This week has been crazy! Chad had his birthday, my parents came to visit (with my mom just leaving tomorrow), the beginning week of school, and Chris having another surgery.
With still no answers we decided to go ahead with major surgery (as suggested by his oncologist) to remove more lymph tissue. This time instead of trying to find a lymph node that was easily accessible (like last time from his arm pit) they wanted to go in deeper where more of the problem is. So on Tuesday Chris checked into Sacred Heart so they could remove some lymph node tissue from his pelvic/abdomen area.
The surgery went well. (Plus we only waited about an hour past the original time instead of almost seven hours like the last surgery).
The surgeon was able to find a lymph node about the size of a plum and took some tissue. Before they closed Chris up they had a pathologist look to make sure the sample was adequate. The pathologist said the lymph node certainly looked suspicious.
Chris felt pretty well Tuesday night - just a little pain from the surgery and a little foggy in the head from the anesthesia.
Wednesday he didn't feel so well. He felt quite ill. His heart keep racing really fast and he was having a hard time breathing. It was a little scary and they even called in the "Rapid Response" team to evaluate him and make sure he was okay.
Today he was much better. Finally off his IV, eating a little bit of real food (hasn't had any real food since Monday morning), and getting up from his bed.
Chris became a human pin cushion. The surgeon said the lymphoma test came back as negative (again we hope this is good news), and she pulled in an Infectious Disease doctor and Chris' arthritis doctor. They took lots of blood, and scans. They also drained a significant amount of fluid from his thoracic cavity (fluid around, but not in the lungs). They will also send this off for tests.
Each doctor thinks they have a diagnosis. The oncologist says you can't prove it is not cancer and wants to keep looking for lymphoma, the Rheumatoid doctor thinks maybe Chris has Lupus and the Infectious Disease Doctor thinks he will find something amid all the variety of samples Chris has provided.
This morning after talking with the Rheumatoid doctor's nurse I thought for sure we had found our answer and started telling people that Chris had lupus and not lymphoma - but I later found out that lupus is a just a possibility - but again not a concrete diagnosis.
I've been trying to divide my time between my kids and my husband - it is hard to be torn between the two and not to be able to be at both places at once.
Hopefully Chris will be well enough to come home and we can all be together again.
I also hope I can blog about more happy things like the first day of school - I already have a great story to tell.
2 comments:
We will continue to pray for you all. What a nightmare! Let me know if there is anything I can do! I can't wait to hear about that first day of school!
I hope Chris is feeling better today. I hope you have the energy you need to be all the places you need to be and I hope your kids are doing okay, too. I'm excited to read some of your "normal" posts and find out how all of you are doing. You're still in our prays and we love you!
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