March Madness

Couple of things today...

Aunt Pat update:
First of all, I want to thank everyone for their love, support, and prayers. I want to apologize for the lack of updated information, but as some of you know, this has been a roller coaster couple of weeks. The ups, downs and uncertainties have been difficult to take, but the outpouring of support and well-wishes has helped everyone get through.

We have learned a lot these past few weeks about the medical world and why its called a “practice.” Sometimes, even doctors get it wrong…

After Aunt Pat’s surgery, the initial determination was made that the tumor found in her body was metastasized gall bladder cancer. However, when the initial biopsy results came back, there was no sign of cancerous cells. Huh? This prompted the doctors to do a needle biopsy of the gallbladder. Those results also came back with no signs of cancerous cells. We were stunned. And confused. It wasn’t bad news, it wasn’t necessarily good news. Heck, it was practically no news. All we knew was that there was a tumor in this poor woman that looked and acted like cancer, but didn’t appear to be cancer on a cellular level. Were the doctors wrong? Were the tests wrong?

The surgeon at Good Shepherd determined that her gallbladder had calcified, but he could offer no explanation for something that looks like cancer, acts like cancer, but doesn’t biopsy like cancer. Aunt Pat was transferred to Rush to be seen by one of the area’s leading gastrointestinal surgeons. He and his partner ordered additional tests, and began to do research. After 2 different scans came back clean, he determined that what Aunt Pat most likely has is a very rare inflammatory gallbladder disease that mimics and is very frequently initially diagnosed as a gallbladder carcinoma. Due to the hardened gallbladder, he is unwilling to rule out cancer completely, but scans of the rest of her body are clear. That’s the good news. The less good news is that this growth will still have to be removed. Because it has invaded some of the neighboring organs, the surgery will not be an easy one.

Aunt Pat will be returning home sometime next week and will spend a few weeks at home regaining her health and strength. Sometime in April, she will return to the hospital for additional and at that point the doctors will come up with a plan and schedule for surgery.
Until then, we will continue to wait, hope, and pray.


Now, less serious news. What we've been up to:
The last few weeks have been hectic for more reasons than those mentioned above.

The weekend of Feb 23rd, Ryan, Mr. "i never get sick", was very sick on Friday and Saturday. On Sunday, I exhibited my superior gracefulness by falling in the kitchen, bruising my hip, hurting my wrist, and slamming my head against the floor. Kids, listen to mommy and daddy when they tell you not to run in the house.

The next weekend was no less eventful. Ryan came home sick again on Friday, but thankfully was feeling better by the time Saturday morning came around, since on Saturday, Mom and Dad Morge, Luke, Liz and Annabelle came to Decatur to celebrate Mom and Madison's birthday. The Peoria and Decatur Morges all attended Michael Aaron's basketball game (always very cute and much fun) and of course, Michael Aaron was a scoring machine! And he seemed to enjoy having a huge cheering section. After the game, we headed to Pastabilities for a really fun family dinner.

Sunday morning, I woke up with bad back pain - apparently i had hurt myself during my boot camp training on Saturday and had made things worse by picking up and carrying my sweet Annabelle around (worth it!) so i spent most of Sunday resting while Don and Ryan worked on the basement.

That's about it from us for now. I'll be heading to Indy on Saturday to visit Sammi and Brett, but beyond that, should be a low-key weekend. 'Bout time!!

Love y'all!