Finding the Peace after the Anger...

I woke up this morning with my little angel's feet in my side and one of her arm's across my neck. Since she has had her little sinus infection she usually comes waddling in between 5 and 6 in the morning and falls back to sleep. When she woke up, she sat up and put her face right in my face. She thinks she is hilarious and then fell over laughing and was off to find Dada and get her morning "coffee" aka juice.  All of the prayers and positive thoughts that everyone is sending out are truly comforting. I received texts, phone calls (not that I could talk to anyone yesterday due to my emotional state), email's, and Facebook comments/messages. Joylynn and Sean stopped by yesterday morning to give me a hug and let me shed a few tears with them.  I know my parents are feeling the support as well and I have forwarded the messages on to them. I talked with my sister between both of us trying to get dinner in our kids and was able to Skype with my parents and brother before Lila Faye went to sleep. It felt so good to see all of their faces. I never would have thought there would be so many miles between all of us! I am so thankful that Beth may be in another state but that it is such a short drive from Magnolia to Choudrant. Gene and Adessa are flying in to Little Rock tomorrow to have an Easter visit in Magnolia. They have not seen my parents since Thanksgiving and I could tell they are both itching to see them after this news. I told Adessa she better hug both of them very hard for us! And when I say hard, I mean an Andy hug that is hard (many of you know how hard that is)! I feel very thankful that in March we were able to have two trips down south, but I will be ecstatic for July to get here and for our extended stay until we have Bean.

 With age, I have learned to try not to dwell on my anger. It usually takes me a day or so to deal with it, and then I am ready to move on or conquer whatever the situation may be.  (This is something that is very hard to learn to do when you have Gage/Anthony blood in your veins!  There is a very stubborn gene that runs down that line and all three of us kids inherited that one!)  Writing it out is really good therapy for me too and always has been.  I kept a journal for Lila Faye's first year of life for her to read one day, and I plan on doing the same with our new Bean as well. It will be interesting to compare the two one day as a brand new parent compared to being a "veteraned" parent. Anyway, Dad called this morning and they do have the specific type of lymphoma that he has: Follicular Lymphoma, which is a Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma. My dad is going to see the same oncologist that my mom has seen throughout her entire battle, and I have no doubt that he will aggressively treat my father as well. That also gives me some peace of mind knowing he is using a doctor that we are so familiar with. So next week they will be off to Little Rock for their combined visit, and we will find out what he says about both of them. I know that the prayers and thoughts will continue and that whatever happens will happen. There will be more tears and and anger I can promise you that. But my parents will have an army of support so both of these cancers better be ready for a good battle because I think we are all ready to kick the shit out of cancer!

So this is the diagnosis from two different sites:

Follicular lymphoma

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

    

Follicular lymphoma
Classification and external resources
Follicular lymphoma replacing a lymph node
ICD-10	C82
ICD-9	202.0
ICD-O:	M9690/3
OMIM	151430
eMedicine	med/1362
MeSH	D008224

Follicular lymphoma is the most common of the indolent non-Hodgkin's lymphomas, and the second-most-common form of non-Hodgkin's lymphomas overall. It is defined as a lymphoma of follicle center B-cells (centrocytes and centroblasts), which has at least a partially follicular pattern. It is positive for the B-cell markers CD10, CD19, CD20, and CD22^[1] but almost always negative for CD5.^[2]

There are several synonymous and obsolete terms for this disease, such as CB/CC lymphoma (Centroblastic and Centrocytic lymphoma), nodular lymphoma^[3] and Brill-Symmers Disease

From the Lymphoma Research Foundation:

Overview

Lymphoma is the most common blood cancer. The two main forms of lymphoma are Hodgkin lymphoma (HL) and non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL). Lymphoma occurs when lymphocytes, a type of white blood cell, grow abnormally. The body has two main types of lymphocytes that can develop into lymphomas: B-lymphocytes (B-cells) and T-lymphocytes (T-cells). Cancerous lymphocytes can travel to many parts of the body, including the lymph nodes, spleen, bone marrow, blood or other organs, and can accumulate to form tumors.

Follicular lymphoma is typically a slow-growing, or indolent, form of NHL that arises from B-lymphocytes, making it one of the B-cell lymphomas. This cancer, which accounts for roughly 20 percent to 30 percent of all NHLs, usually takes several years to develop. Follicular lymphoma is usually not considered to be curable, but patients can live for many years with this form of lymphoma. It is generally characterized by multiple relapses after responses to a variety of therapies. Often, the first sign of follicular lymphoma is a painless swelling in the neck, armpit or groin caused by enlarged lymph nodes. Some people also report loss of appetite and fatigue.

Treatment Options

Treatment of lymphoma is based on the severity of associated symptoms as well as the rate of cancer growth. Since follicu­lar lymphoma grows slowly, doctors may decide not to treat it right away, an approach referred to as “watch and wait” or “watchful waiting.” Studies have shown that patients treated early in their disease course, compared to those followed with a “watch and wait” approach, exhibit similar overall survival.
Only 10 percent to 20 percent of patients present with early stage follicular lymphoma (stages I and II), which is often treated with radiation (high-energy x-rays targeted at specific groups of involved lymph nodes). Radiation can provide cure in some patients with limited disease. In more advanced stages, physicians may often use a single agent, immunotherapy with rituximab (Rituxan) or chemo-immunotherapy to treat the dis­ease. Unlike many cancers, follicular lymphoma tends to be very sensitive to both radiation and chemotherapy. In January 2011, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved rituximab (Rituxan) as a maintenance therapy for patients with advanced follicular lymphoma who responded to initial treatment with rituximab plus chemotherapy (induction treatment).