A GOOD doctor visit

As many of you saw in my comment on the previous post, we had a very good visit yesterday at Geisinger in Danville.  The drive there was uneventful, thanks to no snow.  Route 80 between here and there is crazy at times - many, many big trucks, lots of hills, and places where you would roll down into a deep ravine if you went over the side.  I was glad I could keep my eyes on my phone sometimes!

Doctor Gorak was young, I'd say early 40's.  His title is Director of Hematological Malignancy.  He took almost an hour with us, going over Dick's cancer history, showing us the latest PET scan, explaining everything we were looking at, telling us the difference between the two types of lymphoma Dick has had - Diffuse Large B Cell (in 1996) and Follicular (each time since then).  He said that the two areas that showed up on the scan (a gland in his neck and a lymph node in the lower abdomen) may or may not be lymphoma.  The only way to tell for sure would be with a biopsy, which would be more than a simple procedure because of their locations.  He did not advise rushing into treatment, since there is nothing in Dick's blood work or otherwise that indicates cancer.  He said we could go ahead with a biopsy of the neck gland, something Dick would need to go to Danville for, or we could wait, have another scan in February to see if things have changed, and if so, do the biopsy then.  That is what we decided to do.  

One puzzling thing is his forehead.  Sometime in the past year he got bumped by an elbow or a head while playing basketball.  His forehead is increasingly swollen.  He did have a biopsy in July, and it did not show any lymphoma.  Our local oncologist told him to use heat and cold on it, but neither of those have helped.  The doctor said he may need to see a plastic surgeon!  What???  Maybe he'll get a facelift, haha!

We got on a shuttle after the appointment which took us to the main entrance to the hospital.  Jeremy's friend Alicia  works in the ICU there, and we took the elevator to 4th floor to see her.  Why did I not take a picture???  We chatted for a while and she gave us the most delicious gluten free peanut blossoms (peanut butter cookies with Hershey kisses on top) in a little Christmas gift bag.  

When we left there we went to Burger King for a late breakfast.  Here's Dick enjoying his breakfast sandwich, feeling relieved.

We were home by 11:30 AM and Dick went to work.  I did some laundry, then went to Giant for some supplies and to Anthony and Lori's to cook dinner.  I made sure I had my recipe folder and all my groceries when I put my cart in the corral!  Sometime I'd like to share some of the recipes that I've been making for their dinners.  Lori finds them and sends them to me.  Lots of yummy stuff I've never made before. 

One thing I've been working on in the evenings this week is a little outfit for an American Girl doll, once again made out of one of my outfits.  I'd like to make more and send them to Sophie for Christmas, but I'm not sure if I'll have time or not.  (Yes, I'm aware that I should have had this all done by now.)

Well, time to get ready for work at the church office today.  Piano lessons later this afternoon.