How It All Started

 My name is Mendy. I am a happily married woman (for 26 years) and mom to two amazing kids (Katie 20 and Eli 15). I have had a blessed life. I was raised in a loving family with parents who still love and adore each other after 60 years. I met an married the love of my life when I was 21 years old and have never regretted that decision. Life has been relatively easy,

Sure there are regular problems. I have a chronic illness called Fibromyalgia and with that comes chronic fatigue. We tried medical help but eventually realized that eating a VERY low sugar and higher protein diet helped tremendously.  We had a hard time getting pregnant, but eventually God blessed us with two amazing kids. We had friendships that disappointed us and parent's illness that worried us. But overall, we have been blessed beyond reason. 

This brings me to the point of this blog. I want to document what is happening in my body. Partly to process all I am feeling and thinking. And partly as a place for my family to go to when I maybe just can't talk. Finally, I want to be open and honest when it is hard and really sucks to go through trials. Because sometimes it really does! Now, I know I am still blessed. I know God is still doing a work. I know that all things have purpose and a plan for it. These are truths I know and hopefully will hold onto. But feelings are there too and we should be honest with them!

So, onto the story...

In late August or early September I was looking at the wrinkles on my neck. Yep, it's vain, but it's the truth! As I was looking I noticed  my lymph-node above my right collar bone was swollen. I am a teacher and a mother. I thought it was just an infection maybe due to a cold or something. I decided to just keep an eye on it and then I moved on with life. Well, by the end of September it was still there so I decided to go see the doctor. 

My doctor was on vacation so I saw a doctor I had never seen before. She is a really nice lady, but I don't know her and she doesn't know me. I misread her and thought she was indicating that is was nothing to be concerned about. I did the lab and X-rays she ordered that day, but delayed in getting the needle biopsy and CT Scan scheduled. I figured it was really no big deal and I had work to do. 

By the end of November my regular doctor started calling me. She is a chill doctor. She usually doesn't get rattled and never calls me. So at this point I realized it was important. I made the biopsy appointment and CAT Scan and ultra sound appointments in December. 

That's when my world started to crack. The ultra sound showed there is something wrong. They lymph-node was not only large, but shaped oddly. This made my doctor push for the biopsy. On Tuesday, December 28th I had the needle biopsy done. I will do a specific post about that, but let me just say it was weird. Wednesday, December 29th I had the CT Scan. At that point I figured I had done all the doctor/lab visits needed and I could go enjoy my vacation at Disneyland for New Years. Boy was I wrong.

I was home from the CT Scan for about an hour when the doctor called in a panic. I had to rush to the clinic in Mountain View (about 45 minutes away) because the CT Scan showed a huge problem. Rick and I drove over right away and they did another ultrasound on my arm and neck. They discovered a blood clot in the jugular vein. They of course didn't read the results until I had gotten home and then called to tell me I needed to go to the emergency room to get started on blood thinners. So, another drive over the hill. 

The next day we drove to a pharmacy in Watsonville to get the first month's worth of blood thinners. Here's the good news, I was able to drive to Anaheim and still got to enjoy my first ever New Years Eve and Day at Disneyland. 

The blood thinners proved to be too high of a dose. I started to bleed uncontrollably and by day 8 I was checked into the hospital to stop the bleeding. On January 7, while I was there I had my first ever surgery. It was an ablation. And they also gave me a blood transfusion. I have no idea if the blood clot is related to the swollen lymph-node but I do know the ablation was related to the blood thinners. I am now on a lower dose of blood thinners and the doctors think it's the least of my problems now. 

January 19th I had an appointment with a hematologist. Rick came with me and we honestly thought we were there to talk about the blood clot. The doctor instead came in and started to talking about Hodgkin's Lymphoma. We were a bit in shock and asked him to back up. He explained that the blood clot doesn't concern him. The  medicine should be fine and no need to change things there. However, the needle biopsy from earlier has him very concerned. We need to do a surgical biopsy to prove what he already is fairly certain is cancer. 

Yep, there I said it. CANCER. He started over explaining, briefly, the difference between Hodgkin's and Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma. He suspects I have Hodgkin's. He began talking about getting a port put in at the same time as the surgical biopsy. I declined that until we have that biopsy report. He also scheduled a heart test, lung test, PET Scan, bone marrow biopsy and more blood tests (I am starting to feel like a pin cushion at this point). Things are going fast now. 

January 24th I had the heart test. It was a simple ultrasound of my heart and it seems all is good there. 

January 24th I also did the lab tests. There are several red exclamation points on the online report. The only one I know what it means at this point is that I am severely low in iron. This is super rare for me. I've always had to stay away from iron supplements before because iron is usually quite high.  I will find out what the other two red exclamation point mean on my next doctor visit. 

January 28th I had the surgical biopsy. Like the needle biopsy I will write a whole separate post if you want those details. It was supposed to take only a few hours to recover, but I am three days later and still hurting at the incision point. 

This is where we are now. Coming up this week I have an appointment to have a PET Scan,  A followup with the surgeon and a meeting with the oncologist (no point in calling him the hematologist anymore!). 

As I finish up this first post I want to reiterate, this sucks but I know God is good. I would much rather not have the swollen lymph-node. I hate how much of my time is spent thinking about or going to doctor's appointments. I hate that I am so tired so often that my husband and kids have to do so much on their own. However, I am choosing my story. I am choosing to see redemption instead of evil. I am choosing to look for God's hand guiding me. I am choosing to believe His promise to never leave me. 

Thanks for reading. I will try to update at each step so you know what is happening. I can't promise it will be the day of the event, but I will try to be as consistent as possible.