Our story.....

[JoniRobertWilson]

This is the story of Joni and Robert Wilson. I can't call it my story because I'm not the one with cancer. My husband is. We have been married 10 years and have 8 year old son named Alexander.

In March, my husband returned from a business trip with a "swollen" neck. It was huge! He went to the doctor for a week, almost everyday, because a new, odd symptom would appear. Finally a chest x-ray was ordered and a mass was found in his right lung. I remember that feeling like it was yesterday. I won't every forget it. We were sent to a specialist that day would ordered a CT and a biopsy for the next two days.

The day of the biopsy, before the procedure, I approached the doctor in the hall and he said he was admitting Robert that day to begin radiation. He was sure the mass was cancer, just not sure what kind. I remember Robert's face when I saw him after the procedure. It's burned into my memory much like that of the first time I saw my son.

Well, we received a diagnosis of SCLC (limited). We felt like we were lucky. Research shows only 20% of SCLC is caught in this stage.

Robert went through 28 rounds of radiation and gets through 3 rounds of chemo while working! Awesome. The last round of chemo he had really wiped him out so he decided to take off for a while. Then he began having massive pain in his right shoulder. We finally found out he had a pleural effusion. The second time it was drained they did a biopsy and found not only more cancer but now it's NSCLC. Great, the luck changed. We're now off to MD Anderson (hopefully) for another look at the situation and then we're going to start the fight again.

I must say, in a strange way, I wasn't so shocked about the cancer diagnosis - I mean - CANCER - that shocked me but I always had a nagging thing in the back of my mind....this is too good to be true isn't it? We are so happily married and have a mutual respect for each other and we both of course adore our son.

Robert feels he's a burden but you know what? Although I am tired, I am so thankful to God for allowing me this opportunity to serve Robert and show him how much I love him. Robert has taken care of me during a rough pregnancy and is my constant cheerleader. He's never really needed me before now. I'd rather he never needed me, I'd rather we were back to the days of me fussing at him for being late (almost always) and him taking care of the litter boxes. But for whatever reason, this is our journey and we both are up for the fight. We're up for this fight for each other and for Alex. We have Faith in God and support of family and friends like crazy.

HOw our story will end is up to God. I pray for Robert to be healed and we're putting up a fight and sending up prayers each day.

I am beyond grateful for each of you and your support as well. I hope you all know, whatever stage of the fight you are in, you give me great inspiration and great hope.