The Good News and the Not So Good News

Our meeting with Dr. Liao, our oncologist, was delayed by a half hour this morning.  We found out the PET scan results were not completed and we needed to wait while a preliminary report was typed up and emailed to his office.   Dr. Liao greeted us and began to share us the results from the scans and testing.

The good news:

• The CT scan, PET scan and the Bone Marrow Biopsy all confirmed one fact -- the Lymphoma had NOT spread to any other part of his body or lymph nodes. 
• Because Steve's Lymphoma was only detected in one lymph node group, his groin, it is still considered to be a STAGE 1 cancer.   (I guess I was wrong about this earlier.) 

This was tremendous news!  It immediately quieted all of our fears that the cancer may have spread through out Steve's body.  We immediately began to thank God for his goodness and knew He was answering all of the countless prayers that were flooding heaven on Steve's behalf.

Then he shared some of the other findings:

• The PET scan revealed irregularities in his Thyroid gland, mostly on the right side. Dr. Liao said he will order an ultrasound but in most cases, this turns out to be benign nodules.
• The PET scan also revealed a thickening of his bowel wall but once again, he said it was not cancer.

There are three possible outcomes that we now face:

Since there is some question as to the type of Lymphoma that Steve has, we are going to wait to have his port installed and begin Chemotherapy until next Friday, October 14th.  We are going to wait until we get a second pathology report from Seattle Cancer Care Alliance and wait until we get the results from the FISH test done.  Once we have that, we can decide whether or not a third opinion may be needed to confirm his prognosis and the best course of treatment.  Dr. Liao said he would even send the specimen off to the very best Lymphoma pathologists in the nation to be sure of the results.

Steve and I want to thank you all for your continued prayers.  He wants you to know that he can actually feel them and he is energized by them.  He also welcomes phone calls or notes.  You can email him at sfox@conradmfg.com.  We will continue to update the blog as we find out more.