One day at a time

My blog post sabbatical has come from a whirlwind of events - so this is going to be a long post so those who know me can understand what is going on. The "important" stuff is after the cake....

On Friday AND Saturday night I saw Julie and Julia, beautiful movie that has rejuvenated my love for baking. On Sunday, we celebrated Dashing's aunt's birthday and the baking got out of hand. See photo below...

German chocolate bundt cake with coconut glaze (left)
Creamy red velvet cake with home-made cream cheese frosting (center)
Extra chocolate devil's food cake with chocolate ganache icing (right)

After the baking festival, we sat down to play a game of 313, a card game, with 10 people. This makes the game last forever. So, in the meantime, I what Julia Child learned to "breast your cards." It was then that I noticed my right collar bone didn't feel like my left. I figured it was my posture, but I said something in passing at the enormous card table and Dashing and his father (a physician) froze. Me, oblivious to what was going on said, "sure, feel my bones." What I didn't realize was that Dashing and his dad felt three tumors.

This is when the whirlwind began. Remember that was Sunday evening around 6pm. I went to work as usual on Monday morning; finished a report, read some articles and then got a phone call. Dashing's dad has scheduled me for a doctor's appointment at 12noon. This appointment was to include a chest x-ray and meeting with my internal medicine doctor. Wow, now that was fast. Getting a little more worried about what was to come, I gave myself a migraine - great. Thank you stress.
Before I knew it, Monday morning I saw a radiologist for x-rays, my internal medicine doctor for an overview of what was going on, and a general surgeon to review. By Tuesday morning I was in the operating room having a lymph node removed. I am happy to report the surgery went well and I've been out of the hospital for about 20 hours now. However, they did find what they predicted - I was just diagnosed with Hodgkin's Lymphoma (a form of cancer) today. I was strong enough after wards to even make everyone go out for post-op breakfast - I may be crazy, but that's ok. I even had a big omelet!

See, this is all hard to swallow (not the food, the news) for me as I have shown no symptoms of illness; no fevers, weight loss, night sweats, bruising......etc. I'm active, in the gym, eating healthy and feeling fine. I've gone from a healthy, Sunday's Julie and Julia gal to a cancer patient in 36 hours. (BREATHE). I'll be having more scans, test, and workups throughout the week and have my first appointment with my oncologist on Thursday when I'll find out my radiation/chemotherapy plan. In the meantime (of course there always seems to be more with medical conditions), I'm beginning to work with a fertility clinic because I'm encourage to harvest some of my eggs for future conception. This is just precautionary they say (from the drugs)

I am currently staying with Dashing's parents. He has taken some time off of medical school. My dad has flown out from Indiana to stay with me too. I can say I am in the best care with wonderful support. With Dashing's dad being a doctor and mom a nurse - they haven't missed a beat (and have called in many a favors from others). My internal medicine Dr. has been a gem - calling all of his contacts to make this as smooth of a transition - diagnosis as possible. As for my kind of cancer - Hodgkin's Lymphoma, there is a VERY HIGH SUCCESS RATE FOR TREATMENT - which is great to hear. This kind of cancer is the one that makes people say the ridiculous phrase "If I were to have cancer, this is the one I'd want to have" - yes, like you would really say that...but they do!

I'll be continuously posting updates on my symptoms, feelings, tests, etc. If you know anyone else who is going through this - I hope you can pass on this blog to them and show them they are not the only ones out there. I hope I can provide information for my family and support for others out there.