The Journey Begins - Part 2

In order to get the biopsy done, our PC doctor wanted one of the best guys he knew to do the job. Unfortunately he was on vacation and wouldn't return till the 20th and he wanted to review the case more so the biopsy date was set for June 22nd. This meant we had to wait 10 days until we were able to get in with him after being informed she had Lymphoma. This waiting game was getting extremely old and the only thing making us feel at ease was the comfort she was getting from the prednisone and the reassurance from our PC doc that these things took time and that she wasn't in any immediate danger. The relief would begin to fade though as she tapered to 10mg of prednisone from 40mg initially and her swelling began to reappear and in more places. Her lacrimal gland in her right eye began to protrude badly and her breathing began to worsen again. the 22nd could not get here fast enough!

On June 22nd we drove to Eugene where we would meet one of the nicest doctors yet: Mr. Joe Verimontes at Mckenzie Willamette Hospital. This man took time out of his vacation to look over her records from our PC doctor as they were good friends. We definitely see the benefits of knowing the right people that's for sure. We were told that not only was he a family man but he was one of the best at neurovascular procedures as she was scheduled to have a piece of the thymus gland removed which is a very tricky procedure. We were needless to say scared out of our wits. Especially since we were getting nowhere for so long and now were told she most likely had cancer.

Dr. V had asked Mayleigh a question right before the surgery and pointed to the nodules on her head. He inspected them and didn't hesitate to say he could just take a biopsy of those instead of going into her chest cavity which gave us instant relief  as he said it would be way easier to do. We said Let's do it and she would undergo her first general anesthesia and surgery procedure. She was scared.... we were scared.. but hopeful! She did amazing :)

After an hour, he was done. Not only did he do a great job with the biopsy, he also installed a port-a-cath to allow for easy administering of different medications and blood draws. This would prove to be very handy moving forward as it was already done and anyone needing access could do so immediately.
He sat us down and talked about several things and he was so kind and sympathetic. I think he was one of the most caring doctors I've ever met. He made us feel that they would find the answers quickly, they got what they needed and hopefully resolution would find us. Unfortunately it probably wouldn't be until the following week.  He also mentioned that he would  be looking at the University if anything due to the problems we had with finding resolution as they were best equipped. We thanked him and after another hour or so Mayleigh was able to go home and was shoe shopping shortly after. She seemed to have not only braved through this difficult procedure but she was stronger than I ever imagined she could be and we were so proud of how quickly she bounced back.

We were told that we may receive the biopsy results by Friday but most likely the following week. It was no surprise when we did not receive a phone call on Friday :(...
On Monday June 27th, our PC doctor called Mayleigh and informed her of the results. T-Cell Lymphoma. Being that he doesn't work on Monday's he didn't give her much more info than that and that he would be in touch. We immediately began researching what that meant and we were really given nothing more than a scare cause this is an extremely rare disease in that only about 5000 people suffer from this each year. But then there are 20 different sub-types that get even more rare. All we knew is that it was fast moving and at this rate we had no idea how far along we were in staging. We dreaded the worst but remained optimistic.

On Tuesday June 28th, Mayleigh received a call from an oncologist office in Eugene at Willamette Valley Cancer Institute. She told her she had an appointment on Friday the 30th but we had been planning a trip to Boise Idaho for many months now. We of course would cancel and go to the appointment but she informed her of the conflict and was told she would call back if she could find an alternative date.

Shortly after my wife receives a phone call from our PC doctor kind of chewing her out for not being a mama bear and putting her foot down and taking this appointment. My wife had no idea what she was talking about as the office had called Mayleigh and not her so she called Mayleigh to find out the details. She informed us that they were looking into another date and would call back. My wife wasted no time though and called herself and was told that the Friday appointment had been given away. We were furious that we had missed this opportunity and were concerned we missed out on a very crucial appointment. We were originally told we would not be able to see him until July 11th if we didn't take the Friday appointment, but within 10 minutes another person called and said we had an appointment set for Wednesday the 6th. This would be perfect in that we could still have our trip and we could see him the second we got back. We still would have much rather took that appointment and ditched the trip to get her in sooner. This would not leave our minds the whole time... We drove to Boise on June 28th and stayed in Hood River for the night. We then stayed in Boise until July 5th. We had a great time but Mayleigh's symptoms seem to be getting worse by the day and we were anxious to get in. We left Boise and drove to Eugene and stayed the night. The next day we would hopefully be meeting one of the best lymphoma doctors in the region. He came highly recommended and we felt we were in the best hands and he was going to get her life back on track! We were nervous of course but confident we were in the right place and were ready to do whatever it took to fight this...We still didn't have a great answer for what was wrong but we knew we would find them within a few short hours.