Hey everyone, as salamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh to any ukhtis and akhees out there reading this. Welcome to my new blog home. Yahoo decided to deep 6 all the blogs on their site, so I was without for some time. Anyway...on to bigger and better...
For those who do not know me, I am Khadijah, I am a revert to Islam of about 5, 5-1/2 years. My coming back to Islam was a major shock to many people, and well...let's just leave it at that...for now anyway. Insha'Allah, I will post about that at a later date if there is enough interest.
It might be asked why I say "Cancer Survivor" when, infact, I am not a Cancer Survivor...well...not YET, anyway. But I plan to be one, insha'Allah!!! It is now April 2013 on the American calendar. Not to long ago, in December 2012, I got sick. I mean, really sick! I mean the "last rites I'm gonna DIE!" sick. On 11 December I went to the ER because I had been coughing uncontrolably for a couple of months. I had an appointment a couple of weeks later, but I decided I couldn't wait any longer...so off to the hospital that shall not be named due to their complete mistreatment of me. I tell you I even SAID to the ER doc it was pneumonia!!! He said it wasn't!!! He said it was bronchitis!!! HE WAS WRONG!!! And so begins the hospital that shall not be named debacle.
On 15 December, I still felt like...well...like I needed to be in the hospital when it all started. I was feeling worse!!! On top of it all, my feet felt, well, weird. I couldn't explain it but it was the "OH NO!!! I'M GOING TO LOSE MY FEET!!!" kind of feeling. I'm diabetic, you see...and we always hear about losing feet. So off to the ER I went, and after several hours, I was discharged and told there was nothing wrong with them...I won't lose them, at least.
Over night...this feeling was creeping up my legs...it was like the bones were turning to lead!!! After about 24 hours, I called a friend to come and get me and take me back to the ER...I was now having trouble walking, standing and keeping my balance. Something was definitely wrong!!! My friend helped me get in his truck when it happened, he turned around, and by the time he saw me again, I was lieing in a pile on the driveway!!! I couldn't even get up!!! At the ER I had to be helped out, and then after several hours, they did it again! THE ER DISCHARGED ME AGAIN!!! Nothing wrong, you see. This time they were a bit disrespectful...but it gets worse...
I stayed at my friends place...I was definitely in bad shape and quite unhappy about how I wasn't taken seriously. I really should have been admitted that night. The next morning, it was worse. I couldn't even pick my feet off the floor!!! I had to call the fire dept to send the paramedics to come pick me up. I was having some trouble speaking, I tried to scream for my friend to unlock the door, but try as I might, I could not scream. He was asleep in another room. No, we have never slept together.
I called him on his landline from my cell and told him to please unlock the front door so the paramedics can come in, they were coming up the street already.
While I was in the ambulance, I lost my ability to speak...it was as if someone hit a switch and quiet I went.
The ER staff saw me...and immediately got very angry at me for wasting their time...again!!! After several hours of teasing me, during which time I was again able to speak, I saw my friend was there, "oh by the way, we're discharging you, we did all the same tests again, and there's nothing wrong with you!" I blew a gasket!!! They continued to tease me, telling me to just get up and walk out...but I couldn't. Someone asked me if my inability to walk could be psychological, I said "NO!" I also mentioned that I was hallucinating. All of a sudden, I was told that I was being admitted to the hospital. FINALLY!!!!!!!!!
The answer were soon to come. The help I was so deparately needing would finally come. I was put in an MRI that day or the next day, and Houston, we have a problem!!! There was a large spot in my cerebellum. It was described as "inflamation" by the neurologist. So, I had a biopsy of my brain done. They ruled out every fungus and organism they could think of. Posibly even ones they couldn't think of!!! Nothing. Absolutely negative. Not good.
Slides went off to Johns Hopkins. Finally after about 3 weeks or so (a really long time) I finally got the answer, Non Hodgekins Lymphoma. The tumor was LARGE!!! It was 3.0 cm by about 1.5 cm.
After nearly a month in the hospital I finally had the day I could walk out. I told the nurse she would have to kill me to get me to take a ride in the wheel chair out. I was bound and determined to WALK out!!!
And that was what I did.
Flash foward a couple of months. I had an MRI at UCI, and 2.7 x 1.4 cm? Is that right?
Flash foward to last week, and something like 1.5 x 1 or so? The neuro oncologist confirmed it. The tumor is definitely shrinking!!! The second tumor that was seen on the second MRI was completely gone! Allahu akbar! Charley is dieing! Also the PET scan...cancer is supposed to show up as a bright spot. For some reason, at the hosital that shall not be named, I never got any PET scans, so there is no way to compare the PET scan I got this week. However, this was a surprise, where the cancer was supposed to be, the PET scan was dark. The doc said it is not normal for cancer to present like this. It is supposed to be very bright, however, this cancer was not. It was as if the cancer was...well...dieing.
In a few weeks I will get another MRI, and the doc said "head only" would be necessary. I told him to go ahead and give me a full scan, just to make sure. Insha'Allah, I will post more after this happens. Hee hee.
