[Dagney]

I thought I'd resurrect this thread to give folks an update from what we talked about earlier....

Most of you know (and I can't remember who all I've told) that my mom has been pretty sick the past few months. We had a brief bit of a respite when they started her on her prednisone therapy in August, and thought that perhaps we had finally figured out what was going on and were beginning to treat it.

Last Sunday 9/21, she was complaining of severe pain in her right lung (where all the problems are) that was making it very difficult for her to breathe. We took her to Memorial Hospital in York, and they did all sorts of tests to figure out what was going on. What the CT scans and Xrays showed us, was that the damage in her lung was 2-3 times the size it was when she last had a scan done. The doctor at Memorial recommended that we get her to Hershey Med Center to see her doctors there as soon as possible.

On Monday, Dr. T (her pulmonary specialist) did another CT scan, as well as some blood work. He scheduled her to have a bronochoscopy on 9/23 in the AM, and tentatively scheduled a needle biopsy on Wednesday 9/24. He wanted to keep her on Monday evening, but my mom (ever the stubborn one) wanted to go home. Tuesday morning, she was back at the hospital for her test, and after looking at the results, they decided to admit her immediately. She was put in a private room, and put on IV Pain therapy to make her comfortable. On Wednesday, she had her needle biopsy, and was doing fairly well until late Wednesday afternoon when she was having severe pain and problems breathing. They did some in-room x-rays, and determined that her right lung had collapsed. Because of this, and the other problems that she had been having, they did an emergency procedure in her room that evening, and put tubes in her lung to help it reinflate. They then moved her into the Intermediate Care Unit.

Her diagnosis of sarcoidosis was pretty much thrown out the window for a while, because the things that were happening in her lung were not consistent with the disease. They started a 'shot gun' approach with tests, basically throwing everything at her to see what turned up. Tissue samples were sent to the Mayo Clinic again, and other departments were brought in. (Infectious and Tropical disease got involved as well). The whole week they were pretty much trying to determine exactly what was going on.

Yesterday, the pathology department at Hershey Med Center reported back that they had a result from the needle biopsy on Wednesday. Mom has been diagnosed with Large B Cell Lymphoma. They are currently doing "Typing" tests, to determine exactly which type of Lymphoma they're dealing with, as well as Staging tests to see if the cancer has spread outside her chest cavity. The doctor assured us last night, that if there is a 'good' side to having a lymphoma, it's that they're extremely repsonsive to chemotherapy and radiation treatment.

Mom is scheduled for lung surgery at 10:50 this morning. They will be looking at the damage the lymphoma has done to her lung, and removing the damaged portion, or if necessary, the entire lung. She'll be in intensive care for a few days after the surgery, and in the hospital for another 2 weeks, or more if there are any complications. Once she's strong enough, they will start her on radiation and chemotherapy.

I just wanted to take a little bit of time to thank everyone who's listened to me vent about this over the past few months. It's been a tough road for the whole family. Right now, I hope you understand that there may be times that I just don't want to talk about any of this. I am having a hard enough time dealing with it on my own and functioning at work, and I'm afraid if I think about it too much, I won't get anything accomplished. So, if I tell you I don't want to talk about it, it's nothing personal.

I'll keep everyone posted with how the surgery goes, and what happens afterwards.

It's a good thing to have friends around you when things get this rough. Ya'll help more than you know.