Welcome to our CaringBridge website. We are using it to keep family and friends updated in one place. We appreciate your support and words of hope and encouragement. Thank you for visiting.
Hi Family & Friends,
Thank you for stopping by to get the latest updates on Shelli. We will try to update this site as much as possible to keep everyone informed on her health. Please use this site to send messages to Shelli as she will be able to read your messages when she is feeling well and I know they will brighten her day and make her smile.
When Shelli was in the hospital in September 2016 for an unrelated issue, she had a CT scan of her neck done which happened to show a nodule in her left lung. After consulting with the Pulmonologist team while in the hospital, they told Shelli this nodule was likely either an infection or cancer. Once discharged from the hospital, she saw her Pulmonologist and they ordered her to have a PET scan (this is what a PET Scan is:
http://www.radiologyinfo.org/en/info.cfm?pg=pet) done to see if there were any areas in her body that "lit up". The results of this test came back as having a 2.7 x 2.0 cm nodule in her left upper lobe of her lung with lymph node involvement This nodule had already grown in 2 weeks from the initial finding on the CT scan. On 10/25, Shelli and her family met with a top Thoracic surgeon in Atlanta to discuss her treatment options and how best to determine what this nodule is. It was decided to proceed with surgery on 12/1/2016 to remove her left upper lobe of her lung and biopsy the surrounding lymph nodes while in surgery to ensure clear margins. This surgery will accomplish 2 things-remove the nodule and allow a biopsy of the nodule to determine exactly what this nodule is and what stage it is considered (the surgeon feels that it is most likely cancer). After we know this, additional treatment options will be discussed and decided.
Please keep Shelli in your thoughts and prayers for the next several months as they will be incredibly challenging during her surgery and intensive recovery process.
*Please check this site for updates instead of texting/calling as there will be limited cell phone service while in the hospital and as much as Shelli would love to text or talk to everyone, she really needs to focus on getting well and resting!
Love and hugs!
Dana & Amie
