Wow! It's been a long time away. Life just kinda got in the way and our little family blog took a little (ok, a long) time off.
I want to share the journey through this challenging chapter of our lives. Perhaps it will be more therapeutic for me, but at the same time will help to share information and updates as to what is going on.
First, let's bring everyone up to speed.
In late June I noticed a 'bump' to the left of Lola's center-back neck. At first I figured it was nothing and would wait for it to go away by itself, thinking it was just a cyst or something minor. After sleeping on it for a night and something not feeling just right, I made an appointment the next day for Lola. During Lola's appointment, June 30th, her doc had no idea what the bump was and called in for a consult from one of her partners. He also had no idea. They collaborated and decided it would be best to refer Lola over for a surgery consult. The second doc made a hand signal (similar to wheels on the bus) indicating we should get her over there pretty quick. Before that appointment, Lola had some blood work done and also had to undergo an ultrasound test to provide additional info for the surgery consult. The blood work came back normal, so we had a little relief about that (it ruled out Lukemia).
The Surgeon consult appointment took place on July 6th and he ordered a MRI for Lola which was done on July 13th. Results from that were inconclusive, so the doc wanted to biopsy the lump. Lola went in on Wednesday, July 15th for surgery. She was in surgery for over an hour and instead of just a biopsy of the lump, the doc decided it was best just to remove the entire thing since she was already sedated and he had to cut anyhow. He indicated the mass was encased in a sac, was quite large (about 2" round) and was quite deep, but he was able to 'pop it out' all in one piece (he said this was a good sign). They sent the tumor out to pathology to identify exactly what it was and expected the results to be back in 7 to 10 days.
Much to our surprise, the doc called Friday the 17th with preliminary results which found it to be a fibrous tumor and benign in nature. He STRESSED these were preliminary results and final results would be a bit longer to come in. We were quite relieved with this news and fully expected this to be the end of our little 'scare'.
Unfortunately, on Monday, July 27th the doc called with the final pathology report from the Mayo Clinic. He said there was a slight change and at that point Mick and I both had a sinking heart. He explained the tumor had been identified as low grade malignant myofibroblastic sarcoma. Basically a cancer of the muscle tissue that normally doesn't spread aggressively. We have an appointment on August 6th with the Oncologist and will have a better idea of our road map after that hopefully.
