It's Official

Up until this afternoon, all I knew is that I have cancer in my neck and in my chest.  I knew that preliminarily Dr. Stephens believed I was in Stage II and that I would need six months of chemotherapy.  What I didn't know was if the cancer was anywhere else in my body.  So, going into my appointment with Dr. Stephens this afternoon Jeremy and I were both a little anxious.  Let me just say that this wonderful man, Dr. Stephens, put us at ease pretty much right away.  He is so kind and explains things so well.  He read us the results of my heart test.  And my heart works just fine.  He didn't have the official results of my lung test but is confident that test turned out ok as well.  Then he began discussing the results of my PET scan.  And guess what?  GOOD NEWS!!!!!  It's not anywhere else in my body!!!  He showed us the pictures and that was really neat.  I learned that my brain has a lot of activity (of course, Jeremy had to comment that that was no joke!  hahaha).  I also learned that I have multiple (and by multiple I mean pretty much all of them) nodes that have malignancy in my neck, several in my chest, and a few under my right arm.  There are a lot of lymph nodes with malignancy, but the good news is they aren't that large in size.  He has seen much larger.  He said that the smaller the better and he is pretty confident that our original plan of six months of chemotherapy will kill all the cancer.  There is of course a small chance it won't work, but I'm not even considering that.  So the next step is having my port placed (doing that on Monday morning), then I have to meet with the nurse for chemo education on Tuesday morning.  After I meet with the nurse I will schedule my first chemo session.  When that happens is completely up to me.  It's a big decision since I don't know how I will react to chemo, so I don't know when my bad days will be or even if I will have bad days.  I will figure all that out this weekend. 

I have to mention that I have the most incredible family and friends in the world!!!  I can't even explain the outpouring of support I have received since I went public with my diagnosis on Sunday evening.  It has been so overwhelming and humbling.  I've had so many offers to help out with the girls, to bring us meals, to clean my house, etc.  I had a friend offer to go with me to my PET scan on Monday, and at first I insisted that that wasn't necessary and I didn't want her to just sit for three hours.  She insisted it wasn't a problem and that she wanted to go.  I reluctantly took her up on her offer and I'm so glad I did!!!  Just having her there afterwards was awesome.  We went out to eat dinner and had a great time.  I have a friend that started a meal train for us, and people are already signing up to bring us food.  My best friends from high school have organized a girls night out later this month so we can hang out (I haven't hung out with these girls in several years!).  I received a package from my cousin today that had all kinds of things that I will need during chemo and a Christian music CD of her favorites.  I have been using an IPhone with a cracked screen for a good while, and one of my friends couldn't stand it any longer so she made a call to her friend iPhone Todd and he fixed my phone for free today!!!  Today, I had lunch with one of my best friends.  She paid for lunch, then pulls a necklace out of her purse and gives it to me.  Only, the necklace wasn't from her, it was from two women that she knows that had read my blog and wanted to do something nice for me.   Such a humbling experience to have people you have never met do something for you.  It's also humbling to receive so many texts and Facebook messages that it took me 45 minutes straight to respond to them all.  Hugs...I have received so many of those the last few days!!  And that's good because I LOVE HUGS!!! 

I don't know what these next six months will hold.  I don't know if I will get sick, if I will lose my hair, or if I will be tired.  But I do know this:  I am loved.  And that will get me thru it all, no matter what :)