You are Invited to the Party:)

I have invited you to my blog so if you want to be informed, you can be, without any pressure of trying to figure out when or if to ask. I'm sure that anyone of you that is recieving this is getting it because I have told you by now that I got some unwanted results from some medicl tests. A few of you know that Tuesday my surgeon called and said that I had tested positively for lymphoma...

Marcel and I saw Dr. Resta the oncologist on Wednesday 11/26/08. It was about 24 hours after speaking with my surgeon. In that time we had:

• Consulted a client of Marcels, an oncologist, who gave Marcel a lot of guidance about what we needed to know and get from my doctors.
  
• Had the name of the doctor for our 2nd opionion from Georgetown.
  
• Told my parents and brother and son, Tyler.
  
• had an account on my Drs website, virginiahope.com.

Dr. Resta looked very well qualified and highly informed from what I had read on the website. Just the fact that the website was up and done so well, made me feel like the practice would be more on top of things. I think my instincts were right. I liked him a lot from the beginning. It wasn't a scary meeting sitting across from a desk, like I thought it would be. It was actually a lot easier, and the doctor was very good at keeping things simple and straight forward. We kept notes so we wouldn't forget what he said.

We were both a little in shock I think.
So Far this is what I know:

• Positive for B cell lymphoma
• non-hodgkins
• weakest of the 3 aggression ratings
• stage 2 (because it affects lymph nodes on both sides)

This is what the Doctor is doing:

• Consulting with radiologists to decide between PET Scan and CT Scan
• Consulting with pathologists to decide whether they will any additional biopsy
• Calling my other doctors to have all my records sent to him
• Managing my case for me
  

So far this is what I have to do:

• Wait for the doctor to decide what scan to use to check my abdomen, etc.
• Wait for the doctor to talk to the pathologist and see if she wants a bigger biopsy done or if she feels confident with what we have.
• Have the scan and possible biopsy.
• See Dr. Resta right after Christmas to hear what has been decided by the doctors.