Late tonight, I received word from my transplant doctor at Dartmouth the results of my biopsy last week, and it appears the area they were concerned about is a diffuse large B cell Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma tumor. I was glad to hear that they have determined what it is definitively, and that they are in the process of coming up with a game plan.
We are driving down to Claremont tomorrow, and have a 10am appt. on Friday. The 3 possibilities at this point are:
1) Do 1 round of chemotherapy treatment, hoping to reduce the tumor enough to go to transplant with only a 3-4 week delay.
2) Undergo a segmentectomy, a surgery where they would go in and remove the tumor and some surrounding tissue (a segment) in the lung, leaving a chest tube in for a few days. This surgery would possibly be done this Friday, and would require a 2-3 day inpatient stay at Dartmouth, followed by a 2-3 week recovery period, and then the transplant would take place ASAP once I've sufficiently recovered.
3) Go straight to transplant now, counting on the donor's cells to attack this tumor and wipe it and any other "floating" undetectable traces of cancer out of my system.
There are different doctors weighing in on my case who are in favor of all 3 options, there is literature and studies to support any of the 3 options, and the doctor told me tonight that there really isn't a "wrong answer" in my case. If you read this Wed. night or Thu., please pray for wisdom and discernment for each of the doctors giving an opinion, and for me as I weigh their opinions and the eventual recommendation. Please also pray that we would arrive at a game plan sometime Thursday.
There are day to day, even sometimes hour to hour, changes to "my plan" right now, and while it's at least mildly frustrating most of the time and absolutely maddening some of the time, there are at least some times where I have the most unbelievable sense of peace that God is in the details and yes, even the timing of all of this! Continue to pray that these times would increase in my life. It has also helped that this week has been unbelievably busy in the office at church, and I have not really had time to stop and brood over not knowing more than I do...I guess God really does know best what I need, and it was a job to do, not information to process, at least until tonight! Thanks for continuing to "bear our burdens" (Galatians 6:2) with us.
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