Diagnosis: How it started (we think?)

We have to go back to the fall of 2002, we think? Connie came down with a few swollen lymph nodes in her armpits. Of course, we were concerned and went to our Doctor. He examined her and thought that she had “an infection” because if it WAS cancer, it wouldn’t have manifested itself in both armpits with several “nodes” affected. He gave her antibiotics and the nodes went down (usually a good sign that it was indeed, an infection).

Since Connie has a family history of breast cancer (Her Mom is a survivor but we lost her cousin Barb from it), she gets checked all the time. So, to be careful we decided to have one of the “nodes” removed surgically to check it for cancer. We are so glad we did! The surgeon felt Connie’s armpits and said, “I can almost guarantee that you don’t have cancer. If you did, we would not see these respond to antibiotics”. “You can probably forgo the surgery if you want.” Only one “node” was still slightly inflamed. This is where we feel the first God-thing occurred.

The nurse in the room at the time, while the Dr. was speaking kept looking at us and nodding without the Dr. knowing it. It was as if she was saying, “Do it…Do it! You are ready, you are here…be sure!” So we did. The outcome was that the node was “negative” for cancer but, the big advantage to us now is that we know she was CLEAN one year ago. All her blood tests and pathology at that time gave no indication of leukemia.

Fast forward to October 15, 2003. Connie developed another swollen lymph gland, this time in her neck. It started out small and a bit sore and we, again thought it was an infection. Our family Doctor was not in so, Connie went and saw his partner. By this time, it had swollen up to the size of a tennis ball. It was painful to touch and hot. Again, a sign of an infection, NOT cancer. If it was cancerous…you wouldn’t feel any pain, it would just be a lump we are told. The Dr. gave her antibiotics again... and again…it went down. Another good sign it was an infection. The node was just barely visible after 10 days of the medicine and we felt like we were fine.

This is where the next God-thing occurred. On or around Halloween (two weeks later), Connie developed the “Mother of all sore throats”. She was thinking it was “strep”. Many of Maddie’s friends had strep and she thought she might have it. She was busy on Halloween as every Mom is! She happened to speak with her friend, Jill, who said, “Connie, just go over to that clinic by your house. They will give you a strep test and antibiotics and you can get two doses before tonight and you’ll feel better. I do it all the time.” Con’s Dr. is out in Olathe so she thought about it, and decided to go. This could have saved her life. It was as if God was saying, “DUH???” Swollen lymphs a year ago, swollen lymps again last week….you missed it….now, I will give you a sore throat. Get it right this time!”

That’s when she met Dr. Pegany. He saw her that Halloween morning. He didn’t like the fact that there were all these “unexplained” infections. Initially, he ran about 10 tests and took blood, etc. Connie has never met him before and thought he might be doing this because we have good insurance? How wrong she was. He was WONDERFUL! He was aggressive and thorough. She didn’t have strep but he gave her more antibiotics for the throat. In the meantime, he sent her blood work out to be tested.

Over the next week, her sore throat went away. Good news again right? Well, Dr. Pegany had sent out the original blood tests and it showed high levels of white blood cells. Again, this is not uncommon for an infection. This is where the next God-thing comes in, he didn’t like however the fact that Con got the sore throat after 10 days of medicine. IT SHOULDN’T HAVE HAPPENED. He didn’t like it. The blood work however came back with a clean pathology report the first time. He called us on November 7th to tell us that everything looked O.K. and it probably was an “infection”. However, he didn’t like the elevated white blood cell counts and “Just wanted to do one more sample”. At this point, Connie turned to me and said, “Can you believe that we just dodged a HUGE bullet? We could have just had our life changed but everything looks fine!”

That day, I happened to take the day off doing some “car repairs” and I was home when he called with the “all clear” report. He said however, he wanted one more sample so I said to Connie, let’s run over there right now. I drove her over there for the blood test. Can you believe that I was so ignorant of what might me happening that I stayed in the parking lot and cleaned out my car while she went in? Neither of us could have imagined what came next.

One more God-thing side NOTE: I was supposed to be fishing all weekend with my friend Larry. At the last minute, he had to cancel. Since I already had cleared my schedule, I decided to do the ‘car thing” and get it done. I would have been 1 hour away, sitting in some boat, not reachable by phone and totally isolated when “the call” came in. Instead, I was home…the kids were gone and Con and I were just enjoying each other. We were able to deal with this together and together we would fight.

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