Scott's Recovery (Cliffhanger Resolved)

I realized I never did a post on Scott's recovery. Scott's always done fantastic emails and described everything in ways that I just couldn't and I had thought that would suffice, but my sister said I left everyone on a cliffhanger awhile ago, so I thought I better post this (and for posterity's sake too).

I remember at the time of Scott's hospital admittance how frustrating everything was. I felt peace from the Comforter (which I never once doubted), and many others in our family did as well, but the stress was high and the words from the doctors were the exact opposite of consoling, with one saying that death was a real possibility. It was a stressful time, and I'm thankful for my mom and my mother-in-law Vicki for helping with the kids so I could see him. We lived an hour away, so it was really a whole day affair, and with trying to see him daily for two weeks, it was hard. I remember how comforting it was to be in his arms, eating food side by side when they weren't making him fast (which was more than you'd think), and getting one-on-one briefings with the doctors accompanied by pictures of Scott's insides no one normally has the opportunity to see of themselves and loved ones. Every few days, Scott seemed to get worse and more swollen. You see, a few swollen lymph nodes (which were irritated, growing, and calcifying because they saw a common east coast mushroom fungus Scott inhaled with some fresh air as an enemy) were blocking a very important vein (SVC), which returns all the blood from the upper extremities back to the heart to be replenished with oxygen and put back again into the blood stream. Because of this, his arms, neck and face were colored red and purple and very, very swollen. He was also being choked literally, and fighting for air at times. Sleeping was also a far off dream, for leaning back would push his windpipe against the swollen lymph node in his neck. The process of getting this bad for him was very gradual, but 6 months prior to hospitalization is when it started getting very hard. After they decided to settle on the diagnosis (it was a very long possess with 10-12 expert doctors, and a presentation of his case to many more), they were up to the drawing board with what to do about it. Several doctors were hoping it would be Lymphoma before he was diagnosed (a blood cancer), saying it was treatable, whereas this was not. Once diagnosis occurred, they decided to finally treat the symptoms (something I was really excited for). In the end, they went with a Stent and put it directly into his vein (vein being called SVC or superior vena cava). They haven't done many stents in the SVC vein before, but since stents were put into practice about 20-30 years ago, many original ones put in patients are still holding up fine, so I'm very hopeful his stent will stay fine for a long, long time (though a little worried that somethings pushing against it). After the Stent, Scott stayed at the hospital a few days longer and then after observation was aloud to be released. Oh, what a relieving time.

Since then, Scott has improved so dramatically. He can now bend over, breath normally, do physical activity without threat of passing out, and even play with the kids on the floor. Our lives have dramatically improved, his with being able to function normally, and mine with not worrying about him all the time that something is terribly wrong! We've been able to go on hikes even, and Scott's also been feeling accomplish and happy with being able to accomplish some home improvement projects. We will still have to go in occasionally to make sure everything is fine, and this is a lifelong illness he will be threatened with (which could continue to slowly grow in his body), but his symptoms are under control and hopefully they will be for a very, very long time.