A small snag….

Last Thursday, Ross and I had an appointment with the fertility specialists to discuss our future family. The appointment was running behind so they asked us to take a break for lunch and then return an hour later to finish the appointment. Well, while we were on break, my breast surgeon at Moffitt called to discuss some new developments they found after reviewing my recent CT scan. I sat in the car listening and jotting down the information while Ross jammed a sandwich down his throat.  In disbelief, I hung up the phone and choked out the words to Ross. “I have a pea size mass on my left lung that needs to be biopsied AND I have a LARGE tumor that almost COVERS my entire left kidney. I will most likely lose my left kidney due to the size of the mass and they think this is a separate CANCER in my body.”

SERIOUSLY?!?  Is this real life??? Just when I thought I was at peace with everything leading up to this information, I got slammed with another doozy! How could this be?? I feel SO NORMAL, yet I have not ONE but TWO cancers growing inside of my body. 

Once we collected ourselves, we walked slowly back into the building to discuss the recent developments with the fertility doctor. Feeling overwhelmed by the crummy news, we decided to take a step back from the process of egg harvesting and focus entirely on my health. Pumping my body full of hormones for the next few weeks suddenly felt like a bad idea. We don’t want anything to hold me back from what my main focus should be….getting me well! I am sad about the potential of not adding to our family one day, but I feel at peace that if The Lord thinks we should have another child one day, he will help that happen. We are so grateful that we were blessed to be parents already to such an awesome and amazing little boy!

So, last Friday, my Mom and I traveled back to Moffitt (for the 3^rd time last week) for my axilla biopsy and a bone scan.  The biopsies were not as bad as I anticipated and the bone scan was easy too. We were almost off campus when I received a phone call saying the urologist could see me RIGHT NOW if I was able to come back. WELL YES! I was super thankful it would save me a trip down to Tampa! We met with two urologists to discuss the issues with my kidney. They both said they were 85-90% sure the tumor was cancerous on my left kidney. Due to the size and location, they would have to remove my entire left kidney. The good news is that they believe that, although rare, this is most likely a SEPARATE cancer from my breast cancer. This surgery would have to be preformed prior to any treatment of my breast cancer. However, the lung, if the pathology comes back as cancer, could be either the breast cancer or the kidney cancer that has spread. The good news (always trying to stay positive) is that I most likely will not need radiation or chemo for the kidney and I can live a perfectly normal life with ONE kidney. I would have no lifestyle changes.

This week, I HAVE NO APPOINTMENTS scheduled. I am thankful for a breather but yet wish I could get things started. I hate delaying the inevitable. I WANT TO GET THIS OVER WITH!!

I humbly ask that in the weeks ahead you will pray for clean bone scan results and a benign lung mass. I pray that my surgery to have my kidney removed can be squeezed in sooner rather than later so that the breast cancer can then be treated.

THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU again and again for ALL of the support.

-Abby