When Life Takes a Crap On You

It's kind of hauntingly ironic that my last post talked about a new era between having a 3 year old, a new born, and dieting...

Shannon's weight loss concerned her doctor, so they sent her to a GI, who thought she probably had IBS but sent her for a colonoscopy as a pre-caution. During that, they found a large growth low in her intestinal track, so large it prevented them from going any further. They took a biopsy of it and sent her for a CT scan and bloodwork. We knew right away, from the diagnosis codes on the CT scan order, that the doctor suspected cancer. Half a week later, we got the heavy news...cancer. Various CT scans have shown no mestases, so that's good, but still...CANCER?!

Through some gentle prodding by families, we decided to start working with Johns Hopkins, since they have a specialty center for these type of cancers, rated #3 in the world. So, this week was pretty swamped with appointments. Met with a surgeon on Wednesday who dropped another rock on us...The treatment plan won't just be surgery. Radiation and chemotherapy for 4-5 weeks before, followed by chemo for 4 months after the surgery. Now, in fairness, the reason they are doing this is because with this type of cancer, there's really good results shown when you go for this type of treatment. As one of the oncologists described it, you want to try to kill this thing in one shot, rather than being conservative and having to battle it 3 or 4 times. Still, it means a lot of changes and isn't something that'll be fun. On Thursday, Shannon went for an MRI in the morning, then met with radiation oncologist where they laid out what was going to happen with the radiation. On Friday, we met with medical oncologist to discuss the chemo piece, Shannon got another CT scan, and then she had her simulation radiation treatment. That should be it for the initial appointments, now it's just waiting for the treatment to be ready to execute.

I wanted to blog this because I want to ask anyone I know to pray, hope, send good thoughts, or whatever your own spirituality allows, send it Shannon's way. She has been really strong up through this point, taking in a lot of information and rolling with the changes this is going to bring, but this is definitley emotionally tolling, and once the treatment starts, that's going to be just a little heavier to bear. We're optimistic, everyone at Hopkins is really great and this is a very well studied cancer, so the treatments are something that has been shown to have a high success rate. And everyone knows Shannon...she's head strong. She's not going to let this take her under. But please send any good thoughts you can.

Another thing you can do...So a way I can combine being a supportive husband with the fitness I've been trying to improve. The Undy 5k in Washington DC is November 5th, 2011, benefitting Colon Cancer Awareness. I'm sticking my flag in the ground...this is my first fitness goal. Be able to finish a 5k and not be the last place runner, finishing a solid 3 hours later. If you are interested in joining a team, or donating, please let me know. I'm excited to do this, wanted to try some sort of event to motivate my fitness, and to pick one that is for cause, and especially one that ties into what Shannon is going to....it's just perfect.