Lump? What Lump?

Hello Friends and Family,

I have decided to setup this blog to share my current health status.

For months I felt a small lump about the size of a pea at the base of my neck. It didn’t give me pain but I knew it was there. I dismissed it as nothing more than a cyst but then on April 14 I woke up with an inch and a half lump where the small lump use to be. I’m not one to run to the doctor with every ache or sneeze but this had me a little concerned.

My last physical was the previous September and outside of my usual higher than it should be cholesterol; I was in pretty good shape. When I called my primary care physician on April 14, I was told that he was on vacation and would see Dr. N, his colleague the next day. The look on Dr. N’s face when he examined my neck was priceless. I could see from his expression that this was no ordinary lump. Strangely, it was as though he was getting a sense of joy that he had a case that was more than someone complaining about a cold. Immediately, he asked questions in rapid fire. Have I been exposed to HIV, experienced a loss of appetite, loss of weight, night sweats, or excessive itching? No, no, no, no, and no I responded. Outside of this protrusion out of my neck, I felt fine. Then I felt like I was transported back to early Rome because all words coming out of his mouth were in Latin. I didn’t understand one thing he was saying. All the words were describing potential diagnoses.

When Dr. N mentioned Lymphoma as a possibility, I knew we had entered into serious territory. Although, he said it could be Sarcoidosis. Sarco who? I thought to myself. Then for some reason my mind slipped to Mary Poppins. I can’t explain it, it’s just the way my mind works. Supercalifragilisticespisarcoidosis.

Dr. N immediately scheduled me for a CAT scan of my neck and chest with IV contrast on April 17. He said that he would have the results within a couple of days and would call me probably Monday or Tuesday of the following week. Now I had to go home and share this with my wife, Betsey. Betsey listened as I tried to explain to her what the doctor said to me. She remained calm and reassuring as we both came to the conclusion that we shouldn’t jump to the worst case scenario until all the tests had been completed.

It was a beautiful day and the CAT scan was scheduled for early afternoon so I decided to take the afternoon off after the scan and play a round of golf. My game was going along pretty well until I decided to check my messages on the 17th tee box at 4:30 pm. There were two messages from my wife saying the doctor wanted to talk to me immediately. Well either the news isn’t good or this doctor is really trying to impress me with his customer service, I thought to myself. By the time I received the message the doctor offices were closed. Now, I had to wait through the weekend to find out what he wanted to tell me. Needless to say, holes 17 and 18 were not representative of my best golf…..

The results of the CAT scan indicated that I had a lymphoma. Dr. N. immediately helped me schedule a biopsy of the lump to help determine what type of lymphoma. Unfortunately, the lump shrank just before surgery so the results were inconclusive. That meant that I had to now go through another biopsy of the next most accessible enlarged lymph node which was residing between my lungs. I asked how they were going to do that procedure and he said they were going to make an incision at the base of my throat and then take a device to get the sample. When I heard that was the method of entry, I said no. He said yes. I now have a nice two inch slice at the base of my throat that is healing nicely. I can’t wait to see that bill. I’m sure I could have found many people that would have slit my throat for nothing……

This time there was a pathologist in the operating room to make sure that the tissue sample was enough to determine what type of lymphoma I had. My doctor had the results the next day. He told me that I have B Cell Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma. If you want to learn more about this cancer, here is a link: http://www.cancer.org/docroot/CRI/content/CRI_2_4_1X_What_Is_Non_Hodgkins_Lymphoma_32.asp
There are many different sub-types of B Cell Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma. So, next on the schedule are a PET Scan and bone marrow biopsy to determine the type, aggessiveness and stage of the cancer.

The important thing to remember is there are many successful treatments with many of these types of cancers. I am optimistic that we will find one for mine.