Getting everyone caught up

Hey everyone,
So as many of you know, I have been dealing with some health issues this past month. For those of you that don’t, I will catch you up.  About a month ago, after a week of an upset stomach (which I thought was from eating some bad cheese) my co-worker urged me to get an ultrasound to see what was the source.  Some “masses” appeared in my abdomen, so I was sent to the ER to have further testing done.  Making a long story short, a few CT scans, blood work, ultrasounds, and an abdominal needle biopsy later…. I was diagnosed with Lymphoma cancer.  This was a pretty scary few days.  The Coast Guard flew Richie home as soon as they could, since he was not scheduled to be back from Alaska till Xmas eve.
For a while, my Oncologist was attempting to determine which kind of Lymphoma I had. For anyone who is familiar with this type of cancer, you know there are more than 10 kinds. Super confusing, even for me as a nurse.  After running more tests, it was determined I actually have a hybrid of two types. My official diagnosis is ……ready for it……. Diffused Large B-cell Non-Hodgekins Lymphoma with Birketts attributes.  Thats a mouth full. My doctor said that he sees B-cell lymphoma monthly, has only seen 3 Birketts cases in his career, and hasn’t ever seen a patient with both. Guess that means I’m special (no short bus jokes mom).  They staged me at stage 4, but staging for Lymphoma is different than other cancers.  My bone marrow biopsy came back normal, and to date all my blood work still looks normal. I am in process of going up to The City of Hope in LA to have a consultation with a doctor who I have read about in medical journals and is described as a “lymphoma genius”. She and my current Oncologist together will set up a Chemotherapy schedule, which it looks like I will be starting at the beginning of the year.
The last month has been busy to say the least. Doctors appointments daily, and even twice daily, blood work, scans, shots, etc.  Some  exciting news though, my Oncologist suggested we harvest my eggs, so that after chemotherapy we are able to have some healthy babies. Most of my eggs will be destroyed during this whole process. So we did that last month. Shots and appointments daily were difficult, but we harvested 7 little embryos that are “chillin” at 200 below zero until this whole thing is over with.

Well, thats it for now. I just wanted to update you all, but doing so in person and on the phone is time consuming ast you can imagine. Love you guys.