Hey everyone,
This is a summaryof what's happened to date. If you are new to our blog, you might find this helpful.
Here are the facts:
*The day before Thanksgiving 2011, a chest xray and then CT scan revealed a mass in Andrew's chest, not in the lung, but pressing up against the esophogus and near the heart.
*Repeated PET scans - the last in mid-June 2012 - have revealed that the cancer HAS NOT spread elsewhere. All the "activity" is in the chest around this mass.
*A biopsy in December 2011 gave us the diagnosis of Large B cell non-Hodgkins lymphoma. Rolls right off the tongue, right?
*How did we discover this? Andrew went for a chest xray in the first place because he had some strange symptoms (for him) such as a cough, shortness of breath after exercising, and discomfort while swallowing. Other than these slight symptoms, he has continued to feel GREAT and both his bloodwork and overall health have remained really good throughout everything.
*In December 2011, Andrew began 6 rounds of chemo (EPOCH). This did NOT completely erradicate the lymphoma, despite a positive result after the third round of chemo in March 2012. So, AJ is undergoing more chemo in the summer of 2012 in order to prepare his body for a bone marrow transplant.
*AJ has three brothers who each would lay down their lives for Andrew, and Ross won the honor of supplying a massive amount of bone marrow.
*The bone marrow transplant in September 2012 went as smoothly as could be expected and took away all the cancer!
*Andrew has scans every four months. So far these have remained clear!
Some questions you may have:
*How are we doing? Well, it's a shock. We were especially disappointed that the first rounds of chemo didn't cure Andrew as the odds had been in our favor for that. Our kids know everything. Even so, with Andrew's great physical condition, our great healthcare options, we are hopeful this will just be another mountain Andrew successfully climbs!
*What can you do for us? Pray for us! We are thankful that the biopsy results indicate a clear diagnosis and that has a treatable (even if agressive) form of lymphoma.
*Can we call you? Absolutely! Come visit, email, etc. If we don't answer, please know we appreciate it, but don't have time to go over everything in detail. Don't worry about "reminding us" about this. It is on our minds constantly.
*Can we support you in other ways? Absolutely! We are accepting all offers of help. While we have a lotsahelpinghands.com website, Christine is not always great about posting needs and sometimes it isn't until someone shows up with something that we realize, "Wow! That's exactly what we needed!"
*Can we tell others? Absolutely! It is impossible in this small town (and global community) to tell everyone directly.
We'll try to keep a few folks updated with the latest, so misinformation isn't spread and we aren't wearied with explaining it all over and over (especially in the days we are waiting and waiting and waiting.) More details on these folks if you want.
