An Excuse

Things have been rather unorganized around here lately. A few weeks ago my coworker was diagnosed with cancer. She had been sick for well over a year. She visited doctors, had tests & scans & bloodwork, but no one could figure out why her lower abdomen hurt so bad. Taking an Aleve every day helped her push through it and she continued to work and lead her life. When another round of blood work in March showed she was extremely anemic (any lower and she would need a transfusion), she was finally referred to a hematologist/oncologist. He sent her for more scans as a routine part of the exam. This time one of the scans showed spots where spots should not be.

That lead to a frenzy of doctors' appointments and more tests. They couldn't pinpoint the type of cancer and fluctuated between ovarian cancer and a type of vascular cancer. Neither have wonderful long term statistics, especially if multiple organs were involved like hers. It was a roller coaster ride for her. Finally, she was referred to a specialty hospital almost 3 hours away where they diagnosed her with an extremely rare type of soft tissue sarcoma. It is so rare that the cancer hospital here has never treated it, and the hospital she was referred to has only treated it once!

She went in for surgery at the end of last week, where they removed a tumor that was the size of a football. (I saw the picture, it was really that big.) How all those scans and tests missed it for an entire year is a mystery to me. They removed organs and cancerous cells from organs they couldn't remove, and believe they successfully removed 99% of the disease. The cancer is so rare that they are still uncertain of the next steps to take.

I have been filling in for her since she found out. Since I have to be in at 6:45am now, we all had to do a little adjusting. Ron had to change his hours so he could get Danielle ready for school, I don't get to see Danielle at all in the mornings any more, and Tyler had to adjust to riding the bus with the commoners again. :) My neighbor friend picked up the slack for me in our morning school carpool. I am still figuring out how to successfully work twice as much as I was and learn new responsibilities there (like cooking breakfast and lunch for 200 kids & ordering all those groceries!) while keeping up with everything at home. I do not feel very organized, and just haven't had the time or energy to post anything. I suppose I just haven't built up my endurance yet. :) I am not complaining, just offering an excuse for my silence. I am so thankful that I can help and appreciate the sacrifices my family and friend made so that my coworker doesn't have to worry about her job. I think she has enough worries to occupy her time.

I have been so touched by the generousity of the people I work with. We collected donations to help with her family's travel expenses since she is in a hospital out of town. Gas, food, parking, lodging - all of that adds up quickly. So far we have collected over $800! I think that is amazing. Her husband's company started a trust at a local bank to assist with medical expenses that aren't covered by insurance and started the account with $1000. It's so neat to watch people come together to do good. Even our children are learning about sacrificing a little to help someone else.

So, every time you pull up my blog and notice I haven't updated my page, please say a prayer for my coworker, her husband, their daughter, and her doctors.