Hi there! How are you? Isn't it crazy that summer is already over? I know! It was like 3 seconds ago the kids were throwing their backpacks down and cheering that school was out and now we're in our third week of the new year. So weird.
We are all doing well, except Ben has cancer, so there's that. It's Follicular Lymphoma.
Many of you know that Ben had surgery this summer right before his birthday. During surgery the surgeon saw that his lymph node was enlarged, so he took a sample to biopsy it. Ben forgot all about it because: surgery drugs, until biopsy came back with a diagnosis of follicular lymphoma. He's had a PET scan and will be doing some more sonograms to determine exactly how much he has.
From everything we've learned it seems that this is a disease which will not be cured, but can be managed. Most people are diagnosed in their 60's, so we have great hope that this early-ish diagnosis will mean that Ben has many healthy years ahead of him. Ben is at a very low stage so waiting and watching is the recommended course of action for now, with the option of immunological treatment. If you are looking at Dr Google right now, his FLIPI score is 0-1.
I'm sorry if you're learning this from the blog. Problem is, there's not a great way to let people know, since Hallmark doesn't make a 'hey, we've got cancer!' card. We've waited to tell until we had a second opinion and the kids had time to process it all. I suppose you can consider this the official end of our 'denial' phase.
It appears that chemo is in our future, just not the immediate future.
We know that we are greatly blessed to have family and friends who love us and from whom we have derived great strength. Please know that we love you and are grateful to have you in our lives. We also know we will be needing to lean a little on our family and friends as we deal with this, so we are especially thankful.
You should be happy to know that the kids have inherited my dark sense of humor. The stuffed animal presented to Noah by the social worker at the cancer center has been named 'cancer'. Try explaining that name to friends who don't know!
We are all doing well, except Ben has cancer, so there's that. It's Follicular Lymphoma.
Many of you know that Ben had surgery this summer right before his birthday. During surgery the surgeon saw that his lymph node was enlarged, so he took a sample to biopsy it. Ben forgot all about it because: surgery drugs, until biopsy came back with a diagnosis of follicular lymphoma. He's had a PET scan and will be doing some more sonograms to determine exactly how much he has.
From everything we've learned it seems that this is a disease which will not be cured, but can be managed. Most people are diagnosed in their 60's, so we have great hope that this early-ish diagnosis will mean that Ben has many healthy years ahead of him. Ben is at a very low stage so waiting and watching is the recommended course of action for now, with the option of immunological treatment. If you are looking at Dr Google right now, his FLIPI score is 0-1.
I'm sorry if you're learning this from the blog. Problem is, there's not a great way to let people know, since Hallmark doesn't make a 'hey, we've got cancer!' card. We've waited to tell until we had a second opinion and the kids had time to process it all. I suppose you can consider this the official end of our 'denial' phase.
It appears that chemo is in our future, just not the immediate future.
We know that we are greatly blessed to have family and friends who love us and from whom we have derived great strength. Please know that we love you and are grateful to have you in our lives. We also know we will be needing to lean a little on our family and friends as we deal with this, so we are especially thankful.
You should be happy to know that the kids have inherited my dark sense of humor. The stuffed animal presented to Noah by the social worker at the cancer center has been named 'cancer'. Try explaining that name to friends who don't know!
3 comments:
We love you. And let us know what you need from us, even if it's just a Costco-shipment of Kleenex. Or a visit to distract. Or pedicures. Or a new fan. Because we love you bigger than that.
So sorry, Joy (and the rest of you).
We don't have much to offer, but we send you all our love! And a standing offer to be an extra set of hands for you whenever you need it.
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