Prayers.

My Mom, Jan, has been diagnosed with Non Hodgkins Lymphoma, which is cancer of the lymph nodes.  Unfortunately this is a cancer this family has seen before as my Grandma passed away in 1996 of the same cancer and my Uncle Jeff, (one of my Mom's brothers) has battled it himself.

Even though it would seem that it runs in the family, Non Hodgkins Lymphoma is not supposed to be genetic in any way.  But either way, this has come as a big blow to our family.

All we know right now is that my Mom found a small lump in her neck and since she's weary of cancer, she went in and had it checked.  It was just found out last week that it is cancer.  It was a very small lump, so small that the doctor was shocked my Mom found it in the first place.  We know that it is a slow growing cancer and most likely not curable, but in most cases, treatable.  Because it is a slow growing cancer we know that this could either be very good or very bad.  It would be good if my Mom caught it early, meaning that her treatment would be minimal and she could go on and live a relatively normal life.  However, since slow growing lymphomas often don't have any symptoms, usually when a symptom like a lump is found - it means that it's just the tip of the iceberg because it had been silently growing for a long time.  This was the case with my Grandma.  However, we also know that since my Grandma went through treatment back then, we know cancer treatment has advanced so much that the treatments she went through are deemed archaic.  

Right now we don't know the severity, or really what type of Non Hodgkins Lymphoma, other than the fact that it's slow growing.  There are over 60 types so really, we don't know much.

On Monday, we will find out what stage my Mom's cancer is, and for right now all anyone can do is hope that it was caught really early.  That and ask those of you who would, to keep her in your prayers.