will do another PET scan to see how the treatment is working. They said she's going to be tired and may lose her hair about 2-3 weeks after the first treatment. They'll give her medicine for nausea so that shouldn't be a problem. But with a newborn, her husband working out of state, an active 3 year old, and getting Catie to/from school....I think it's going to be quite challenging.
I'm going to look for an online calendar so everyone will know her schedule of doctor appointments and chemo days.
Psalm 57:3 - He will send down help from heaven...because of His love and His faithfulness...
and you, our family and firends, are that help.
Thursday, August 28, 2008
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
The Diagnosis
On the morning of the surgery, the anesthesiologist called Melanie to tell her that he wants her to go see a resident OB doctor before coming in for pre-op at 11 AM. It all gets arranged and we leave immediately to take Jake to my mother's house and head to the OB doctor (Catie's already at school). Should a premature birth occur, this would be the doctor to deliver the baby, since her regular OB doesn't practice out of this hospital, Countryside Morton Plant.
We got to the hospital late, because the OB office took an hour. Melanie's friend Tracy met us there and we sat in the OR holding-pin for an hour and a half. Just talking and being silly.
At 1:30 they took Melanie to the OR. Tracy goes home to her little boy, I go and try to eat lunch. When I got back to the waiting area, the volunteer tells me they started the surgery at 2:00. At 2:45 they call and say she and the baby are doing fine. At 3:00 the nurse comes out, puts me in a room and tells me that the doctor will be out in 3-4 minutes....seemed like a lot longer to me.
Our thought for the day was "Trust in the Lord, for the Lord will not fail you." I took this to mean... there is nothing wrong, it's just a pregnancy thing, but that is what I wanted. Now I see that God intended it to mean something else....that he will bring Melanie and the baby through this safely.
Dr. M comes in and tells me that Melanie and the baby are doing fine. Then he tells me that she has Hodgkin Lymphoma. That out of all the lymphomas out there, this is the best one to get, that it is the most curable. He tells me that he has an oncologist that he refers his head and neck cancer patients to, he can call him and set up an appointment. I told him that my mother is a lung cancer survivor and that Melanie may want to go to her oncologist. He said he'll work with who ever we wanted. I told him we'd make the decision by Friday, when Melanie has to come back for a recheck. He leaves, I cry.
We got to the hospital late, because the OB office took an hour. Melanie's friend Tracy met us there and we sat in the OR holding-pin for an hour and a half. Just talking and being silly.
At 1:30 they took Melanie to the OR. Tracy goes home to her little boy, I go and try to eat lunch. When I got back to the waiting area, the volunteer tells me they started the surgery at 2:00. At 2:45 they call and say she and the baby are doing fine. At 3:00 the nurse comes out, puts me in a room and tells me that the doctor will be out in 3-4 minutes....seemed like a lot longer to me.
Our thought for the day was "Trust in the Lord, for the Lord will not fail you." I took this to mean... there is nothing wrong, it's just a pregnancy thing, but that is what I wanted. Now I see that God intended it to mean something else....that he will bring Melanie and the baby through this safely.
Dr. M comes in and tells me that Melanie and the baby are doing fine. Then he tells me that she has Hodgkin Lymphoma. That out of all the lymphomas out there, this is the best one to get, that it is the most curable. He tells me that he has an oncologist that he refers his head and neck cancer patients to, he can call him and set up an appointment. I told him that my mother is a lung cancer survivor and that Melanie may want to go to her oncologist. He said he'll work with who ever we wanted. I told him we'd make the decision by Friday, when Melanie has to come back for a recheck. He leaves, I cry.Friday, August 15, 2008
Tests and More Tests
Melanie first noticed the lumps in her neck when she was about 4 months pregnant, but didn't say anything to the OB doctor (Dr. D.) until a month later. Dr. D. told her to go to her primary doctor, who ordered an ultrasound. The ultrasound showed a solid mass and a fluid filled mass, so she was referred to an ENT doctor, Dr. M. Dr. M determined that it wasn't 1 solid mass but 3 and ordered an ultrasound guided needle biopsy.
Romans 8:28 - And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.
They took 7 samples. They found 3 more small lumps and took samples of them too. The results: 6 Benign, 1 inconclusive. We said Yeah! Dr. M said "I don't believe it." "We need to do a CT scan." Now we are all concerned as to the effects of the CT scan on baby Tyler. After receiving reassurance that all will be fine with Tyler, Melanie has the CT scan and went back to Dr. M 2 days later (August 16th) for the results....which were inconclusive.
Now the real agony begins...does she have surgery now or wait until after Tyler's birth. All along Dr. M has said that he thinks it's lymphoma. He tells us that there are 3 options during the surgery. 1. He will look at and feel the tonsils for abnormalities, if they are there, take out her tonsils and biopsys from areas that cancer is know to hide. 2. Take out one of the infected lymph nodes and have a pathologist test it while he waits for the results. If it's positive for lymphoma, then he would stop and close her up because the only treatment is chemo. 3. If it's some other form of cancer, he would need to take out all the lymph nodes on that side. The risks, premature birth.
Melanie wants it all to be over with and to know what's going on, and opts for the surgery. I tried to talk her into having them do a bigger biopsy that doesn't require anesthesia, but she doesn't listen to me. Thank God she didn't listen to me!
After talking to the anesthesiologist, OB doctor, and Pediatrician, surgery is scheduled for August 2oth at 1 PM.
Romans 8:28 - And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.
They took 7 samples. They found 3 more small lumps and took samples of them too. The results: 6 Benign, 1 inconclusive. We said Yeah! Dr. M said "I don't believe it." "We need to do a CT scan." Now we are all concerned as to the effects of the CT scan on baby Tyler. After receiving reassurance that all will be fine with Tyler, Melanie has the CT scan and went back to Dr. M 2 days later (August 16th) for the results....which were inconclusive.
Now the real agony begins...does she have surgery now or wait until after Tyler's birth. All along Dr. M has said that he thinks it's lymphoma. He tells us that there are 3 options during the surgery. 1. He will look at and feel the tonsils for abnormalities, if they are there, take out her tonsils and biopsys from areas that cancer is know to hide. 2. Take out one of the infected lymph nodes and have a pathologist test it while he waits for the results. If it's positive for lymphoma, then he would stop and close her up because the only treatment is chemo. 3. If it's some other form of cancer, he would need to take out all the lymph nodes on that side. The risks, premature birth.
Melanie wants it all to be over with and to know what's going on, and opts for the surgery. I tried to talk her into having them do a bigger biopsy that doesn't require anesthesia, but she doesn't listen to me. Thank God she didn't listen to me!
After talking to the anesthesiologist, OB doctor, and Pediatrician, surgery is scheduled for August 2oth at 1 PM.
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