Lisa's tongue update

Today I was very grateful to have the opportunity to meet with Dr. Norris, an Otolaryngologist here in Athens. He came highly recommended and seems like a very knowledgeable and capable doctor who gave us some helpful information. The first thing he mentioned is that this pre-cancer is somewhere in the middle of the continuum between normal cells and cancer cells. So while it does need to be taken care of and watched, it is not as dangerous as I first thought. He also mentioned that squamous carcinoma (cancer) has a 90% survival rate over 5 years. So he said this is not cancer, but even if it was, most people recover. Another interesting thing that Dr. Norris mentioned is that sometimes after a biopsy, as the body is trying to heal the area biopsied it can possibly also get rid of the abnormal cells nearby (the dysplasia). So please pray with me for this outcome! I would be so happy for my body to fight this off on its own. Dr. Norris thinks that we ought to wait a few more weeks to see what heals after the biopsy and what might still be dysplasia and need to be removed.

We felt very comfortable with Dr. Norris in his ability to handle this, but we are still planning to meet with the doctor at Emory for a few reasons. The main reason is that Dr. Norris thinks that Dr. Wadsworth at Emory may be able to follow up with us better while we are overseas due to the various resources available at Emory. Apparently the usual protocol for follow up includes visual screenings every 2 months for a year, and then every 3 months following that. We are hoping to talk with Dr. Wadsworth about the possibility of doing this through pictures or teleconferencing with us in while we are in Uganda. We also have a friend from Covenant College who is an MD currently living in Uganda not far from where we will be. We are planning to contact him to ask about the possibility of following up with an Otolaryngologist (ENT) in Kampala. There are apparently about 20 ENTs in Uganda. Who knew?

So I am very thankful for the additional information we received today. But I still feel sick to my stomach. A tongue biopsy, then news of pre-cancer is definitely a weight loss strategy, although I don't recommend it! I have had one week of tongue pain and then one week of feeling sick to my stomach with anxiety. Please pray that this news will help calm my nerves and that I will begin to feel a bit more normal again. I am also praying that I will be able to trust God with the future in such a way that brings peace in the midst of struggles.  Thank you all for your prayers, kind words and offers of help! I am so blessed by you all! And just for fun, I have included one of my favorite pictures of me and Zeke.

photo taken by Stephanie Atkinson