We Aren't Good Waiters

And I don't mean the kind that serve food at restaurants, though I'm pretty sure I'd suck at that job, too.

We (I think I have to stop saying "we" so much, as it isn't my body I'm talking/writing about.. this time.) were supposed to have an appointment with an oncologist at the end of this month. That wasn't really acceptable for a variety of reasons, so we got a referral to the Bruno Cancer Center at St. Vincent's. The first appointment was this morning and we got good news.

He has an intermediate-grade lymphoma that is highly treatable, generally with chemotherapy alone. While we were there today, he had a bone marrow test done. Next week they'll do the PET scan to figure out what stage it's in. In the midst of that, the pathologist at St. Vincent's will review the slides of his tumors to confirm the diagnosis and make sure there isn't some weird variation that would make the treatment more complicated. There is a small possibility that it could be in his bone marrow and that would also make the treatment more complicated. Hopefully we'll find out that everything is as straight-forward as it appears and he can get started with chemo in the next couple of weeks. He is still recovering from a major surgery, so a couple more weeks of rest certainly aren't going to hurt him.

We both loved the doctor and the general friendliness of the cancer center. It felt like we were supposed to be there and greatly helped our comfort level with this process. I have no idea what chemo will do to him, but I imagine we still have a pretty crazy road ahead of us.

The kids are hanging in there but the stress is starting to show at times. I saw that the cancer center can hook us up with a support group for children of cancer patients, so that might be something we look into as we get into the treatment phase. I know that Ella is very worried even though she's not saying much right now. Every night she says a special prayer for Daddy and she'll ask just enough questions to let me know she's trying to figure this out. Luke is velcro. We can't leave his sight, and even when we are with him, he regularly does a roll call of all his people just to get a status update - even the dogs. He's also nursing more now that he has in months. I'm just going with it. It's been an abnormal month, even for us.