Vince's Journey

As I posted last month, our son Judd recently turned 18 and is in his senior year at Moeller High School. About two weeks ago, Julie noticed a lump in his neck which obviously caught our immediate attention. For those of you who don't know, noticing a lump in my neck was why I innitially went to the doctor and later found out that I had lymphoma. So when we saw the lump in Judd's neck, our hearts sank because we couldn't imagine going through the same routine with him as we did with me less than a year ago. But there we were - getting Judd looked at by his doctor, having blood tests, x-rays and CT scans done, going to an Ear, Nose and Throat (ENT) specialist, being treated as if the lump was an infection, realizing that the swelling was not going to go down and then hearing those nervous words; we're going to take this out.

So last Thursday Judd had surgery to remove the lump; it turned out to be a cyst which he's probably had since birth. He was a real trooper through the entire process, is doing fine and well on his way to a full recovery. I don't think I've ever prayed more than I have the past two weeks and I truly believe that Julie and my prayers were answered. So as we head into the Chirstmas season, we have a lot to be thankful for. I've been asked several times what I would like for Christmas and really nothing can top the gift we received last Thursday; just knowing that Judd is going to be fine will make this Christmas a very special one to say the least!

We wish you and your family a safe and peaceful Christmas!

Sorry I haven't posted sooner. I had an appointment with Dr. Leming on Monday and there were no surprises. I received a Rituxin maintenance treatment and it was pretty much smooth sailing. I was in at 8:45 and finished before 2:00 pm, not bad considering many of these treatments have taken as long as 7 hours.

Dr. Leming felt around all the lymph node areas and there was nothing out of the ordinary, 'So far, so good!' was how he put it. He said he doesn't need to see me for another 3 months; at that time I'll probably have another maintenance treatment. Prior to my next visit we'll repeat the scans. I thought I might have to have the scans done later this month so it was nice to hear that that won't be the case. It was about a year ago when I received my first Rituxin treatment, just before Christmas of 2005. Hard to believe its been a year.

We hope you all have a wonderful Christmas and holiday season. I'll probably post again before Chritmas but if you don't check in, I hope your holidays are safe and blessed. We'll be taking our annual trip to New York to ski between Chrsitmas and New Years and then on January 7th I'll be flying out to Phoenix for the Buckeyes National Championship game against Florida. It looks like we have a great lead on some tickets...Dave Garver, who was the key to my getting tickets to my previous bowl game trips has indicated that he's pretty sure he can provide some help. (Dave, if your reading this...you're the man!!!) We look forward to seeing him out in Arizona!! Go Bucks!!!

That's it for now. As always thanks for all your prayers and support.

With peace and blessings....

The Hopkins Family