Day 61 - November 15, 2009

Greetings to all who read. We've been waiting for a written report from the National Institute of Health for some time now in hopes that we will have the "benign" status of Kim's tumor confirmed, and hopefully some light shed on the nature of said tumor/gargoyle/...

On Thursday, November 12 we finally had an appointment with Dr. Liao, our oncologist, to decipher the results received from the NIH. Here is what we heard.

The samples taken from Kim's chest on October 2nd show no signs of malignancy! This is fantastic news, as we can finally breathe with the knowledge that she has no cancer.

Then things got cloudy again. Not only is it not cancer, but there may not be a tumor at all! The doctor explained that her thymus is involuted, and that there appears to have been some fluid that has leaked out and formed some cysts either on or adjacent to her thymus gland, causing the appearance of a tumor. He said nothing about it being a third boob. (I've always hated that man...now I know why.)

So what does this mean? No cancer...no tumor...no more need to visit the oncologist. Kim's biggest problems are now that one of her interior stitches is sticking out and she needs to have it cut out, and she needs to go see the Ear, Nose, and Throat (ENT) specialist to try to figure out why her voice is still so weak and why she still feels as though there is some lump in her throat. Big change from 61 days ago.

As you can expect, Kim and I are so relieved to have heard this news. Thanksgiving this year takes on so much more meaning. We'd like to share a partial list of what we are thankful for:

No cancer
Dedicated doctors and nurses who have provided excellent care
The presence of God in our lives as he has cared for us over this time
The power of prayer from so many people, both familiar and unknown, who have shown concern for us and our family
The myriad of people who have offered and provided assistance by way of assisting with cleaning and meals
Staff at my school who have shown me patience, grace, and overwhelming support, staff at the kid's schools who have done the same
Our families who have dropped everything when needed and done whatever we needed

The list could go on and on. Please just know that we couldn't have done any of this without the support of so many. Please know you can count on us if, God forbid, you find yourself in a similar situation.

So now the question has become...will the blog end? I'm not sure. It certainly will become less frequent, but it is a nice way to get thoughts out. Kim definitely wants to write to it.

If nothing else, thanks for reading, thanks for your support, and thanks for listening.

Steve