Some Good News and Some Bad News

We met with the oncologist yesterday afternoon about 3:30 PM. The first half-hour was a consultation and he was very thorough in explaining lymphoma and then exactly what type she had which is the "B cell". He said that indicates from the test so far she is either stage III or stage IV.  Harriet is having a PET scan on Saturday. After the consultation he did a bone morrow sample where  they take a needle and  take out a piece of the bone morrow and bone for testing. Then she went down the lab and gave more blood for blood test. She still has to do a cardio to check the heart condition and that test will probably be next week.

We are hoping to get better news than this.  From all the emails and conversations I've had, I realize many people have been through this before.  But, for Harriet and I this is the first time we've had to deal with it.  Hopefully starting the chemotherapy next week.  With the information that we now have the doctor ascertained that Harriet will need 6 to 8 cycles of chemotherapy.  Each cycle consists of coming to the hospital and getting a chemo treatment which will last anywhere from a few hours to eight hours.  Then taking pills the next five consecutive days and that equals one cycle.  Each cycle is repeated every 21 days.  So you can see by doing the math that this is going to take some time. This is a "Liquid" type Lymphoma, so they can't operate to take it out. This was a big question that everybody asked, "Why can't they just take it out"? 


 I just looked up this type of lymphoma on the Internet and this is what it says:
"This type of lymphoma accounts for 80-90% of all Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphomas (NHL)."
 
The good news is that the newer pain medication, that is Morphine ER 30 mg and two Dilaudid pills are giving her more relief from the pain than she is had for many weeks.

Sarah and Hans flew in yesterday.  After the doctors appointment we got to meet with them and Joe & Hilda and the boys.  That was the highlight of the day, very uplifting.

Have you ever wondered what stage of cancer Lazarus had?  If you're asking the question, "Who is Lazarus?"  You need to read the story in the Gospel of John chapter 11.  Lazarus was a good friend of Jesus.  I got to thinking about, what if Lazarus died of cancer?  We really don't know what he died of, the only thing we really do know is that he died.  And he was in the tomb for three days by the time Jesus got there.  Lazarus sisters, Martha and Mary, had wished that Jesus had come earlier so that Jesus would have healed Lazarus.  You really have to read the story, because it's great!  Matter-of-fact, I'm not gonna tell you the ending, read it for yourself, John 11.

I will leave you with this quote, "But Jesus looked at them and said to them, “With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”  Matthew 19:26