Monday, January 18, 2010

Second Diagnosis

On January 6th 2010, John and I woke up to our worst nightmare! Right before Christmas John was complaining about a pain in the left side of his neck. So I called the Hunstman's to get him in right away for a MRI. He has been getting those regularly to scan for any signs of his cancer coming back.

Before this year everything has been fine since his last treatments in 2008. So he went in for his results on Monday the 4th of Jan. and asked the doctor what happened with his results from his xrays they got in October. When John was first diagnosed in Sept 2007 the Doctor said that Adenoid Cystic Carcinoma could spread to his lungs later on in his life, but that he would take care of him. So when John asked about his xrays in Jan he said oh well lets get you a CT Scan to take a closer look. So on Tuesday John had the Scan.

The next day his Doctor called me and said that John has lung cancer but that he needs a biopsy to find out what kind. John has 5 cm size tumors on each lung and a 50 cent piece size tumor on his left lung. So John got a biopsy on Thursday Jan. 14th.

His doctor called us and let us know on Saturday that John's cancer has metastasized into his lungs. Which means that the cancer that he had before is now in his lungs. So John does not have lung cancer he has stage 4B Adenoid Cystic Carcinoma in his lungs. Also the Doctor told John there is nothing that they could do for him.

Chemo does not work for
Adenoid Cystic Carcinoma, they can't operate on his lungs, and radiation may still be an option for him, but for right now we are not sure.

He has been taking some herbs that we hope may help, but we are not even sure how fast the tumors are growing.
Today he made several appointments with other doctors to get some more opinions. If we find out that nobody can help him here, we are going to go to the Cancer Treatment Centers of America in Arizona or Washington to get some help from them as a last resort!

We are hoping for a miracle right now, and the only word I can think of right now is terrified. I hate that he has to go throu
gh this again. I know God has his plans, but sometimes I don't like them.
Please pray for John and if you talk to him just let him know how much you love him and care about him. It's coming up on our 6th anniversary on February 2nd. So we are just trying to stay positive and enjoy our time together. I love this guy more than anyone and I can't imagine my life without him.

2 comments:

Meg said...

We love you guys, and are ALWAYS thinking of you :)

Tannar and Maggie Rehrer said...

This is Maggie Howell... You wouldn't know because my last name is different and probably wouldn't put 2 and 2 together... I am in tears.. I'm so sorry your guys I had no idea... I grew up with John in my home... He was good friends with my brother until we moved... He'll be in our prayers