Vonne Foster

Dear Family and Friends:

My wonderful husband has been phenomenal about trying to keep everyone up to date but we agreed that we should create a website where everyone can get the latest updates. Hopefully this will work well for everyone!

First off I want to thank everyone for their love,  thoughts and prayers. Pulling together and staying positive throughout this difficult ordeal is very important to Jeff and I. Your emails, text and phone calls are most appreciated but unfortunately I  am not able to keep up with them all. One of my biggest challenges is that when I talk, I cough, so talking on the phone tends to be painful. Please do not be insulted that I am not answering the phone but I need to ensure that I am doing what is best for my health. 

My story:

In mid July, 2016, I started with a dry cough so I thought that I was coming down with bronchitis.  On the 14th I started taking meds to treat the bronchitis.  On the 16th I shared with Jeff that I had a knot on the side of my neck. On the 17th I had 2 painful knots on the right side of my neck. My best friend Jen was at the house and between her and Jeff they talked me into going to the walk-in-clinic. 

The doctor at the walk-in-clinic was great! He did blood work, physical exam and chest x-ray. He was concerned about the location of the pneumonia in my chest and touched base with me the next day and wanted to see me on July 21st. 

On the 21st I went to the walk-in-clinic and the doctor immediately got on the phone with the pulmonary specialist at the local hospital.  He stated that they may admit me or at least do a CT-scan. When I first went to see him he asked if I had had been out of the country, worked with personnel that would be traveling out of the country, or had I been around anyone that had TB. This was similar questions that I would be asked during that day.

I went to the local hospital where my wonderful sister-in-law,  Kristen, met me(she works there) and sat with me while I waited. She continued to be a blessing that day as it was our first day of hearing that our life was getting ready to change. Before I got called to meet the doctor, Jeff showed up to support me as he has done since the day we met.

They put us in a room and proceeded to draw blood  (at times I felt like a pin cushion) and do another chest x-ray.  The idea that I may have TB came about and masks were issued and I was placed in a negative pressure room. The doctor stated that there seemed to be "shape " to the mass in my chest and I would be sent for a CT-scan.  Jeff, Kristen and I had a lot of fun laughing about the fact that we all had to wear masks until I was sent to get the scan. Kristen went back to her work area and about that time the doctor came to tell us the news that they had confirmed that I had lung cancer. She let us know that it was a large mass in my right lung and that the cough was from the mass pushing on the bronchial tubes. She set us up with an oncologist that we would meet with the next morning.