"Stryders Journey"

First, I want to say thank you for spreading the word about Stryders Digital stamp-we really appreciate it and we got quite a great response, so Thank you all!!!!!!

On Monday, Stryder had an ultra sound to compare the size of the lymph nodes on his neck with the ultra sound from March. I thought I could see a size difference on the screen, but as it turns out, the technicians can re size the images to what they want.

Yesterday we went to see Dr. Renton, the ENT, to find out what we do next, if anything. As he walked in Stryder turned his neck sideways immediately. It was rather cute, but it made me realize how many times we see the DR. about his neck.

The Dr. started to tell me his thoughts but then said "Read this," as he handed me a piece of paper. My heart dropped as I thought bad thoughts that he just couldn't say. But as it turned out, things we not that bad. He then told me that this was the time when he and I had to have a candid conversation about what should be done at this point.

Dr. Renton had said that the nodes had not changed for the most part, although one did get larger by a bit. That can be a concern in itself, or not- but he also has night sweats and hasn't gained weight in several months and said that because of all of those things he wanted to do surgery and take one of them out.

I went in yesterday expecting surgery to be the next step because these nodes are just not going away and because last time I went expecting to hear good news and didn't. I really feel that these swollen and hard nodes are symptoms of his body fighting off whatever he has that is undiagnosed and not cancer, but as the DR. said, there is only one way to tell and that surgery will help both the Dr. and me get over the "what if?"

They were very nice there, and the scheduling nurse was very sympathetic as I'm sure she sees a lot of patients that end up with the not so good outcome that may happen. Stryder's surgery is on May 27th, the day before his fundraising event. The Dr. said that he will have a splice in his neck and a bandaid, even told Stryder this, but he shouldn't be in pain the next day from it. He really took the time to tell Stryder and me about the surgery and steps and even had me feel the node he will be taking out. He said that we need to call him the day before to make sure that we can feel it because it tends to go behind a muscle and hide sometimes and if that happens they will do another ultra sound to mark it.

Of course, as with any surgery, there can be complications, one being that there are a lot of nerves in your neck that can become damaged. Dr. Renton chose a node that was smaller than others to avoid that risk as much as possible though and the closest nerve would paralyze the shoulder shrug. The Dr. believes at this time the risks outweigh waiting and watching them to see if they progress. I know that Stryder will be strong during all of this and I believe his happiness will help make this journey less bumpy. I am also glad that this will be done prior to going to the Mayo clinic so that it will be one less thing while there and maybe one more "clue" to answer some of the questions we all have.