Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Life Get's Complicated

Have you ever noticed that? Life can be super complicated some times. Mine sure seems to have a bad habit of doing that! Anyone who knows me would probably agree.

Lately the reason I haven't been on here is that I've been a wee bit distracted. Ok. More than wee bit if you want me to be honest. I haven't posted about it because at first we didn't really know anything. Then, once we did, I've been too emotional to want to talk about it.

My brother, I tend to call him Psycho, has stage 4 cancer. T cell hystocite rich B cell lymphoma to be exact. Don't know what that is? Well of course you don't! It's a rather rare form. It's a variant on a form of Non-Hodgkins lymphoma's that accounts for 40% of that category, but this variant accounts for only 1-3% of that. So yah, pretty rare.

The good news is that it tends to react like the larger group that it's a part of, so the docs have a good idea of to treat it, and they are very hopeful for his chances.

The bad news is that it's spread into a lot of places in his upper body. Just in the last two weeks he's had two more lymph nodes that have enlarged in his neck and we can feel them and see one of them. Don't know about you, but that shakes me up a bit.

We've had quite the adventure so far, and that's how I'm trying to take this, as just another adventure. It took the doctors some time to identify exactly what was wrong, so we could start treating it. So we'd get to appointments and it would be, "Well we know some more, but...." They ended up operating on his neck to take out one of the lymph nodes and that gave us the final diagnosis.

So now the next step in the adventure is to treat this. Chemo starts tomorrow, and I know we're all kind of waiting to see how it affects him. I know, deep inside, that we're not going to lose him, but the road to the other side might be really rough. We'll find out!

I'm so proud of Gordon, he's been really strong through all of this, and his faith has inspired me! He's spent the last couple of years taking care of me while I was really sick, now it's my turn to do the same for him.

I'll try to keep you guys updated from time to time, and I'm going to be trying to post more book reviews again. I have a back log in my files like you wouldn't believe! And the back log to write up is pretty impressive right now too. Or depressing :P

8 comments:

Amy said...

Praying for and thinking of Gordon and your whole family!! :)

Re said...

You and your brother are obviously blessed to have one another.

Just send a pray-ful thought your way my dear...

Splendid Little Stars said...

so sorry, Ruthie. You know I care. big huge hugs all around. will keep you and your brother in my prayers.

LissC said...

This is my first visit to your blog. Just wanted you to know I'm sending prayers, and healing energy your way. I've had loved ones that have beat cancer, and those that didn't, and have had some personal scares too. It is a long hard road, and my heart goes to those who are on that road, both those with the cancer, and their families. I pray the best for you and your brother.
(hugs)

(hugs)

storybeader said...

thinking of you and your family, and hoping for the best. He sounds like a fighter, and that's good! {:-D

joeyandaleethea said...

Oh Ruthie, I'm so sorry to hear you and your family are going thru such a difficult time with your brother's condition. I'll be praying for Gordon and you too. ((((hugs))))

Judy Nolan said...

Ruthie, I'm so sorry to hear about your brother. You two sound very close, and I'm glad you are able to be there for him.

LC Preston Andersen said...

I love you honey!!!