"What is it?"

Those are the words I spoke as the doctor came into my husband's hospital room. The doctor looked at me and I asked again, "What is it?" He looked at my husband and said, "you're scan is abnormal, you have cancer". According to The American Cancer Society, 1.5 million Americans will hear those words in the year 2010. I guess it was our turn.

It had all started 6 days earlier. But if I really tell the truth, the signs had been there for months. My first real memory of him being sick was the first week of August, 2010. He was retaining a lot of fluid in his legs and he appeared to fatigue towards the end of the day. Towards mid-August, his fatigue appeared to begin earlier in the day and last until bedtime. A trip to his cardiologist suggested congestive heart failure. He changed some medication and Al perked up. He went back to work and had a great two weeks. Suddenly again, his legs started swelling and we went back to the cardiologist. Same diagnosis. His doctor and I tried to convince him that he needed a heart procedure that would reverse his symptoms. Thankfully, Al refused the procedure. He has subsequently tested negative three times for congestive heart failure.

I convinced him that he needed to see an internal medicine doctor and I suggested my doctor who I visited for annual physicals. I made an appointment for him but the earliest time they could see him was November 22nd. I asked them to call me if they had a cancellation. This request may have saved his life.

We received a call in mid-October that the doctor had an opening. I literally had to convince Al to take the appointment. The first order of business was blood work which revealed that his potassium was extremely low. So low, in fact, that the doctor said he was on the verge of cardiac arrest! For the next two weeks, the doctor adjusted meds and again Al perked up. We thought he was finally on the road to recovery.

In the meantime, his legs was still full of excess fluid and they began to "weep". Fluid would (and still is) literally dripping out of his pours.

It is now my birthday, October 22nd. Al was doing really well and went to the doctor that morning on his own as I had a funeral to attend. About 1pm I received a call from Al and he said that he thought his leg was getting infected. I rushed home to find this; BEWARE IF YOU ARE SQUEAMISH:

That leg kept us in the hospital for 6 days. The good thing was that Al was in the hospital and they could keep him still long enough to run some required tests. CT scans of his legs and lungs proved normal - no blood clots causing the edema in the legs. His legs were getting wrapped every other day and he was on IV antibiotics. He seemed to be getting better.

We were scheduled to go home on October 28th (6 days after being admitted) when the doctor came in and said that he wanted to run one more test. He wanted to do a CT scan of his abdomen. Even though he thought Al was on the road to recovery, he said he had a dream about him and felt he needed to do this last test. I packed while he went off for the test. When he got back, he was obviously ready to go. My first indication that there was something wrong came in this order:

1. Nurse told us the resident (that worked for our doctor) had not signed the discharge papers.
2. Nurse says that resident is waiting to talk to radiologist.
3. Nurse says radiologist is waiting to talk to our doctor.
4. Nurse says our doctor is on his way to talk to us.

So, as soon as he walked in the door, that's when I asked, "what is it?" What it is: a tumor on his adrenal gland, kidney and some spots on his liver. So here we are, packed again, on the eve of our visit to one of the world's best cancer hospitals, MD Anderson. Our appointment Monday morning will finally give us some answers and will allow us to begin this battle. Pray for us as it will be a tough battle, but one WE are ready to fight because these kids need their PawPaw.