Finding out I have cancer

               On April 1st 2011 I was experiencing sharp pain in my lower left side.  This pain lasted for several hours so we then decided it was time to go to the emergency room.  When arriving my blood pressure and heart rate where through the roof so we were taken in right away.  Once the ct scan was given a surgeon came in the room to reveal the results.  At the time he basically said I have no idea what is wrong so we are going to go in lapriscopically and depending on the problem we may have to cut you open.
                Upon waking up from surgery we didn't really learn much more.  He said it looked like a bomb has gone off inside my small intestines and he had never seen anything like it.  He removed the area that had been damaged and said we will have to wait  for pathology to figure out exactly what was going on.  And oh boy was that a waiting game.  It seemed like forever to get the results back, but it really was probaly only about five days.
                I will never forget the day he came in the room.  Steve had just left and it was only me and Chrissy in the room.  He walked in the room with a paper in hand and went and stood on the end of my bed.  I believe his first words where we got your pathology report back and it is not good news.  (Words you never want to hear from a doctor.)  He then proceeded to say that what erupted in my small intestine was a tumor and it tested positive for cancer.  At that moment you don't really hear anything else.  I remember all I could think about was that I wasn't ready to die.  I had two kids at home I needed to be there for.
             When time seemed to come back into focus we learned I had what is called GIST cancer, which stands for Gastrointestinal Stromal Tumors.  Only about 4000-5000 people are diagnosed each year.  So it is considered a rare cancer.  Luckily in 2002 they learned a medicine designed for leukemia patients will also stop our tumors from growing.  Without that it would pretty much be a death sentence.  So thank God I was diagnosed after that. 
               I will have to see my Oncologist every month and have ct scans every 3 months to monitor the tumors while on the medicine.  The last thing you want is for the tumors to grow as this is a very bad sign.  My first follow up ct scan should be sometime in July which would put me on the meds for 3 months.  I pray that this ct will show no growth and no new tumors.
          I will use this blog to keep everyone up to date with all my doctors appointment and future scans.  You may notice mistakes but i am not a professional writer and am using this to keep yall up to date and help with some of my feeling in this process.  If you have question about the disease you are free to ask and will not affend me.  I learn new stuff everyday.