Pathology Results…

I haven’t shared the results with many people up to this point because Matt and I wanted to share the news with our families before it was blasted on Facebook and Twitter. For a while, I was hesitant to even share this via my blog, but in the end I decided that the more people praying the better!

The pathology from the biopsies taken from my omentum (layer of fat that protects the organs in our abdomen) came back as malignant mesothelioma of the abdomen. This is a type of cancer that usually occurs in the lungs and is caused from exposure to asbestos in older people (I don’t meet any of those criteria). However, the following is also true of abdominal mesothelioma:

--> can be found in young women

--> can be related to and regress after pregnancy

I had 2 CT scans done before my surgery. On the first scan you can clearly see the masses in my omentum. The next scan that was done you could barely see them at all. So, our prayer is that I am one of the young women who have this pregnancy related type of mesthelioma and that it continues to regress the further post partum I get.

Matt and I will be going to meet with an oncologist at Mayo Clinic soon to hopefully get more information. I am scheduled to have another CT scan and PET scan in June to determine if the cancer has regressed or not. If it doesn’t then I will start chemotherapy.

I found out this news the Thursday before Easter. If you don’t got to LifeChurch, the message was on seeing God in your life despite the circumstances.  My husband and I both left our Easter experience in tears…not because of our new circumstances, but because of what Christ did for us. Yes, I have cried tears over this news, but the best news of all is that Jesus is MORE than enough for me. He is ALL I need. I am focusing all of my energy into that truth and into my beautiful family. We will cross whatever bridge we have to in June, but in the mean time I refuse to let this rob me of joy, peace, and happiness.

I want to say thank you for all the prayers. I can feel them surrounding me and the joy that is in my life right now can only be from God.  I love you all and pray that Christ is at work in ALL your circumstances.

Surgery update – from Matt

Hey, everyone. Daireth is doing fine. Sleeping now that the morphine drip has kicked in. Just in time for the UCONN/Purdue game. Which is sad. This is one of her favorite times of year (outside of bedlam week in the fall and maybe her birthday). The surgeon took several biopsies throughout the procedure and everything including the large tumor on the pancreas has been non-cancerous. They had to take the spleen and 1/3 of the pancreas in order to remove the tumor. She's staying in room 3W-15. The earliest she's expected to go home is Saturday, but it will most likely be Sunday.

Thanks for all the prayers. God is good...all the time.

-Matt

Health Update

I have had many people asking me what is going on with my health, so I thought I would blog the story.  I have been wanting to get back to blogging, so this is a nice jump start :)

In August of 2007 I was admitted into the hospital for what they thought was appendicitis.  While looking at a CT scan they happened to notice a “blip” on my pancreas.  From there I was referred to Mayo Clinic to have an endoscopic ultrasound and biopsy of the mass.  The biopsy was benign (Praise God!) and I was told that I would need surgery to have the tumor removed.  Since I was getting married 1 month (to the day) from the biopsy they said I could wait until after the honeymoon to proceed with the surgery. 

After the honeymoon they rescheduled me to meet with the surgeon in April 2008.  The day before my appointment I found out I was pregnant!  Obviously, this was a HUGE surprise.  Since I was pregnant I couldn’t have surgery or even a CT scan to see how the tumor was doing. 

On December 27, 2008 I gave birth to my beautiful little girl, Tatum Elizabeth.  After I recovered I started the whole process again to get the tumor removed.  In January 2009 I had another CT scan to determine if anything had changed.  The tumor had grown a little and they also found another mass in my omentum.  In February I had a bunch of tests / scans done to try to determine if the mass in my omentum was related to the tumor on my pancreas.  Those tests came back negative, which was a good sign that the tumor on my pancreas wasn’t spreading.

They decided before I had the surgery to biopsy the mass in my omentum to determine what they were dealing with.  I went in for the biopsy and they couldn’t find any tissue to biopsy!  Thank you Jesus!  When I spoke with my doctor today, she said that she thinks it could have been something related to my pregnancy or it could possibly be a ruptured ovary. 

Bottom Line: I will be having surgery on March 26 to have 1/3 of my pancreas removed and possibly my spleen.  They will also take some samples of my omentum to confirm that everything is OK there.

I want to say thank you for all the prayers and support.  There have been times through this almost 2 year process that have been very unsettling and scary.   I never thought in a million years at age 27 I would be dealing with tumors. 

The silver lining in all of this is that I have learned the hard lesson of what it means to give yourself completely to God and trust Him with the things you cannot control.  I hope this doesn’t come across as cheesy Christian talk because God has done something in me that has forever changed my faith and my life.  My one prayer is that God is glorified in me no matter what the circumstances might be.