When you have a good doctor, you just know it. Last night Dr. Kaplan called Anna at a little after 8pm to check in. He had gotten some labs I had forwarded on from Hawaii and wanted to share the news and see how she was doing. He joked that he was just "at the bar having a Mai Tai", when instead he just cared enough to be working late checking in with his patients. Like I said, when you have a good doctor, you know it. He indicated that the labs and biopsy from Hawaii showed that Anna had one of the 4 most common types of Hodgkin's Lymphoma (known from now on as HL). This is great news as it means that we know it isn't the one really bad version.

We are scheduled to have Anna's Pet CT scan on Thursday (9/24) morning of this coming week. We will also be visiting the lab for some blood draws and tests there. This process should be all we need to provide staging for Anna. We know that there has been some spread to Anna's chest but this scan should give us a very detailed picture of that and confirm all tumor locations. Dr. Kaplan didn't indicate that the spread to Anna's chest was a surprise, considering the time that Anna has had the growth in her neck. We have a few other tests early next week before starting chemo.

Anna is doing really well. She has plenty to keep busy with now and our kids are providing plenty of entertainment. Our spirits are high and each day brings another silver lining to our lives. The amazing outpouring of support from everyone has really shown us that we are where we need to be.

Thank you all for caring enough about Anna to be here reading this and thank you to all those of you that have shared your thoughts and love with us.