Daddy's First Oncology Appointment (6)

See below for prayer requests.

Well, today didn’t yield as much information as we had hoped in terms of diagnosis & stages; however, we did get to meet Dr. Dianna Shipley (in Gallatin). We were VERY impressed with her professionally and personally! We were quite the circus, too! Daddy & all FIVE of his children (and Virginia, my 4 mo. old) went to his appointment. They even let all of us go back to the exam room with him!

I know that if each one of us wrote this update, you’d get five very different reports, but I’ll do my best to give you a summary with the important details.

1. More testing is needed to be SURE of the TYPE of non-Hodgkin’s B-cell Lymphoma Daddy has. He will have another biopsy by removing some of a lymph node. (There was not enough tissue for the biopsy to have a definite diagnosis. According to the pathology reports, it is either Follicular Center Cell Lymphoma OR Burkitt’s Lymphoma. The former is less aggressive than the latter. The treatment protocol for each is VERY different. If it is Burkitt’s, then the treatment must be VERY aggressive. Regardless of the type, however, Dr. Shipley seemed confident that Daddy’s cancer could be put into remission. Yea!)

2. More testing is needed to determine the STAGE. The Stage is determined by the location of the cancer. A PET scan needs to be done to ascertain this information.

3. He also has to have an echocardiogram to make sure his heart is okay to receive chemotherapy (standard procedure, we don’t expect anything to be wrong with his heart).

4. When he has his biopsy, he’ll also have a port put in to receive his chemotherapy, and they will extract bone marrow for further diagnostic reasons. Thankfully, he’ll have all three of these done on the same day while he is “asleep.”

As of now, it seems that he will have 6-8 cycles of chemo with a possibility of radiation later. We don’t know anything more than that, and that is subject to change based on the outcome of the additional tests.

So next week his schedule is as follows:

Monday: echocardiogram

Tuesday: biopsy, port implanted, & bone marrow extraction which will be done outpatient at Hendersonville Hospital (This is the day that my family has planned to return to SC.)

Wednesday: recovery

Thursday: PET scan

Friday: appointment with Dr. Shipley & most likely his first treatment of chemo

So, we are waiting for the exact type of non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma B-cell.

We are waiting to find out the stage (1-4 with 1 being the best. Again this is based on how much the cancer is spread).

We are waiting on the grade (Low-grade which is usually slow growing or high-grade which is fast growing).

Prayer requests:

Please continue to pray…

for Daddy’s complete healing.

for Daddy’s desire to smoke to be gone.

for Daddy’s craving for sugar to go away. (He asked me to add this today. Dr. Shipley confirmed that sugar FEEDS cancer.)

for an accurate diagnosis and appropriate treatment.

for Daddy to respond to treatment without suffering.

for Daddy to make healthy choices to aid in his healing (no desserts w/sugar or artificial sweetners, no smoking, exercise, overall healthy eating).

for the Lord to provide for all of Daddy’s needs since he will continue to miss so much work.

PRAISES!!

Daddy continues to have a GREAT attitude full of faith.

Daddy’s continued progress in healing.

We are thrilled with the care he has received so far.

That I (Melinda) have been able to be here during this time.

Thank YOU for praying and the cards.

You can call the house, JA, or Alicia if you need additional information. Or you can e-mail me or them.

Blessings,

Melinda for Richard and family =0)