Story in Her Own Voice
Laura is going to dictate her story on Marco Polo, which I will transcribe, so we can have her own voice tell her story.
I guess, maybe I'll just start by telling just a little bit why I'm here. On December 26th my hip was really hurting, and I had to kind of crawl around and I went that way for a few weeks then on January 18th I decided to go to the emergency room because I just couldn't work, I couldn't do anything, so I went to the emergency room. They did a CT scan of my hip that included my lung area. The doctor came back to me and said, “hey the nodes in your lung are growing. I was like, “I don't know what you're talking about”, “I wanted you to look at my hip”.
He said that I had some nodes that looked like they had grown since September, so then he sent me to an oncologist who did a CT scan. He found that there were four tumors in my lung, he also found out that there were four tumors - one here (pointing to her arm) to one here (pointing to her chest), one in my hip, and one in my back. They ordered a biopsy and biopsy then came back as Melanoma.
Because it travelled so much it's called stage 4 metastatic Melanoma. Then my oncologist ordered an MRI to see if they'd gone to my brain and the MRI came back that it had. I had four in my brain, so I had four tumors in my brain, four in my lungs and four in my body. Anyway, four is my special number I think.
He started immunotherapy, I got my port in, and started immunotherapy on February 22nd….. or the 28th. I can't, I can't remember. That's the one thing with therapy, is my mind is a little fuzzy sometimes.
The radiation oncologist has just approved me for radiation. They'll go in on uh umm, the 21st of this month and get my mask made and get it all prepped. The first two weeks of April I'll probably do my radiation. In the meantime, I have my second immunotherapy on the 15th.
Right now, the doctors are giving me a clear to go to Machu Picchu on the 22nd. So, I'm kind of excited for that tender mercy. The trip was already planned and paid for and so I'm hoping I make it. It will depend on my side effects, but I'm retaining water liquid. I'm trying to figure that out, because I've been getting more as I travel.
Also a tender mercy is I get to go to - right now (depending on side effects and how I'm feeling) go to Hawaii with my kids. Which is another tender mercy, because the trip was already paid for and nonrefundable because we go really cheap.
Both doctors well all three doctors my primary, my oncologist, and radiation oncologist just said, “yeah that's a go”, because they'll have what I need there, and I'll be in the United States, so that one's been approved by everybody. I get to be there with all my kids I'm so grateful and what a tender mercy that I have that to look forward to!
I have been so blessed with family support and love, and with neighbors, and with ward members that fast on my behalf. I'm just so grateful and feel my heart is really full. I really truly feel like I have an army fighting with me and so I want to live as long as I can. That's my goal.
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