The 3rd Time Better Be the Charm!

It's been four years since Nicole's stem cell transplant and things were really going well...until they didn't.

Since 2006, Nicole and Frank have enjoyed some wonderful experiences - a trip to Hawaii, visiting her parents in New York a few times, the thrill of seeing her husband bring his mother and grandmother into the Church and a once-in-a-lifetime family "dream vacation" to Turtle Bay - to mention a few. Yet for Nicole, enjoying the simple, often undervalued things of life, is most important to her - eating and laughing at family gatherings, teaching her beloved piano students, serving in church callings, BBQs in American Fork Canyon, etc.

So What Happened...and When?

Nicole began having some rather odd symptoms about four months ago - migraines, extreme fatigue, shortness of breath and weight loss. Scattered over the next few weeks, she visited doctor's offices during the week, Insta-cares on the weekend and finally an emergency room late one Wednesday night hoping for some answers. She even checked with her gynecologist to see if her hormones were wacky. After examinations, a head CT scan and dozens of blood tests at every facility, everything checked out fine.

But she wasn't!

Things got so bad that active, vibrant, "healthy" Nicole could barely function. So, back to her PCP, Dr. Kerry Welch, who knew her history of Hodgkin's Lymphoma and had always been on top of things. A chest CT scan told the story - a large tumor in her thoracic area. It was pressing on her lung and aorta. Had it grown back? Or had it never completely gone? Regardless, it's Round 3!

Nicole was referred to pulmonologist Dr. Dixie Harris, who thoroughly examined her and performed numerous tests. On Nicole's first visit, she drained over a liter of fluid from pleural layer which lines the walls of the thorax. Pressure on the lung caused the build-up of fluid. During two separate bronchoscopy biopsies, fluid was drawn from the pleura for diagnosis. Results came back with no solid conclusions...but she could breathe a little easier - literally, not figuratively!

Still...there was no specific medical diagnosis!