Update on Tonya...

Just thought I'd give you all a quick update on my friend, Tonya. (See my July 29 post, Prayers for Tonya.) She's now officially on short term disability from work, so she's been out of the office since this all began. Since I wrote last, it's been confirmed that she has aggressive diffused large B-cell non Hodgkins Lymphoma. The really good news is that they caught it in a fairy early stage (stage 1 or 2), so the doctors said that it is very treatable and there is a good possibilty that its curable. The cancer is contained in one spot and isn't anywhere else in her body. She is so thankful that the doctors found the cancer as soon as they did. (Well, I think everyone who knows Tonya is thankful the doctors found it when they did.)

The chemo treatments have started and she has them every 21 days. I believe she's had just one so far and the next one is a week from tomorrow. From her blogs, she seems to doing pretty good. She gets tired pretty frequently and has had some pain and side effects from the mediacation that she's had to deal with. Her hair has already started falling out. But on the other hand, she also says that she's pretty bored just hanging out home all day. She also said that the cancer has provided her with a new perspective on life...on her blog she wrote, "what a priviledge it is to be able to get up and rock my baby back to sleep. Those times are precious. Interesting how something like this can change your entire perspective."

Please continue to keep Tonya in your prayers as she continues treatment. I'm hopefully going to have lunch in a couple of weeks with her with a couple of my co-workers after her next round of chemo. The doctors are taking really good care of her.