If I’m going to be writing about Jonathan’s journey through cancer, I should probably start from the beginning since I didn’t really do that last week when we were still processing the news. I’ve written a little bit about it here and here. But, if you need a better idea about what happened, I’ll explain:

Jonathan went for a routine physical two weeks ago on October 28. He gets a physical every year or so just to make sure his cholesterol is in check. We recently got on new insurance, plus he’s been having some chest pain since August, so the combination of those two things led him to scheduling a physical. The chest pains, he’d been told, were heartburn. Anyway, he goes in for a physical and the doctor essentially tells him that they never find anything during an average physical anymore. Then he pats down Jonathan’s neck and finds a rock hard lump on his collarbone area. And then he calls an ENT doctor immediately and makes Jonathan go get blood tests, and a chest x-ray. By that very night, just hours later, Jonathan had seen a specialist and also gotten a CT scan. The CT scan came back 48 hours later and showed 4-5 spots in Jonathan’s upper body which basically confirms that the lump is some type of lymphoma but we are not yet sure what kind (there are 60 types) or the extent to which it has spread. A biopsy on November 11 is scheduled. After that surgery we will meet with the surgeon and an oncologist to hear what we’re dealing with.

We’ve learned a lot about cancer in the last two weeks. We’ve learned NOT to Google things about lymphoma because it can be scary. We’ve learned that everyone has opinions to tell us about care. We’ve learned that sometimes these opinions are great and sometimes they are not the least bit helpful. We’ve learned that everyone knows someone who has beat cancer (and everyone knows someone who has died of cancer.) We’ve learned that we have an incredible community of support surrounding us, and that we wish everyone could be so blessed to really know the depth of love we have already received. We’ve learned that the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society is AWESOME and a great resource to call when you just don’t know where to start. We’ve learned about brokeneness in a new way; and that’s a good thing. We’ve learned that maybe our faith in God is too small. We’ve learned that even young and healthy and handsome guys get cancer- and there’s no reason or blame- it just happens. We’ve learned that we’re not in control… we are not in control.

So, that’s that for now. Amongst baby blog posts and weekend updates and other silly things I like to write about, we’re adding cancer to the mix. Welcome to the journey.