What happens while you're making other plans...

Life has gone on, though not as usual.

I had my tests and scans Friday through Tuesday. I laughed when they turned on the radio during my PET scan (out of courtesy since it was a half hour) and it was playing"Walking on Sunshine."

During my bone marrow biopsy, the material kept falling off the needle before the PA could retract it. We never got any but had to stop because the pain was getting harder to deal with.

I developed a fever yesterday morning after feeling pretty good from my cold for the past few days. We went into the office on the on-call nurse's advice. My doctor's nurse was like "why did you come in?." But I'm glad I did, as they did a chest x-ray to make sure I didn't have pneumonia (I don't) and prescribed me some antibiotics for bronchitis.

Oh, and then the PA told me my PET scan results were back.

We waited with tension in our throats as she went to print them off.

The oncologist came back in with them. While they can't say for sure until the bone marrow aspirate sample is back, at this point I am stage III nodular sclerosing Hodgkin's. I have enlarged lymph nodes in my neck, chest and abdomen, though thankfully not any of my organs, or my pelvis. Praying that the bone marrow will be clear so I don't jump to stage IV. Now, even with the higher stages Hodgkin's is still thought to be very treatable, but there are some prognostic indicators that go down somewhat with the higher stages. I'm not thinking about those right now.

Also, I found out that I will be seeing a cardiologist (today) because something didn't look the way they wanted it to on my MUGA (heart) scan. If there is any question about my heart function I will not be doing the standard chemo regimen (called ABVD) but rather an older one called MOPP. Which has a greater incidence of side effects and possible infertility.

I will update later if I know anything but if you read this this morning and can send a thought or prayer my way, I would appreciate it.