update...

first, thx for everything guys!

for the phone calls, the emails, the comments, the blog posts, the support, the love

and most of all - thx for the prayer!

today was a long day...it started with my 6 hour fast for the PET scan...only "clear, unsweetened liquids" were allowed (uh, aka water)...by 10am, i was wishing i had gotten up at 5am to eat & have my morning joe

the scan was easy peasy...long, but painless

i had to go into this just-off-site-mobile-unit, that was connected to the cancer center of the hospital by a small tunnel-like hallway...u entered the long narrow trailer thru a garage-style lifting door...it was kinda weird...but once inside, i was laid up in a reclining chair, covered in a heated blanket & had radioactive material pumped into my veins
~lol~


seriously tho, all the "radiation area" & "radioactive materials" signs hanging around were kinda creepy...other than that, the lighting & seating was perfect for an hour long nap while i waited for the glucose laced injection to travel throughout my body

they hooked up my IV, quickly injected the "stuff" & unhooked me...told me to relax (aka. fall asleep) & shut the door

u can see my feet in this pic...and my view of the room on the opposite end of the trailer that held the scan-machine-thingy....when my hour was up, i was sent to tinkle & put on scrubs - then i took a 30 minute, up & down ride, in the scanny thing tunnel

i know u're totally jealous of my vast knowledge of medical terminology !
;0)

the scanny thing will not only take a CT scan, but it will also detect the radioactive glucose - more of a tissue scan....apparently, cancerous cells eat up more glucose than regular cells - so u get the idea

unfortunately, there wasn't enough room in the trailer for curtis....this is what my amazingly patient hubby did all day...

i thank God for this man!

we had a rough night, last night....a lot of deep/emotional dialog & i saw my husband in a rare moment of vulnerability

i thank God for this man!

after the scan, we grabbed lunch & i filled him in on my experiences

i was under the impression that my biopsy would happen this afternoon - whether it was a "fine needle extraction" or removing an entire node....but after the surgeon checked me out & reviewed all my blood tests, he decided that he definitely wanted to remove a whole node....he said that the neck is a "busy area" and that administering local anesthesia is riskier than going under full anesthesia for this procedure....that the surgery would have to happen in the operating room & i'd have to go under....i'm cool with that

the surgeon also repeated a lot of what the pulmonologist told me yesterday....the same thing about for someone at my age, with these symptoms (or lack there of) & the findings they have - it's likely lymphoma, Hodgkins or some other form of this type of cancer....there r many variations & it's very hard to predict which one it is....that the fine needle extraction probably wouldn't give them enuff info & that a full depth biopsy of the node would give them "the right answer, the first time"...it may not b speedy (he said they're currently waiting 10+ days for some genetic engineering type stuff to b done on one biopsy - again with the awesome medical terminology), but that it was worth finding out for sure - making our plan for treatment, easier to map out

again, it's not for sure cancer - we don't know what it is yet....so there's no need in guessing

i'm cool with that

we're scheduled for thursday, december 4th at the hospital....curtis is taking off work to go with me....the surgeon says it'll wipe me out for a couple of days - not just from the effects of having surgery, but the stress of it all will make concentrating on reading a book, watching tv or working difficult....thankfully, my job is extremely understanding & flexible....& our health insurance rocks!

for real, all these scans, tests & appts. were cramping my schedule....we've got thxgiving coming up, and a certain little girl turns 6 that same day....so it'll b nice to have a break from all of this, and get back to everyday life with my kiddos, until my biopsy....then we can nail down what the problem is & get it taken care of - simple as that