In 2007 my husband found one of his lymph nodes swollen and painful. The general practitioner sent him to a surgeon for removal. The lymph node was removed - then we had to wait on the test results. We knew the call from the Dr was coming so we escaped to Hardy, AR to a bed & breakfast. The first night, while walking and looking at Spring River the call came. My husband had cancer. CANCER. We were referred to an Oncologist. More waiting.
2008 was a rough year - It was 2008 by the time we met with the oncologist (Dr. Tauer). The
doctor ordered tests - CT Scan, PET Scan, bone marrow biopsy. These
tests showed no other cancer in his body. Weird - but most excellent
news. We were cautiously optimistic. My dad passed away in July 2008. Refer to previous post for that difficult story.
2009 - In March of 2009, I had a surgery that would be a much bigger deal than
anyone expected. The short story is that I had my gallbladder removed
and ended up on a ventilator for many days. I spent 23 days in the
hospital and another 90 days after that for recovery. Big flipping
deal. During my recovery, Scott's mom and aunt decided to move from Alabama back to Tennessee. They were moving to Nashville - only 3 hours away from us. We knew that his aunt's health was declining, but had no idea how much. The day the movers showed up (June) - his aunt fell and broke her hip. As the paramedics were loading up the aunt, his mom was calling us in a big ass panic. So, we drove to meet her half way, handled the move, and maintained contact with the hospital that his aunt was in. Finally, after a month or so, the aunt made it to Nashville. Unfortunately the aunt really never recovered - the dr's discovered spine cancer. She lasted a few months, with my mother in law being her primary care giver. The Thanksgiving and Christmas of that year I worked extremely hard to make perfect memory inducing holidays - i knew she would not see another holiday season.
2010 - The aunt had to be placed in a nursing home in the beginning of 2010. By mothers day, she was gone. During this time we moved mother in law (Janis) into our house in Memphis. we sorted through all their stuff - gave a ton to Amanda (daughter) and assimilated the rest into our household. That August Janis had open heart surgery to clear blockages to her heart. She was not feeling well leading up to the surgery - and neither was my husband. Scott was feeling progressively worse. He started by going to the dermatologist because the skin on his hands was blistering and sores were easily made. To make a long story short, my husband has Porphyria cutanea tarda (PCT)
So while Janis was in the hospital, Scott was undergoing some pretty intense tests. The liver biopsy was the worst for him. But we kept as much of the information away from Janis and Amanda. Finally a clear diagnosis came......Hepatitis C. WTF....Hepatitis C?!?! Where did that come from? Apparently you can contract Hep C from dentists, tattoos, surgeries....not just IV drug use or unprotected sex. So here we are - my husband who is in remission from Lymphoma now has Hep C and PCT. The treatment course for Hep C is a cocktail of pretty nasty, intense drugs. It is basically chemotherapy that he took every single day for 9 months. This 9 months was miserable for him. he felt crappy 90% of the time. Janis made it through her surgery and we tried to have the holidays 2010 style.
2011 - Scott was nearing the end of treatment (Sept 2011) but Janis was still not well. The 2010 surgery fixed the pathway to her heart, but she still had blockage in her arteries in the abdomen. Janis made the decision to have a abdominal bypass in Oct 2011. As things usually happen, I was out of town for work the day she went into the hospital. I also had major pains in my back - WTF.....back pain? That was new for me. Janis was not having an easy time coming out of sedation and off the ventilator, so my husband suggested that I get home as quickly as possible. I drove like a bat outta hell from Atlanta to Memphis. Janis was off the vent by the time I got there and things were looking up. My back was still killing me. I finally was able to go to the Dr - after many tests it was discovered that I had 3 broken vertebrae in my back. Yes, 3. I was put in a back brace and told to rest as much as possible. But Janis was still in the hospital and NOT DOING WELL. My husband was a wreck, my step daughter was a wreck, I was a broken wreck. Scott was still taking this bad ass medicine, but spending 90% of his time sitting at the hospital and the other 10% he was worried about me. This was a very difficult time for us, VERY. November 11, 2011 Janis died. She just could not recover from the surgery. There were moves out of ICU, moves to ICU - then we made the decision to move to Hospice. When Janis died - it created wounds in Scott, Amanda, and myself. We were all very very very sad. But husband was still on the bad ass medicine, my back was healing, and Amanda was trying to buy a house. Life was moving on....not gently, but moving nonetheless. September of 2011 was Scott last month of the bad ass medicine. My back healed (kinda), and Amanda bought her house.
2012 - Scott is no longer on the Hep C bad ass medicine and we are waiting to see if the disease has been cured, but his feet are failing him. He has a raging case of plantar fasciitis, bursitis, and extra bone growth on the back of his heel. So, July of this year he ended up in a cast for 6 weeks. Now we are actively seeking a 2nd opinion about the foot - hoping that surgery will alleviate the pain. To top all of that off, my husband is depressed. So depressed that I made him an appointment with a psychologist, that lead to a psychiatrist. Now hubs is diagnosed with a learning disability and depression. If that were not enough, he found one of his remaining lymph nodes swollen and hard. This goes back to 2007 - when he found the original one. We have an appointment with the oncologist tomorrow and most likely the tests will begin. With each of the tests, the waiting will get harder and harder. If this fucking cancer is back.......oh my. We definitely need some good news. Since 2007 our lives have been a series of bad and worse news. I am so tired. I am not sure that I have EVER felt so beaten down.
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