Friday, September 7, 2007
The oncologist was to come early in the morning. When I awoke, Carol was already there and reading. As she said "We're going to nail his feet to the floor if we have to for some answers."
By 11:30 he had still not arrived, so Carol called the office and was told that he would not even leave there until 2:30. More waiting...
Even though all we knew was that there is a tumor, Carol and I talked about next steps. One thing we identified was the importance of creating a primary care team made up of friends and family. To us this means surrounding our family with a group of people we can lean on and ask to assist in any way without worrying whether we're inconveniencing them or not.
This may sound selfish, but it was an a-typical but critical decision for us at this point. We knew we would need people who could hold us up, help, make us laugh, keep us on the correct spiritual path, assist with knowledge about cancer, and just love our family.
So we started identifying our team:
- Science Advisors: Adel and Kelly (already providing invaluable input)
- Spiritual Director and Minister of Humor: Robin (supported, as always, by Diana, who must have more gold scars in heaven than anybody)
- Military Strategist: Greg (a tireless fighter who will never take "no" for an answer and loves a good battle)
- Prayer & Practicality Proponents: Anne and Bob (see, this is why you had to retire... to have enough time to take us on!)
- People who know us -- and love us anyway -- and will not ever let us feel sorry for ourselves or take any crap: Peggy, Kelley, Marty, Annie, Jane and Don
By mid-afternoon we were ready to go -- literally (Please, let us out of here!) and in terms of next steps: we decided to undertake this blog. I got dressed and managed to talk the nurse into disconnecting me from the IV pump.
Carol climbed into the bed and took a much needed nap while I began to type. About 5:30 the oncologist walked in, glanced at Carol asleep in the bed and me typing, smiled politely and went behind the curtain to the other side of the room in search of his patient. Seeing no one there, he looked back at us and asked quizzically "Williams?."
I raised my hand and he saw the hospital I.D. bracelets and the caped off IV.
He sat down with us and began asking a long series of questions related to my health and family history.
One of the things we learned that was very helpful was that my children and their cousins should consider genetic counseling based on our family history with cancer. This will help them understand the risks they may be facing, and enable them to be proactive as the grow up. It will also allow them to set up the necessary screenings, etc., that meet their individual needs.
After sharing what little specific information he could, the doctor indicated that he was trying to get a preliminary pathology report and would return after he finished his rounds.
About 6:15 he was back with the initial report: The tumor is a B-cell Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma. Yep, I have cancer.
That's all we know at this point. There are a number of subclasses of B-cell Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma, some of which are curable, and some of which can be nasty. We will not know more until Wednesday of next week, but, regardless of the details, chemo is the primary treatment approach and it should start within 7-10 days.
Time to get out of here, go for dinner with some friends, and start recruiting our team.
Marsh:
thanks for the blog and update. This is a great way to keep in touch. Diana is also on the Spiritual/humor team. Once you have a more comprehensive diagnosis please let us know and we can then get specific in our prayers. We will keep you in our daily prayers asking the Lord to watch over you and surround you and your family with His love and peace.
As far as humor may we recommend that you stick with Pastor Paul in this journey as we are not certain pastor Steve's prayers are heard.
Posted by: robin lorms | September 09, 2007 at 04:22 PM