How it all started again

OK, so your first question is, what's up with the name. Well, I'll get to that. But let me first tell you the reason for the blog. I was recently diagnosed with cancer - again. I had melanoma about 10 years ago and it has raised its ugly head again. So I thought a blog might be a way of keeping everyone informed about what's going on with me. Here's the timeline:

Sept 10 - Routine exam, chest xrays ordered along with lots of blood work and other tests. Doc says come back in a month and we'll go over test results.

Sept 30 - Found a lump on my breat bone that night and coincidentally I had had a very sore neck for several days so I thought this was suspicious and decided to make an appt with my dr. instead of waiting for the scheduled visit - I got in the next day.

Oct 1 - Thursday. Dr checked out 3 lumps I showed him , then we went over the xrays. The chest xray indicated a mass. My Dr. ordered a CT scan for me the next day which was a Friday.

Oct 2 - Friday. CT scan at 2 PM. Went to Dr. afterward for a verbal report. They said it was inoperable cancer that had gone to the lymph nodes. Dr. made an appt for me with a surgeon, Dr. Yusef, for Monday to get a biopsy done.

Oct 5 - Monday. John's birthday. Went to see the surgeon, but he wanted a PET scan done before performing the biopsy. Said he thought it was melanoma. He told us "Beware the man with the glass eye and the large liver." Well, we looked at him with blank stares. Then he told us a it was a saying within medical circles indicating the sneaky nature of melanoma. "A person may have melanoma of the eye and have it removed and get a glas eye, and then get melanoma of the liver." I have to say we still had blank looks on our faces. Anyway, Beware the man . . .

Oct 6 - Tuesday. PET scan. Now that's a an interesting test. Shot me up with radioactive sugar and let me sit for 45 minutes so my tumors would have time to attract the morsels. Then I was put into the scanner twice - once for the top of me and once for the lower half. Then I broke the machine (software error, geez). Radiologist was finally able to read the scans.

Oct 9 - Friday. John and my 19th wedding anniversary. Appt at 6 PM with surgeon to go over PET scans and talk about biopsy surgery scheduled for Wed, Oct 14. We felt very good about the appt and our dr. Then we went to Le Chene (John in shorts, me in jeans) for a very romantic dinner. Truly, it was wonderful and a wonderful way to end our crazy week.