Tests, Tests, and More Tests.

On the day that we were going into Dr. Davis to get the diagnosis Lew and I were leaving my house together. Lew put on a hat and said, "How do I look?". He never says this. He gets ready and he goes. But on this day he said it. The first thought to cross my mind was -Like a cancer patient.
I think that sometimes in life we subconsciously know things. We are not aware of the feeling, but we have and internal knowledge of it. If I was asked if Lew had cancer, I would have said NO. But deep down, without acknowledging it, I knew.

Okay, so we were at the U and Lewis was just told he had Hodgkin's Disease. We were thinking what the heck is that? If you were a fan of the show Party of Five it was the disease that Charlie, the oldest brother, had. We went into Dr. Glenn's clinic to meet with her and see what we do from here. We were very, very fortunate to have such a good doctor. We were also very fortunate because Lewis's dad is a pharmacist. He could understand all of the medical stuff that was going on. And he was able to help us with all the medicines that Lewis needed to take.

With certain types of cancer there are different stages of cancer. It depends on how far your cancer has progressed. What Lewis had to do now was take a bunch of tests to see how much of the wretched disease was in his body. Hodgkin's is a cancer of the lymph nodes. There is also non-hodgkins disease or it is also called lymphoma. That cancer is more deadly. We had been told by a lot of people that Hodgkins was a good type of cancer to have if their is such a thing.

When anything bad happens, it is normal to wonder why, and where did I get this from? There is not an exact answer to where he got cancer from, but we have our ideas. Lewis grew up in a farming and dairy community. Where the backyard ends, fields begin. In the farming months there are crop dusters that spray pesticides. The homes in the area get their water from underground wells. We think that the pesticides (particularly Aldicarb which was used in the 80's for spraying potatoes)trickled down into the water supply. As I mentioned earlier, Lew's dad is a pharmacist. He has a first hand knowledge of who has cancer and what types. He started to notice that in Twin Falls there was a higher occurrence of breast cancer. In Hagerman there was more percentages of brain cancer. Six of Lewis's neighbors have had cancer, five have passed away. Needless to say, when we visit his family, we only drink bottled water.

Now the testing begins. The first one was for him to fast for two days. He could only have clear liquids like broth, water and some jello. At the end of the fast he had to drink barium sulfate. It is a nasty, chalky liquid. There were two jugs of it. He then had to have scans to see where the cancer would glow, and where it was located. After the scans were done, the lab tech said that there was still obstructions in his bowels and he had to fast for another day. Now fasting when you are healthy sucks. But fasting for two days, dying of cancer, and then tacking on another day really sucks (he was also fighting pnemonia during this time as well that we found out from one of the scans). He had another test where they shot radioactive dye in the vein in his arm. They did scans to see where the cancer was at from there. This had caused him to have phlebitis in his vein. Lewis also had to have a pulmonary test. They had him blow in a tube and measure how strong his lungs were. The nurse was a jerk. He continued to get mad at Lewis for not blowing hard enough.

We knew that Lewis was going to have chemo. One of the damaging effects of chemo is making young people sterile. We were not even married yet, and we had to start worrying about our kids, and our ability to have kids. I'll keep this a little more private, but there were a few visits to the sperm bank. We had to keep the boys frozen for about 5 years to make sure that we could have a family and found out later that having kids was no problem, obviously.

The worst test was the bone marrow biopsy. The doctor needed to see if the cancer had spread to his bone marrow. If it did, it would mean finding a bone marrow match, doner and transplant. Ugh, scary. The biopsy was horrible. The doctor was wonderful. The actual procedure was so painful. It was performed in the regular doctors office. He had Lewis lay on his stomach on the table. The marrow is taken from the hips, on both sides. Lewis was not going to be knocked out for this. The doctor numbed the skin. Then he was given a shot on both sides in the muscle. Then he was given a shot in his bones to numb it. The doctor was going to be taking a sample of the marrow that was as thick as the inside of a pen (where the ink is). He only needed about an inch deep. The doctor jumped up on the table and was kneeling over Lewis. He had to push, with all of his weight so he could drill through the bones. He was honestly twisting a corkscrew into Lew's hips. I remember just crying, wishing I could help him. It was so painful. Lewis was gripping onto the table. His arms just ached for days because he was holding on so tight. The nurse that was assisting him would hold the marrow in the tray. For some stupid reason she thought I wanted to see it. Hello! You could drop the sample and then he has to drill his butt again. So she was scolded by the doctor.

I believe this was most of the tests. He did have numerous blood tests. We went into Dr. Glenn after all the results were in. The tests had shown that the cancer was in his neck, armpits, spleen, liver and lungs. It had not spread to the lymph nodes in his groin, or into his bone marrow. Yea! The official classification was type B (there is type A and B. You are a B if you have night sweats.) He was at stage 4. Stage 1 is the best, stage 4 is the worst. Because his cancer was so advanced he had to start the treatments immediately. The regimen of chemotherapy drugs were called the Stanford Five. He would be getting chemo every Friday for the next 13 weeks. The first chemo started right after his test with the 3 day fast. He ate a snack of a banana and peanut butter sandwich.

I remember Lewis going back into the infusion room (where they give you the chemo) with his mom and dad. I had decided to go to the restroom so I could be with him as soon as his parents were ready for a break. I went to a bathroom far down the hall. As soon as I got in there, I just broke down. I remember just completely sobbing. I was all alone in there and feeling all alone. I had just met the love of my life, and he might be taken away from me. I wanted to take his spot. I wanted to take his pain, or give him my strength to beat this thing. It was so frightening. I did not want him to see me cry so hard, but it was so hard to hold it in. I didn't want to scare him. We had a huge hill to climb.