the results are in

I apologize for not getting this up sooner. As you can imagine, its been a very busy week for us.

We met with Duben's doctor on Monday to go over all of his test results. The final diagnosis is Stage 2 Hodgkin's Lymphoma. Stage 2 is good, which basically means it isn't below his diaphragm or in his bone marrow. They are concerned about the size of some of the masses.

There are two very large masses around his lungs and heart that together add up to over 10 cm. Because of that size they are considering him to have 'unfavorable risks.'

So the plan of action is to start chemotherapy right away. He'll be doing his first treatment tomorrow here in Bentonville. He'll do chemo every two weeks for six months, then will do a month of radiation. We'll be going back to MD Anderson every two months so they can monitor his progress and make sure the treatment is going as planned.

This afternoon we met with his local Oncologist here in Bentonville to go over the treatment plan and give us a basic overview of the whole process. We are once again so blessed to have such a great doctor and team of nurses. We are especially grateful to have an amazing friend who works at the Oncology Clinic to answer all of our questions.

Again, we want to say thank you to the amazing support group we have. We are so grateful for all the prayers and support we've received. Thank you for all your thoughts and well wishes. We apologize if it takes us a while to respond to your emails, but know we appreciate them.

one week down

just a quick recap for the week.

our first week at MD anderson is finally over! poor duben has taken a beating this week, but everything has gone extremely well. he went in to do the bone marrow test this morning. Luckily it was a quick procedure and he seems to be doing quite well.

we wont meet with our doctor until monday afternoon to go over the results, so it will be a long weekend. luckily we get to go home to go see ainsley! the hardest part of this has been being away from our little girl.

thank you again to all of you for your support. it means so much to us to have received so many wonderful emails this week. we are so grateful for such amazing friends and family!

let the games begin

yesterday we arrived in Houston, TX to meet with doctor's at MD Anderson this week. they'll be running a lot of tests and hopefully on monday we'll get an idea of what exactly we're dealing with and how to get rid of the cancer.

we were really impressed by all the staff we met with, especially our doctor. we felt really comfortable with her and appreciated the time she took to explain everything to us. we especially love that she specializes in Hodgkin's Lymphoma, which we found out is relatively rare. 9,000 people in the U.S. a year are diagnosed with Hodgkin's Lymphoma.

we received our itinerary and basically duben will be put through a number of tests throughout the week to determine which type of Hodgkin's he has and what stage he's in. there a lot of basic tests, like CT scans and PET scans. thursday he'll be going in so they can test his bone marrow, which duben is definitely not looking forward to. we also have some free time here and there, so we're looking forward to relaxing and just spending time together.

we are so grateful to have the opportunity to be here and for all the people who have helped make this possible. thank you to everyone who's helping out with ainsley. this has been so hard to be away from her, but i'm so comforted she's with my mom and all our wonderful friends.

thank you for all your prayers and support!

some good news!

as most of you know we are expecting another little wilde on February 2, 2012 (hopefully sooner). having ainsley around with all her energy and happiness has helped us so much during these past few months. finding out #2 is coming has also given us something to look forward to.

today we met with my doctor and we did an ultrasound to see the baby and make sure everything was okay. (this pregnancy has been a little rougher then my first).

we were able to see ITS A BOY!

lil' D as we call him.

we are so excited and cannot wait to meet him. we know these next few months are going to be hard, but its nice to know at the end of all this we'll have a bigger and stronger family.

how it all started

On June 24th Duben woke up with white gums and sores in his mouth. We went to our family doctor and he thought it was a viral infection, so they gave him some anti-viral medicine. He still wasn't feeling well on Sunday, so we had friends come over to give him a blessing. The blessing turned out to give us more strength then we realized. Duben was told he would continue to find the right doctor who would help him get the answers he needed.

Monday morning he wasn't feeling any better so we went back to our doctor. He wasn't sure what it might be and sent us over to our dentist. From there we saw more doctors and dentists, and no one knew what was wrong. Some thought it was an acute allergic reaction or maybe some sort of fungal infection.

One of the doctors enourged him to get a chest x-ray to make sure it wasn't an airborn fungal disease. The chest x-ray showed he has lumps in his chest. The next day we flew to Utah to go to the Fischer Family Reunion. Our doctor wanted Duben to get a CT scan to get a better look in his chest, so we were able to get that done while in Utah. We were so grateful to be with family during that time. It was great to be distracted from all the what-ifs and just enjoy being together.

Once we got home our doctor called and told us there was a definite mass in his chest. The CT technician thought it was either Sarcoidosis or Lymphoma.

The next step was to meet with a Pulmonologist who recommended we get a biopsy done to see what the mass is. He would do a bronchoscopy to get the sample, which is basically putting a tube in duben's throat and going down with a needle to take out a sample. We went in on July 28th for the bronchoscopy. Everything went well, but the results came back inconclusive. The samples weren't large enough to get any results. They would need another biopsy, but this time they would have to cut in through his chest.

This meant a new doctor. Dr Chouvin, a Cardio Plastic Surgeon, would do a mediastinoscopy to get the sample. Basically he would be an incision at the bottom of Duben's throat by his collar bone and go in and take out a sample. We were really impressed with this doctor and felt very comfortable with him. This time the surgery went well and they were easily able to get a sample. Dr. Chouvin called us the next day to let us know Duben has Hodgkin's Lymphoma.

Cancer.

We are so grateful for all the support we've received throughout this whole process. It's intimidating to know that the hard part has yet to come, but we're so blessed to know we have the support to get through it. We appreciate all the service and prayers we're received. It has been an amazing comfort to us. Thank you all so much for your continued support.