Cancer. We kicked its ass!

This month is full of anniversaries. Lew is having a very exciting, momentous anniversary. Ten years ago he was diagnosed with cancer. I say that it is exciting, because he is alive and cancer free. We have never documented the experience. I would really like our kids to know how amazing their dad is. And I would like them to know strong and courageous he is. Since it has been 10 years and my memory is fading daily, I'm typing it here...

Lewis completed his mission in August of 1998. In October he moved in with his sister, Mary. She lived in Clearfield. Lew got a job and we saw each other as much as we possibly could. On February 1st Lewis's insurance kicked in. He had been feeling like crap lately and now he was able to go to the doctor. Lew was feeling really tired. He was dropping the pounds like crazy. A gland was really swollen on the left side of his neck. He also had drenching night sweats. Lew visited a family practitioner named Dr. Anderson. This doctor's mom had just passed away from Hodgkins Disease. So he was very familiar with the symptoms of this type of cancer.
Dr. Anderson referred us to an Ear, Nose and Throat doctor named Kim Davis in Alta View and U of U Hospital. We met with him within a few days. He decided to do a biopsy from the lymph node in Lew's neck. He gave us three possibilities of what the diagnosis could be. It could be some kind of weird infection, a 1% chance of Hodgkins Disease, or something else (neither one of us could remember what the third illness was). We were hoping for the weird growing infection. The biopsy was performed at the U of U. After the surgery was complete Dr. Davis came into the waiting room and said, "Mrs. Glassett (I didn't correct him that we were not married yet. That was fun) From the preliminary tests, I'm almost positive that he has a strange infection. I don't think that you have anything to worry about. We'll see you in three days to take the tube out of his neck."

Lewis is sucking it in, but this is how skinny he was.

I don't know why both of these pictures were taken in the hall? This is Sweet Lew the day of his surgery. The padding on his neck was huge! There was a tube placed in his neck to drain all the fluid. We went into the doctor to get this removed and have the bandaged closed. The receptionist chick stuck us back in a room way down around the corner in a long hallway. Honest, they forgot about us. I'm so certain of this. We waited and waited. Lewis was so nauseous. He was feeling so sick and they forgot about him. We would go look for the doctor, or some one. When we talked to an employee they said they would be right there, but nothing happened. We did call his mom long distance on a phone in the clinic. Three hours later a nurse came in. He took the bandage off and left the tube hanging out of his neck. Blood and goo was dripping out of the tube. He didn't have all the supplies to bandage him back up so he left us again! I could have done a better job. Holy crap. I did end up cleaning up the mess. After the surgery Lew's neck was numb for over a year. The scar is on a crease of his neck. Dr. Davis did a really nice job of that, but at first it kind of looked like it was a failed suicide attempt.

A few days later we went back into the office to get the diagnosis. Lewis's parents, Raney, Lewis and I were there. Dr. Davis told us that it was Hodgkins Disease. He said there is a really good doctor that specializes in Hodgkins Disease and she was at the U as well. Her name is Dr. Martha Glenn. Luckily she had an opening that same day. We were devastated and so scared. I will continue more of this story on my next post.