I'd like to thank you all, Infool7, Tired of Taxes, LUV W, Salvation, Kathy in Alaska, Slings and Arrows, shibumi, and LucyT for pinging your lists! Lisa and I really appreciate it more than you know. Also All the other Freepers who dropped by to run some prayers up the flagpole and share words of encouragement. We haven't settled on a Church yet here in Texas but some dear friends had a pastor and a deacon swing by today for some encouragement and prayers.
I'm Home now! I think the big reason is I don't have any pain associated with the tumors, but the bloating and fluid in my abdomen is pretty uncomfortable, I just don't feel like eating much. I did have the endoscopy this afternoon which found two tumors in my stomach, on constricting the flow of food and drink into my intestines and another one (that looked different) in the same area. We won't get the Biopsy results until Tuesday. They think they have it narrowed to three possibilities, but of course all bets are off until we get the word on Tuesday and figure out how to proceed.
The three tumors they THINK might be there are:
GIST
Lymphoma (My abdominal lymph nodes are all blown up, but not in my neck, which they say is a good sign.)
Adenocarcinoma (Not Good)
I did get some meds for the bloating so I'm peeing a lot. :) Hopefully that will bring some comfort. So right now we are in the waiting game and hope to get some results and start to come up with a game plan Tuesday.
One note about the diagnosis I dropped last night ( inoperable stage 4 cancer around the lining of my abdomen and a cancerous thickness in my stomach wall), I not sure what these doctors are thinking when they drop those bombs on people. Lisa was hospitalized some years back and a guy at the mayo clinic dropped a "You're gonna die," on her after several days of testing that resulted in no clear diagnosis. Thanks doc! Just what I needed to hear! Anyway, I don't think that's the most professional way to handle things, maybe it's just to get the worse case scenario out there early. Again, Lisa and I want to thank you all for you good words and prayers as we go through this new and unexpected adventure. I will shoot some updates as I get them!
God Bless you All!,
Jeff and Lisa
What is GIST, if I may ask?
In other news, I hope it’s lymphoma. Why do I hope that, you ask. Because, as a survivor of Stage III Hodgkins, I believe that those are relatively easy to beat.
In my case, I had over a years worth of intermittent chemo treatments between March 1987 and August 1988, some of which were in the hospital, on account of the need to sedate me in order to handle the poisons better.
My governor, Larry Hogan, was recently diagnosed as having an aggressive non-Hodgkins lymphoma, but with the help of chemo, he has gotten rid of most of it. It’s interesting to see pictures of him completely bald. (In my case, my hair only thinned out some.)
heartfelt prayers for a good action plan tomorrow, and hopefully good news.
Prayers for you, your wife and for your medical team, Doomonyou. I pray that the peace that passes all understanding will touch you and that God will strengthen your wife and you, even as you await your treatment plan.
Know that your FReeper family loves you.
Sorry for the extended wait, but we just got most of the biopsy results today instead of Tuesday. We did meet with my GP this afternoon and got some news. Will meet with the oncologist tomorrow at three for the gorier details I guess. We spent almost an hour with him and walked through the CT scan, and the endoscopy photos and he answered every question we could think of, so I definitely feel a lot better and more informed about the whole thing. We still are in the info gathering stage, but We know what it is at least. For one thing there is only one tumor, not two as it appeared to be in the CT scan, so thats good news.
Bad news it's a Adenocarcinoma and if given the chance it does like to spread, so either Friday or Saturday I'll get a PET scan to find out if it's localized or is making the rounds.
Just an FYI We are at the Baylor Med Center in Mckinney. (But I'm still home and will be heading to work in the AM for a half day site inspection.)
Thanks all for the the continued prayers! Need another round looks like for just a localized area and not everywhere or anywhere else! God's got his handled, so we are just along for the ride. Will touch base again when we get the bottom line in a day or two. Bless you all, and thank you.
Jeff and Lisa.