June 30, 2006 - Day 3 - Week 13 - A Roller Coaster Day For The Kreitler Family

There is an old saying that when it rains it pours.  Today we as a family had to come to grips with the grim reality that daughter Jennifer was diagnosed with a rare form of cervical cancer.  This is the bad news.  The good news is that the scheduled hysterectomy may have gotten the entire cancer tumor.  Scans will determine if there is any other activity, and both her ob-gyn doctor and the specialist felt strongly that the operation took all the malignant material.  The bad news is that we must sit by the phone.

Sadness has gripped all of us at a time when we as a family has been hope filled that the protocol laid out for my path towards remission was actually working, and working well. Reporting my progress buoyed the spirits of the Kreitler clan, only to be once more be reminded of the indiscriminate nature of cancer.

Jennifer had not been feeling well, yet the doctors saw no signs of what the pathology revealed today. Because of continual bleeding the operation became necessary, and in fact, turned out to be a blessing.  The routine exams and pap smears revealed nothing.  Embedded in the tissue removed was an undetectable tumor that is now past history.

Mark, Jen’s husband is already referring to Jen as a cancer survivor (and it turns out, he is correct) because of the excise of the malignancy.  His positive attitude and sense of humor did not diminish the serious nature of the situation, but rather softened the tension that we all felt.

Perhaps not unique, but undoubtedly a rarity, when a parent and a child experience something simultaneously words do not have to be spoken to appreciate the bond. In times of crisis people, families, communities, and at times whole nations rally in support to those most in need.  Cancer creates connections and often opens one’s heart permanently.  Jen and I recognize the precious nature of existence and our lives will be forever changed.

As a matter of record, cancers insidious nature has invaded our home repeatedly. My father and mother, my only siblings wife, my wife’s first husband, and now Peter and Jennifer have been visited by this disease.  Once again to reiterate, and sounding like a broken record, there are reasons genetic, viral, environmental, and conditional that has brought cancer to our family.  It will be part of my life’s work to find out more so that Jen, Mark and Brad’s children, our grandchildren, may be spared.

Jen and Mark departed St. John’s on a mission. They went directly to the imaging center, expecting to find a more definitive answer as to what is going on. This is a place all too familiar, but a center that tells the story in detail.  Jen had two scans, combined they will determine the course of treatment and reassure all of us that indeed the tumor does not have a twin hiding someplace else in her body.

Anxious all day, the results brought tears of joy around 6:30 PM.  Clean bill of health throughout her entire system was the bold pronouncement of the doctors.  Nothing visible, nothing hidden, nothing to indicate that the cancer has spread; halleluiah!

The emotions of the family were stretched thin today.  We celebrated a successful operation, shed a tear over the news that Jennifer had a tumor removed, shed a few more tears when told she had endocervical adeno carcinoma, felt better when told  by the doctors that they probably excised the full extent of the cancer, and then felt really good when this was confirmed by the photographs read by the specialists.

We are grateful for the good news, exhausted from the day’s events, and ready to hit the sack.  Jen began her ordeal on Wednesday and finished today, Friday.  Coincidentally, I began chemo therapy on Wednesday and finished today, Friday.  We will both sleep well tonight for we have reason to celebrate.  Amen.

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