The Beginning.

So it all started in January... Donnie was just sitting on the couch rubbing his neck and felt a lump. He got a little concerned because, well, lets just face it he has anxiety anyway ;) but I felt it, thought nothing of it and told him to make a doctors appointment. It took a couple weeks before he actually made it to the doctor. The doctor told him he thought it was just a infected lymph node because he had just recently got over a cold. He prescribed an antibiotic. He finished the 10 days of the antibiotic and it was still there. To be honest we really weren't concerned. We let it go for a good couple week thinking it would just go away, but it never did. Finally he went to another doctor to check it out. This is around early March. They did an x-ray, saw nothing wrong, So they sent him to a ear nose and throat doctor. (Dr. Nasri, I don't recommend).


Donnie saw Dr. Nasri after getting a blood test and a ct scan. During his first appointment with him, the Dr. said that it looked like lymphoma but wasn't sure so he wanted to do a fine needle biopsy. It was going to take a week and a half before we could get the biopsy... Meanwhile the both of us are having a heart attack thinking that it could be something awful (little did we know). We didn't really tell any of our family because we didn't want them worrying like we were. So we just prayed that it wasn't true. Finally, we were able to get the biopsy on March 24th. They said that it took 7-10 days to get results. So we waited and waited, I swear it seemed like forever! We finally got a follow up appointment with Dr. Nasri on April 4th.


The day came. It was the moment of truth. I felt like I was going to throw up at any moment just thinking of what it could be. We had finally made it to the day we had been waiting for and all i wanted to do was run away. But anyway, we get in the room to wait for the doctor and the nurse says to me (I had Mia with me). "we have a strict no child policy but I'll let it slide because you are getting biopsy results" OH gee thanks lady, that's so nice of you! This is the first time I had been to this office and I'm was already getting a bad vibe and I still hadn't met the doctor, so I didn't know what to really expect. Lets just say, him not having a good bedside manner is a compliment. He walked in, never really looked at me or talked to us, looked in Donnie's throat with a scope, looked though his results and said "You have Cancer, highly suspicious for Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma and we need to remove the mass for a biopsy on Saturday" I asked a couple questions that he never really answered and we were out of the room in a matter of minutes signing papers for the impending surgery. We left with our heads spinning and spinning. We had no idea what just happened; Does he have Non-Hodgkin's or not?, Why are they removing it? What happens after the surgery?


We called all of our family to let them know, because of course they were on pins and needles waiting to hear. Every one was just as shocked as we were to hear the news. I swear we were in a daze for hours. My dad called me later on that night and told me that he didn't think we should do the surgery and that there are really great alternative doctors out there that are curing cancer without the use of surgery and radiation and full body chemo. To say the least, I was pissed. How dare him call me and tell me what he thinks we should be doing. (he never said any of it in a mean demanding way, It was very loving and concerned but I took it the wrong way) I mulled over everything he told me that night and slept on it and did a whole lot of research. And within days Donnie and me decided that surgery was not for him. We had seen lots of people we love die from surgery and chemo and we didn't want him to be the next one......