How We Got Here

This post is to summarize the events of the last few months so that you (and we) can try to make sense of everything that is happening now (not that there is really anything about this that makes "sense.")

I'm writing this from Ryan's room at the University of Washington Medical Center. We first arrived at the UWMC on Thursday, Nov 9th, for an appointment with the cardiology specialists. Ryan had been experiencing swelling, cramping and soreness of the legs, as well as shortness of breath. It soon became obvious that something was very wrong. These are all symptoms that indicated heart trouble, and because Ryan has a history of heart trouble, it seemed to be the logical thing to check out.

In the past few months (starting around mid-August or so) Ryan had been feeling fatigued and often felt sick after eating. Any amount of alcohol (even a single glass of wine) would make him nauseous. In addition, he had pain in his back, which is not really out of the ordinary for regular people. He made appointments with physicians and a chiropractor, and we thought we were well on the way to better health.

The prospect of long-term reliance on heart medication, or even *shudder* transplant surgery, was pretty intense, but in hindsight I would give everything for those particular intensities.

After being admitted to the hospital Ryan received a series of MRIs for his chest, with the assumption that the doctors would be able to determine if something was wrong with his heart that was affecting his circulation and may account for most of the symptoms. The results of the MRIs were surprising. His heart looked fine, but doctors found a "mass" growing on the back of his chest cavity (right in line with the side where Ryan had been complaining about back pain.) This was something else to look into, they said, but not necessarily cause for alarm.

As more MRIs were done and more results came back, it became apparent that this mass was not the only one. His lungs, liver and spleen all have multiple tiny (1 cm) tumors. There is one large tumor on his hip, one in his chest cavity, and three large tumors that have taken the place of bone in his skull.

While all of this seemed to point in only one direction, we were told to wait until a biopsy was done to make any assumptions. Three days ago, the initial results came back. Cancer: yes. Malignant: yes. Aggressive: yes. Source: undetermined. As of this post we do not yet know the source of the cancer. The doctor who just left the room indicated that this may be one of the 2-4% of cancer cases where the source is never determined. Unfortunately, knowing the source is a big part of knowing where to proceed from here. They tell us there are still more tests to be done. This cancer stuff is a lot more complicated than I ever imagined.