As many of you know already 2007 and was a roller coaster of a year. Early in the year I was diagnosed with Wegener's granulomatosis. It is a rare type of vasculits that can be fatal if not treated right away. The doctors told me that the treatment would be simple… lots of steroids and a few rounds of chemotherapy. So the first thing that I asked was do I have cancer? Thankfully it was not. I received my last chemo treatment in August and tried to return to work. About a month later I was sitting in the office with my sister joking around with each other. She kept messing with a bump that she had on her head. After going thru my ordeal I insisted that she her doctor. You can never be to sure what your body is doing. The only reason that she could think that she had the bump was from an incident that happened over a month earlier when she had bumped her head in the same spot. However this bumped just appeared and the time between when she hit her head and when the bump appeared did not make much sense. She finally went to see her doctor and he thought that she may have possibly fractured her skull when she bumped it. He said that it is common for this to happen and heal itself however as time passes an infection can develop, this made sense. He wanted to a biopsy to confirm what he was thinking. The first attempt to get the biopsy was unsuccessful so the doctor scheduled her to have a procedure done at the hospital. Since they could not get a sample with a syringe they would have to make an incision in her scalp and take a sample. What the doctor found was a solid mass.
The oncologist, Dr. Engel, came in and gave his preliminary findings. She had lymphoma. He thinks that it is non-Hodgkin's but will have to do some testing to confirm this. Dr. Engel meet with the family in the hospital room and gave us all the news. After reviewing all the cat scans and blood work he confirmed that she does have Non-Hodgkin's large diffuse B-cell Lymphoma. It is a type of cancer that starts in the lymph nodes and spreads quickly. He assured us that it is very treatable however that it was spread throughout her body and he called it stage 4. They started her treatment right away. They used what is called a CHOP-R therapy. It is several kinds of chemo (one had to be injected thru her spine) as well as an antibody. She was scheduled for 8 rounds of this.
There are not any words that can explain my feelings when this happened. I know what it is like to think that you are perfectly healthy. Then to be sitting there and have a doctor tell you something and your whole life changes in a matter of minutes. It is one thing to have this happen to yourself but when it happened to my big sister I felt like someone tore my heart out. How can this happen, why her?
Anyone that has been thru any kind of major illness will tell you that your attitude has a lot to do with your healing process. It is hard to stay positive when you are putting your life in the hands of the doctors. You can at times feel very lost. You turn to organizations like the Lymphoma and Leukemia Society
http://www.leukemia-lymphoma.org/hm_lls for information. They are a good resource for the patient as well as their families. I have gone to their websites many of times to educate myself about the disease and the treatment. Because of this we have decided to participate in the Light the Night Walk. It is a 3-Mile walk that will take place on the evening of September 13, 2008. We are doing this to support the Lymphoma and Leukemia Society but even more to celebrate that Chrissy is a SURVIVOR. She beat cancer. I am inviting you to join us for the walk. It is very easy to sign up and there is no minimum amount that you have to collect. If you can not walk maybe consider making a donation. It is a worthy cause that has helped someone that I love dearly when she was not sure what to do. If you have any questions please call me on my cell 630-776-5431.
Susie
To make a donation please visit
http://www.active.com/donate/ltnChicag/2402_Silbernagel
To sign up to walk please visit
http://register.lightthenight.org/LTNRegistration/app
Search by team name: team sugar
It will pull up a walk for Lisle and a walk for Grant Park. We are doing the Grant Park walk (schedule conflict so we could not do Lisle). If you have any questions please call me.
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