Verse of the Day:
O Lord, my God, I cried out to you and you healed me.                                                        Psalm 30:2

It has been a long time since I have updated and I had hoped my final update on my breast cancer journey would be the last time I would need to use Caring Bridge to share a cancer journey.  

I am back on Caring Bridge to let all my followers know about the second bout of a different cancer that God has brought me through.  I was too ill to keep Caring Bridge updated throughout my treatment, so I will tell the whole story in this update.

On November 5, 2019, I went to Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa, FL for my second annual checkup for the breast cancer I had in 2018. I have these annual checkups because I am taking an oral chemotherapy pill for five years.   On this day, I had a blood draw, a bone density test and a mammogram scheduled. After the mammogram, they called me back for an ultrasound.  The result of the ultrasound indicated that there were two spots in my left breast that they wanted to biopsy.  A biopsy was scheduled about ten days later.  Before I went home, I was informed that I needed to see my primary physician, Dr. Robert Midence in Sebring, FL,  as soon as possible because my heart rate was 52 and that is too low.

The following day, November 6, 2019, I saw Dr. Midence and my heart rate was 76 and not a problem.  He said that we would monitor it.  The next day, November 7, 2019, my blood pressure soared and Tom took me to the emergency room at Highlands Regional Medical Center in Sebring.  My heart rate became extremely erratic...going down to 32 and soaring up to 144 and all points in between.  This is atrial fibrillation or Afib for short.  My heart doctor, Dr. Parnassa, was called in and he had me moved to ICU after telling us (Tom and I) that he was leaving in the morning for a month in New Zealand.  He informed us that Dr. Joan Siracuse would be handling my case.  Let me state right now that I had never been diagnosed with a heart problem, although I have been on high blood pressure meds for many years.  I had even had a Nuclear stress test just five months before at Dr. Parnassa's office  and my heart was great.  Now my friends, family and especially my church family were bombarding the throne of God with prayers for my healing.  God was paying special attention to me...I could feel it.

Dr. Siracuse was very devoted to finding out what was causing my Afib.  She had numerous blood tests and other heart tests and a CT scan done to find the problem.  They did a heart cath and said my arteries were clear.   She even had a Lyme Disease test sent to the CDC in Atlanta after learning that we had been at our cabin in North Carolina in October, 2019.  The results did not explain the Afib.    In the midst of all this, one evening my nurse came in to check my monitor and she suddenly exclaimed, "Oh no!" and ran out to bring other nurses in.  Evidently my heart rate was extremely low, and a call to the doctor on call was followed by an emergency temporary pacemaker being done immediately.  The next morning I felt much better.  Dr. Siracuse was still waiting for the report from the CDC before ordering a permanent pacemaker.  Finally, after a few more days, the result came back negative.  The permanent  pacemaker was finally implanted on November 13, 2019.   After a couple days, I was sent home.  Later, my pastor, Rev. Robert (Bob) Mathews, told me that one day he was in my room and my monitor showed my heart rate extremely low.  He was praying to God not to let me die right there in front of him.

At home, I still felt very ill, but I tried to get on with my life.  One morning I was putting on my makeup when I noticed that my neck was swollen...a lot.  I, also, noticed my face was swollen.  I told Tom and we decided to watch it and by the next day, I was back in the hospital ICU because I was really swollen everywhere above my heart.  My arms were four times their size and leaking so much fluid that it soaked the pillows they put under my arms to raise them up.  I often say that I looked like the Pillsbury dough boy before they finally got the swelling to decrease.  During this time of swelling, my weight increased to 175 +/- from my normal of about 140.  They began running all the heart tests again including a second CT scan.  Nothing was showing up to explain the swelling.  I became a mystery patient as they often called me.  They did one more CT scan and this time the radiologist said that he saw something in my heart.  Evidently it wasn't there on  the two previous CT scans.  Now they had to figure out what it was in my heart.  One doctor, Dr. Khara, a neurologist who was called in on my case actually told me that there was nothing in my heart and that it was the radiologist's mistake.  I wish that had been the case.

