the Saturday evening post (aka, the latest on Trish)

Okay, here's the detailed version of Tuesday's visit with Dr. Tauer, for those of you who are really nosy. :-) As I said before, Mom's CT scan was unchanged, which is a good thing. Obviously, we would've rather heard "all clear", but we weren't really expecting that. And we wanted some definite answers about what's going with those enlarged lymph nodes, but the only way we'll get that is if we do a biopsy. And since "unchanged" means the nodes are still too small to biopsy, that's definitely a good thing! The nodes in question are two enlarged lymph nodes in her chest and one in her abdomen. We didn't find out about the one her abdomen until now, even though it's been there. This worries us, because it could be the pancreatic cancer (PC). The ones in her chest are more likely to be breast cancer (BC). Neither would be good, but there are definitely more treatment options available for BC. Mom said, "I don't know whether I should wear pink or purple!" (Purple is the PC awareness color, and I'm sure you know that pink is the BC awareness color).

It is still entirely possible that none of this is cancer. Lymph nodes swell for all kinds of reasons. Dr. Tauer said the lymph node in Mom's abdomen could be post-surgical (i.e., caused by something Whipple-related). I've read online that Crohn's disease (which Mom also has) can cause enlarged lymph nodes. And Trish also has a stent (from the Whipple) floating around in her intestines that could be causing inflammation. So who knows. As far as the lymph nodes in her chest go, we learned last week (thanks to some in-depth googling by yours truly) that those could be caused by a complication of the reconstruction surgery Trish had after her mastectomy in 2001. We (along with Dr. T) will be discussing that possibility more with Mom's plastic surgeon. We really have no clue. Dr. Tauer has no clue. But he was very pleased with the results of Mom's scan and wants to continue to monitor these mystery lymph nodes closely. Mom will have another CT scan in two months, on Halloween day.

As far for Mom's tumor markers, we have no word on them yet. They're a send-out lab, so it takes a day to get the results. If they're bad, Dr. T will call and let Mom know (at least that's what he did the last time, which was seven years ago). If they're good, Mom gets a postcard in the mail. Yes, we could call the clinic and find out, but we're not worried enough to do that. We will, though, if a postcard doesn't arrive next week! So, as many on facebook have said, pray for a postcard!

Mom will see Dr. Behrman (remember him? the Whipple surgeon?) for a routine follow-up appointment in a couple of weeks. He may have something to say about the lymph node in her abdomen. We'll see.

And the prayer requests are as follows:

• Mom's next CT scan is October 31st. Pray for good news!
• the mystery lymph nodes . . . pray for no further growth and for whatever's causing that inflammation to go away! 
• normal tumor markers . . . pray for a postcard!
• wisdom for Mom's doctors - Dr. Tauer, Dr. Adams, and Dr. Behrman - as well as wisdom for Trish as they all work together to make the right decisions
• praise, praise, praise and thanksgiving for God's grace and faithfulness . . . Mom is now a 10-year breast cancer survivor and a 1-year pancreatic cancer survivor! Amazing!