I had a busy day today. I went to two different hospitals. I guess I'll be going to both for awhile. My Oncologist is at one and the tests are at the other (for insurance purposes). Every school year they change our health insurance. I hope they change it so I can just be at one. It's silly to be going to both.

My Oncologist is VERY nice! He talked to me for a long time and tried to explain everything to me. I was overwhelmed with information so I don't remember everything, but overall he kept saying that I was young and healthy and that I was going to live to see my grandchildren. So, that pretty much sums up the day. Even though he was really positive, I still have some hard things ahead. I have more tests to take too. We don't have all the results back from all the tests I've done, but when we do get them we'll have a clearer picture of how I am and what I can expect. It's like putting together a puzzle. I'm just gathering the pieces and then later we'll have all the information and know what's up and have the big picture of what we need to do.

I'd like to end this post, but I know my sisters would be saying, "Tell me more!" so here's more of what I did and what I learned. During the PET scan they injected me with a radiated sugar, which wasn't very much, and then I sat in a room for an hour. I guess it has to have time to get around to all of the body parts. Then they had me drink something that looked like red Cool-aid, but it had a funky taste to it (not horrible, but not delicious). I had to drink two cups during my hour wait. It was SO boring! I hummed and sang songs in my head to pass the time. After that they had me drink more and I laid down on a bench and they wrapped me up like a cocoon so it would help me to hold still and then they told me to hold still while the machine took me in and out of this other machine. This lasted another half hour and then I was done.

At my other appointment I met my Oncologist. He's a really cute old man with pretty white hair and he's very soothing to talk to. He told me all about cancer. He also did a physical examination to check for other lumps in my other lymph nodes. He doesn't have my test results, but based on what we know, he thinks I'm in stage 2 of my cancer. He says it responds well to treatment and he said I'll do chemotherapy to get rid of it. Evidently the doctor found two masses when he took my tonsils out, and he took one out, so the other one is still in there. He doesn't think it's in any of my other lymph nodes, but we won't know for sure until all of the test results are in.

What's next? Well, I have to do more stuff before I do chemo. On Monday I'm going in for an Echocardiogram, to check my heart to see if it's strong enough for chemo. Then on Thursday I'm going in for a bone marrow biopsy, and then they're going to call me later to schedule an appointment for when to get a port a cath put in. You know those things they put in so they don't have to keep poking you with needles. Then we'll start chemo and I'll lose my hair and I'll probably feel pretty yucky. He said that after 6 cycles of chemo I'll probably be done and the cancer will be gone. So, good news right? He seemed very optimistic.

It was interesting being in the waiting room. A lot of people of different ages who're at different stages with their cancers. I think I'll probably meet a lot of really nice people during this experience. I'm glad of that. On the sad side, the extremely sick ones were quite sad to see and hear. We should pray for everyone battling cancer. Well, adios and see you next time.