Next, they thought that it was a blood clot and they sent me from Sebring to Bradenton, FL to Blake Medical Center where they had a machine big enough to remove the blood clot.    The procedure to remove the supposed blood clot was unsuccessful, but, they removed a small piece to biopsy.  Evidently, the "clot" was too large for their machine to remove it.  The biopsy proved it was not a blood clot; it was a cancerous tumor.  The tumor was in the large vein above the right side of the heart, the Superior Vena Cava, and in the right atrium of my heart.  It was now 3 inches long.  One of my doctors actually showed Tom and I the latest CT scan image that he had on his phone.  We could see my heart beating and we could see the mass sticking into my heart.  Most of the doctors had never heard of such a thing...a cancerous tumor in a heart!  Doctors would come into my room just to see this very unusual patient.  Many doctors told me that my case would be written in medical journals.   

At one point, my primary physician, Dr. Midence, was in my room in ICU in Sebring.  This was one of several visits to that ICU and the care I received there was awesome.  Anyway, this one morning, just before Dr. Midence left, he put his hand on my leg and said, "Betty, I have to tell you that this may be fatal."  I had already decided that this tumor in my heart could be fatal.  More prayers, daily, and I know God had a plan for me.  I was prepared for whatever God's will for me would be.  I remembered my Pastor, Pastor Haas, often saying that God healed in three ways.  He heals miraculously & instantaneously (We see this in the accounts of Jesus' healings in the New Testament), He heals through the use of physicians and medical science (One of Jesus' disciples was a physician) and He heals by calling us home to be with Him.  I see all of these as Divine Healing!

Since I had been treated for breast cancer (please read my caringbridge.org story on that cancer) at Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa, FL in 2018; they tried to transfer me to Moffitt.   Moffitt would not accept me because of the heart issue; they said I needed a facility that had a cancer center and a heart center.  Shand's in Gainesville became my next destination.  I may not have seen it then, but, the hand of God was opening the doors I needed to go through.  

At Shands, they first sent me to the heart center.  I was there for several days while they determined exactly what type of cancer this tumor was.  They determined that is was a Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma, but, they needed to know if it was T cell or B cell.  They hoped it would be a B cell because they had a medication they could add to my Chemo to shrink the tumor much faster.  At this time, I was still swelling from the blood flow to and from my right atrium being blocked by this tumor.   Let me state at this point that my sister, Gladys, in New Jersey had just died from Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma in September, 2019.  She was treated for ten years and had been in remission for several years when it returned with a vengeance!  Anyway, they sent me over to the Cancer Center at Shand's to begin Chemo even though the final test result on B cell was not yet known.  At this point, I was still swollen and feeling awful.  They started Chemo immediately and a few days later they knew (thank God) that it was B cell.  The medical name was:  Diffuse Large B Cell Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma.  They gave me the additional Chemo medication and after a couple days, they sent me home for Christmas.

I was on complete bed rest, but my family did come to spend Christmas day with me.  But, I was feeling so bad.  My blood pressure soared again and I ended up back in ICU in Sebring.   After several days, I was stable enough to go home to begin the next stage of this journey.  On January 2,  2020, I walked through the door that God was holding open for me.  I met my Oncologist at Shand's in Gainesville, FL.   His name was Dr. Dang.  When he walked in to the room, he was very excited to meet me.  He had read my case report to date and was evidently thrilled to be treating me.  I soon found out why God led me to him; he told me that he had treated a cancer in the heart previously.  I knew then that the hand of God was at work in my treatment.  Praise God.  

Dr. Dang set up a schedule of out-patient Chemotherapy.  It began on  January 7, 2020 and went every three weeks for six rounds of Chemo.  He wanted me to come to Gainesville to have the Chemo and to see him each time.  This became our regular schedule for the next months.  We stayed overnight to see Dr. Dang the day after the Chemo when scheduled.  The drive back and forth was very uncomfortable for me.  The Chemo only made me nauseous one time, but there were other side effects that I was experiencing.  The worst was the debilitating tiredness that Chemo is famous for.  I had no energy most days and just going to the bathroom was a major undertaking.  I had numbness in my toes and fingers that made it difficult to walk and handle things.   I was spending my days in bed.  I only went out for doctor and Chemo appointments.  I was so blessed to have a wonderful husband who gave up his normal life to become a fantastic caregiver to me.  I thanked God for him always.

