Tomorrow ...

I thought tomorrow would never come, but it does. Tomorrow always comes for the lucky ones. I just read a quote that a doctor gave a woman with cancer 30 days to live...she replied 'Well that's great doc, God only gives me a day at a time!' I loved it! :) And it is so true, we are uncertain of the days we have, so my advice is simple....forget the troubles of yesterday, love your life today, and be grateful for the future to try again (because it can really hold anything!!)
But tomorrow has come and I'm going into my oncology appointment optimistic. I know that I have HL. Now it's time to set up a game plan. My prayer is that we can all agree on the right treatment to cure this cancer...and that the doctor doesn't get fed up with all my questions cause I have a ton! I'm nervous because I do not know what the future holds, however do any of us know what the future holds? I cling to the verse in the Bible 'So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.' Isaiah 41:10. Honestly, this is not the worst thing that can happen, and although I'm nervous about what my future holds, I'm so grateful that I will come out of that appointment tomorrow with so many ANSWERS to my future! How lucky am I?!?
I'll let you know what the doc says...TOMORROW!!

The Pursuit Begins...

Hi All!

I never thought my life would be interesting enough to have people read about...but lately it's been getting interesting!! I hope that this blog site can be used to help keep you all informed about my health and the updates as I get them. Andrew and I both have family from all over the country and this is they best way I can think of to keep you all as up to date as possible and to hear it from me.

So lets get started!!

Well, let's just say that SHOCK doesn't even begin to describe what I felt when I heard the doctor over the phone say Hodgkin's Lymphoma. I literally had to stop him and ask again...'Is this...cancer??' As he told me yes, my heart sunk into my chest as I had NO CLUE what to even think of! Never in a million years would I have ever thought this. I was honestly expecting to hear that the cysts were back in my spinal cord from my surgery 5 years ago, but never this.

The best part was that I was clear to go to Iowa to see Andrew's family. Did I mention that we were literally on our way when I got the phone call?? Andrew and technology is amazing! The whole way Andrew was looking up information on his blackberry about HL because we didn't have a clue about it.

Iowa was awesome, the hardest part was keeping this secret from my family for 5 days because I did not want to tell them over the phone. But God had other plans :) My parents were getting my mail and my mom found a packet from the Cancer Center. She called me with her amazing intuition and I let them know everthing. How my doctor found lesions on my chest and neck and how I had another CAT scan done right before I left. I also let them know that I was having a CT guided biopsy done when I got back and that would confirm everything that the doctors suspect. It was actually good that I told them over the phone...we were all able to process this information for a few days (because trust me, it is a lot of information!).

Last Friday, I got the phone call. The biopsy showed cancer cells and it was definetly HL.

I'll have to tell you all later about some of the funny things up to this point! But for now, that is the short version of a long story with many more positive chapters to come! Thanks for being so intersted in my pursuit. I'm not sure yet what I will be pursuing...but when I know, you will know :)