Welcome!

Another new experience I never thought I would be experiencing in my 60's!  Blogging!

My intention is this to be an easy way for me to get information out there about my health status without having to do a ton of email groups, and to not overwhelm folks with updates that they maybe don't want to get.  The last thing I want is for people to start to dread seeing my name in their InBox.  So now folks can check in on their own initiative.

Here is a re-cap of what has been happening:

2010   
Feb.    Malignant melanoma on my face....upper right cheekbone.

2011
March   2 pre-cancerous spots removed from my calves.

2012
Oct. 28   Pneumonia
Nov. 28  Chest x-ray showed something still in the lung....plan to re-do in Jan.
Dec. 5    Still coughing up blood clots like during the pneumonia.
             Went to Emergency Room for evaluation.   Had a contrast CT done and 
              an appointment made for the following day with a pulmonologist.
Dec. 6   Met with Dr. Eulberg and scheduled a bronchoscopy for the following week. 
            The CT scan showed some growth along the bronchials  in my right upper lobe.
             He thought it might be some mucous plugs left over from the pneumonia and they            
            could go in and clean things out during the bronchoscopy.  He was pretty sure that    
            this was the source of the blood clots.  
Dec. 13  Bronchoscopy showed a tumor and they biopsied it.     
Dec. 17  Cancer diagnosis.  They could do a surgery to remove the upper lobe of the lung, 
              but first would need to determine if there were more sites.
              And, FYI, we have 3 lobes that make up our right lung and 2 lobes on the left.    
              So I would still have 2 lobes left on the right side, and they would gradually 
              compensate for the removed lobe.
Dec. 28   PET scan to determine if there were any cancer cells  in my lymph nodes. 

2013 
Jan. 2    Lymph nodes are clear but they saw a spot on my liver.
Jan. 3    MRI to get more info on the liver. 

So that gets us up to today.

It has been a lot of waiting from the diagnosis of cancer, and still no definitive plan in site.  More questions than answers, and more living in the ambiguity.  I have gotten better at this over the past couple weeks, but it still is hard to remain in the day I am in and not have my brain project out all sorts of scenarios.

I have been learning a lot these weeks, and will try and get some of these "aha" moments down.  But I am not blogging to try and create great writing.  This is a vehicle for communication.  

Some days I may happen to be brilliant, and some days maybe entertaining.  But maybe some days I will need to vent or be terse and guarded.  But it all is communication.  And much of what I write on paper seems to be info that I need to see to understand; things that rattle around in my brain but that I don't take time to look at.  So this is a process.

Now we wait for the results of the MRI about the liver spot.  Wait and hope and pray and ultimately....accept and go forward to the next indicated step.