Needless to say, but Christmas 2004 was not a joyful time. Diana’s younger brother David and his wife Pam, who reside in Wichita, KS came to visit for Christmas week. Twenty-five years ago, David was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s Disease and bone cancer. After six months of chemotherapy and radiation treatments in Wichita, David made an appointment at the Mayo Clinic. After his visit to Mayo Clinic, he was told that the Mayo Clinic could offer him no additional treatment.
Much time was spent educating myself on the real meaning of Stage IV Lung Cancer using the internet. An appointment was scheduled during Christmas week with a local Frisco TX Oncologist.
On December 28, armed with all of Diana’s test reports, we anxiously drove to the oncologist’s office for our appointment. The Oncologist looked at all of Diana’s test results and without hesitation informed us that Diana had three to four months to live and we had some tough decisions to make.
Since I was schooled as am engineer (electrical), I think like an engineer and attacked this problem the same as any other problem I have faced in my career. I had to understand, how it happened, why it happened and explore all of the options to fix the problem. We spent over an hour with the Oncologist,- asked many questions – however, nothing changed the Oncologist’s opinion of his prior diagnosis. He said that it would be Diana’s choice of whether to undergo chemo treatments. Since there were bad side effects with chemo, maybe Diana did not want to go through those treatments.
We finally left the oncologist’s office – both of us in total shock. We knew prior to this appointment that a Stage IV diagnosis was not good – but the reality of how bad the diagnosis was had not sunk in and been accepted by us. We did not want to believe what we had just heard. Surely, he was mistaken. Something could be done. I was determined to get a second opinion and find a solution.
At this time, Diana still had her cough and was wheezing, but she looked great physically. Surely, there was something we could do. I went home and started to research lung cancer on the internet. I found out about MD Anderson Cancer Hospital, located in Houston, TX which is approximately 275 miles fro Frisco. MD Anderson has been rated as one of the best cancer treatment centers in the world. We decided to get a second opinion there.
I got on the telephone and pleaded for an appointment as soon as possible. Through research and friends, we requested a certain doctor at MD Anderson only to find out that he was out of the country until February. Thus we settled on one of his colleagues and an appointment was set for the first week in January. It was tough waiting for the appointment date. We both wanted to see the new doctor as soon as possible. Surely, he would have a better remedy for Diana’s cancer.
At this time, looking at Diana you wouldn’t know she was so sick. She still had her cough but looked great physically. She also had no physical limitations at this time – but she did have lots of mental stress in her mind as I did too.
I went to Diana’s office and informed the employees of the Stage IV diagnosis and that Diana and I would be going to MD Anderson in Houston for their opinion. In the meantime, I needed their support to keep the business running smoothly since Diana and I would be out of the office quite a lot of the time.
I was spending the best part of my day researching lung cancer and clinical trials on the internet. The more I found and learned about lung cancer, the worse it seemed to get. I was getting scared. I really wasn’t prepared to handle this kind of problem. I would go to sleep and hope that I would wake up and find that it had just been a dream. Surely, Diana was not as sick as we were told.