Terri Stenglein

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.
On January 24, 2019 our world was rocked. We found out that the source of mom’s coughing was due to a lung mass - not the asthmatic bronchitis or pneumonia that they originally thought.  And to add insult to injury, also a liver mass.  The past almost 2 weeks have been a whirlwind. Waiting. Doctor appointments. Phone calls.  Waiting. Tests.  Phone calls. Waiting. Labs. And more waiting. Waiting with the unknown has proven to be frustrating, exhausting, and depressing. But we are getting there.   
With the help of some wonderful doctors and healthcare professional friends that mom has meet through years of working in the OR, she was able to get an expedited PET Scan that was done on 1/30.   A PET Scan is not a definitive test but the results show some good things and some bad things. Here is what we know as of right now:
The good - the liver mass MAY be benign. More testing to come. And the rest of her organs are clear!  The not so good - there is a fist sized mass in her lower left lung. This mass is also causing swelling in her bronchial tubes so her lower left lung is partially collapsed because of the blockage of air supply and size of the mass. There are also a few lymph nodes in question. Some are in her left lung, some are in the middle of her chest and there is a possible one above her right collar bone. We met with one of the most amazing doctors (in my opinion) yesterday. Dr. Fabian, thoracic surgeon. He spent well over an hour with us. Walked us through the X-ray, CT scan and PET Scan results. Explained what he sees going on and laid out his suggested options for us to all discuss. So mom will be having a bronchoscopy (biopsy) Thursday 2/7 along with a port placement for possible future chemo treatments. He told us he will biopsy until he has an answer. They will have pathology in the OR during her procedure and will be able to tell us after surgery a definite diagnosis and I THINK stage as well.   
Dr Fabian is also scheduling a MRI of the brain and her initial appointment with an oncologist at NYOH, Dr Makenzi Evangelist.  He also said that he feels she’s had this a while and that it wasn’t detected on chest X-rays because the mass was hidden behind her heart until it started getting bigger. 
That’s pretty much where we are right now. I could be missing bits and pieces since we’ve had so much thrown at us but I think I’ve covered the most important details for now.
We have been finding that as this crazy story unfolds, mom has so many people who are praying for her, thinking of her, rooting for her. But she gets winded easily and is tired most of the time. She loves all the calls and texts asking for updates and to express concern and send love but as treatment goes on, it’s going to get harder to manage getting back to everyone individually. We hope this site can help keep everyone updated and informed. On behalf of my mom and our family, we appreciate EVERYONE’s thoughts and prayer, everyone’s concern and sympathy. She is on a ton of prayer lists and she is staying very positive. There are still a lot of unknowns but she is prepared to fight. 


As William Shakespeare said in ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ - “And though she be but little, she is fierce”.