Praying for Favor

Please begin to pray for something specific for me! Pray that I will be the favorite of my doctors in the next few weeks.

Is that a weird request? It feels odd, but that's what I am asking right now!

Let me start at the beginning for those of you that are not in my family!

The last night at youth camp, I began to have a very uncomfortable tightness in my chest. Then, I felt as though my heart was going to pound it's way out of my chest and across the room. So, I did what any decent youth minister's wife would do...I put myself to bed and willed myself to be okay, since there was only 15 more hours left of youth camp. (Really, I was afraid that if I told Larry, he would take me to the hospital in the middle of nowhere.) We drove home the next day. (We=me in the van, following 2 charter buses full of exhausted teens and sponsors). Don't worry, I was feeling a little better and had told Larry at this point what was going on.

When we got home, I got the boys settled at home with Grammy and I was able to be back at the church before the last student was picked up. (Again, like any other youth minister's wife, I had to assume that there would be one student waiting on a parent for at least 45 minutes...never fails). We made our way to an acceptable ER and after a battery of tests, x-rays and labs, they did a CT scan.

A few forevers later, the doctor came in and began to go over all of the symptoms of a heart-attack, which I thought that we had already eliminated as a possibility, but we listened anyway. He had to step out and take a call, leaving the CT scan report on the side of the bed as he went. How fabulous! The moment he left the room, Larry jumped up with cat-like reflexes, shut the door and we were flipping through that baby Lickety-Split!

There were only two notations that stuck out:

• An enlarged spleen


• A prominent thymic gland (more so than typical for a patient of this age)

When the doctor came back, we went over the results and were referred to a cardiologist (just to double check everything) and a hematologist/oncologist (in regard to the spleen and thymus).

We have been seen by a local hematologist/oncologist. He ordered a biopsy of the thymus (and seemed relatively unconcerned about the spleen).

The biopsy was TERRIBLE!!! The thymus gland is located between the sternum and heart and SHOULD shrink away to an undetectable size in adulthood. However, my dern thing is making itself at home and disturbing all of the neighbors.

The biopsy had to be with CT scans throughout, which meant that I had to be awake to hold my breath each time that they did a scan, which was quite frequent. I am not a person that is intrigued with medical stuff. I NEVER look when I get a shot or have blood drawn. However, an incredibly large needle sticking out of one's chest, just a few inches below the nose is a bit unavoidable. Not to mention that I respond VERY WELL to pain medicine. I'm not sure what they gave me, or what I was saying, but throughout the procedure the nurse, doctor and radiologist were cracking up. I can just remember the wretched sensation of being poked in the core of my being and seeing that goofy needle wobbling about as the put me in and out of the CT scan.

This is getting too long...more to come later. However, here's the rest from then up to this point. The results weren't great. They were also pretty vague. So, the decision has been made to remove the thymus to be able to determine what the problem is and possible make some staging determinations.

Thymic Cancer is extremely rare. So, we went ahead and requested that the doctor try to get us into MD Anderson Cancer Center in the Houston Medical Center. We were told that they would probably not take us, since an "official diagnosis" has not been made. HOWEVER, God made sure that I got in with the best doctor for this type of issue!

My first appointment at MD Anderson will be on Monday! What an odd thing to be excited about! Praise be to God for making the opportunity available.

I will give more info as more is available.

Pray for Larry (he lost his dad to Leukemia last year) and for the guys (they are doing great and just know that Mommy's going to be sick for a while and that lots of people are going to come play with them at the house). Pray for my parents (I think they are more worried than is necessary, but of course, they are parents!).