My wife had been complaining of an upper shoulder pain for about a week or so. I finally made an appointment for her to see the doctor. He did the normal routine workups, taking blood sending her to x-ray and a CAT scan and nothing showing up on any of those set her up for physical therapy. The people in physical therapy gave her some specific exercise’s to do and told her to come back in two weeks. She came home and every night I could hear the squeaking of the pulley as she used a simple machine to help her through the exercises. This went on for another two weeks again after the second appointment. On the third appointment she had a different therapist see her, while I sat reading an old magazine in the waiting room. The therapist came out and called me by name “Mr. Pray” she said, “Please come with me.” I walked back into the curtained off area where my wife sat wearing one of those idiotic so call hospital gowns. The therapist then pointed to my wife’s neck and asked me if I had ever noticed this swelling on the side of her neck, I of course said “No, I have not noticed it.” The therapist then said we needed to have the doctor look at it before she could proceed further. The next day we had an appointment to see the doctor at four o’clock. Again I waited some what impatiently for her to come out and inform me of what was the prognosis. The time got longer and longer at five thirty I asked the front desk what was going on with my wife. They informed me that she was still with the doctor. At six, I was asked to follow the nurse back to the doctor, where he sat me down and said “Your wife has a large lump in her shoulder and up to her neck. We think it might be a Sarcoma cancer.” My heart felt like it fell through my stomach and my eyes almost filled with tears. I asked him what happens next. He sent us to another hospital where they did a biopsy and found out that what she had was a Non Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. So back we went to the Air Force Base Hospital to see the Oncologist there. After his exam he called me in with my wife and said that he would start treatment right away. After eight chemotherapy treatments and numerous CAT scans the doctor said that she was cancer free, Four years later she now has one scan a year and is still cancer free, but still has some pain because the cancer ate one of her rib bones and broke another. But it was her determination and will that she was not going to let this beat her that I feel pulled her through. I think that I went through more changes than she having to watch and not being able to do more than offer my support. We continue to keep our fingers crossed that she will remain cancer free, and hope that any of you out there that have or get cancer get the same wonderful help and treatment as fast as we got ours.
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