How can I introduce myself without showing off my wonderful family? I am defined by the people I love. I will not be defined by Hodgkin\'s Lymphoma. Thank you for visiting. I am a 41-year-old wife and mother of six amazing children. I grew up in Ann Arbor, Michigan and have moved around the country a few times, landing permanently in the Charlotte, North Carolina area -- a really lovely part of North America. I love it here.

Well, yesterday, 10/22/2012, I was informed that a biopsy done last week revealed what my doctors suspected. I have Hodgkin Lymphoma - Nodular Sclerosing Type (HLNS). Staging to be done soon, I will be referred to an oncologist tomorrow.

My diagnosis follows two weeks of feeling like I was watching a movie in slow motion. I found some lumps on my neck while doing my nightly face-washing routine... and there has been a flurry of activity since that night. I have had bloodwork, two CT scans and an operation in order to validate test results.

I am now six days post-op and feeling pretty crappy today. Dizzy, hot, and a little nauseaus. I am very frustrated with my body, I want to feel healthy. My body is mad about the neck surgery. Several lymphnodes (attached in a cluster) were removed last week. They were (surprisingly) attached to an artery and apparently I lost about a liter of blood, since this was an unexpected discovery by my surgeon. He saved my life! Instead of having a quick outpatient procedure, I was on the table a few more hours and stayed the night for observation... feeling very confused. The recovery has been harder than I thought it would be. I thought I could grocery shop yesterday, that was a mistake. I think I will delegate that task for a while.

Well, it is time to take my daughter to an appointment. Yes, I can do it. I\'ve been taking it easy all day.

WELCOME to my \"lifeline\" site. THANK YOU to my sister, Elly Jordan, for setting it up :) I will try to keep this updated as things happen.

Psalm 139

1 You have searched me, Lord,
    and you know me.
2 You know when I sit and when I rise;
    you perceive my thoughts from afar.
3 You discern my going out and my lying down;
    you are familiar with all my ways.
4 Before a word is on my tongue
    you, Lord, know it completely.
5 You hem me in behind and before,
    and you lay your hand upon me.
6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,
    too lofty for me to attain.

7 Where can I go from your Spirit?
    Where can I flee from your presence?
8 If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
    if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.
9 If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
    if I settle on the far side of the sea,
10 even there your hand will guide me,
    your right hand will hold me fast.
11 If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me
    and the light become night around me,”
12 even the darkness will not be dark to you;
    the night will shine like the day,
    for darkness is as light to you.

13 For you created my inmost being;
    you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
14 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
    your works are wonderful,
    I know that full well.
15 My frame was not hidden from you
    when I was made in the secret place,
    when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.
16 Your eyes saw my unformed body;
    all the days ordained for me were written in your book
    before one of them came to be.
17 How precious to me are your thoughts,[a] God!
    How vast is the sum of them!
18 Were I to count them,
    they would outnumber the grains of sand—
    when I awake, I am still with you.

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