After my third round of Chemo, a CT scan showed that the tumor had shrunk a great deal.  That was blessed good news.  The Chemo was doing just what Dr. Dang wanted it to do.  Thank you, Lord.  It was, also, after my third Chemo that I had a fall.  It was a very strange fall.  I had made it to the bathroom on my own and was headed back to bed when I stopped and got on the scale in the bathroom to check my weight.  I looked down at the scale and suddenly my head fell forward.  My head hit the towel rack on the wall in front of me.  Fortunately, my head hit the decorative towels and was not injured.  But,  just after this, suddenly it felt like my legs turned to jelly...like they weren't even there.  I fell to my left side.  My left foot hit the scale and cut my foot.  Both of my feet turned backwards!  That is hard to describe, but that's how they were.  My right knee seemed to take the worst of the fall onto the hard bathroom tile.  I ended up with interior ligament damage to my right knee.  This took many months of healing.  I screamed for Tom and he brought me the walker (I had not been using a walker till this happened) and he helped me back into bed.  I did not go to the hospital or the doctor.  This was in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.  I was in a lot of pain from my feet and my knee, but I managed to find over the counter pain relief that got me through.  To this day, I still have pain from my right knee.  It has been x-rayed now and thankfully, (Thank you, Lord) I did not require surgery.  I spent several weeks in physical therapy, three times a week, and that helped a lot.

Getting the Chemo infusion continued till my final round on April 2, 2020.  Dr. Dang scheduled my first PET scan on April 29th and we saw him on April 30th.  He had awesome news for us.  The PET scan did not find any Lymphoma.  Praise God!  The PET scan still showed the 2 spots in my left breast that had never been biopsied since the heart tumor took precedence.  Dr. Dang recommended that I go back to Moffitt ASAP and let them follow up with the breast cancer.  

I went to Moffitt a week later to have the biopsies.  Before the biopsy, they performed another ultra-sound to compare it to the previous one.  Two doctors then came in to tell me that there was no change since November, 2019 (it is now May, 2020) and after consulting together their conclusion was that no biopsies were necessary.  They concluded that the masses were fat necrosis that is often present after breast surgery (I had two lumpectomy surgeries for my breast cancer plus 35 radiation treatments).  Now I knew that I was cancer-free.  I was thanking God for healing and thanking all my prayer partners for their faithfulness.  This is my testimony to God's healing power.  He took a seemingly fatal cancer and gave  my life back to me.  Praise His Holy Name!!

With cancer, the doctors never stop watching for recurrence.  I understand that.  I'm thankful for their diligence.   Dr. Dang had scheduled a second PET scan for August 10, 2020.  We planned to go to our cabin in North Carolina after this scan and stay a few weeks to get the new granite counter tops installed in the cabin kitchen.  The scan was done and we saw Dr. Dang the following morning.   The news wasn't as reassuring as the previous scan.  But...it seems to me that it was only mildly concerning news.  The scan found the spot in my left breast had increased in size.  I have researched this and fat necrosis can increase in size, so I am not concerned about this at all.   The scan also found that there was an abnormal  uptake in a subcarinal (a region just below the trachea in the chest) Lymph Node that was a concern for Lymphoma.  Dr. Dang stated that he would schedule another PET scan in November, but he said that there was a chance that this small suspect lymphoma may not even show up in a subsequent scan.  Praise God...the news just got better.

This is where I am right now in this journey.  Thank you all for your interest.  This is my testimony and I know that our God is able to do far more than we can think or ask.  What God has done for me, he can do for you.  God never changes, He healed throughout the Bible and He heals today.  Have faith and believe and ask God for your healing.  Then just see what the Lord has done!

I will update this story after the tests in November, so plan to check back.  

Love to all,  Betty