The best place to start is at the beginning of this journey we now find ourselves on. And I say "we" because there are so many people who are joining me, supporting me, and rooting me on, not the least of whom are my wife and family as well as innumerable wonderful people in my life. Cancer is not something that just affects the person with it.
At the end of August, I felt a lump on the inside of my right arm. I immediately got in to see my GP, but he didn't like the way it felt so ordered an MRI, which I did about a week later. The results of the MRI were inconclusive, but they called it a "deep mass nerve sheath tumor," so I got in to see an orthopedic surgeon, who diagnosed a schwannoma, a normally benign tumor.
On November 6, I had the tumor surgically removed under general anesthetic. The surgery to remove the tumor went well and has healed nicely. I was told that if I didn't hear from them by Friday, 11/10, that no news was good news, so we spent the weekend feeling in the clear.
On Wednesday, 11/14, Rebekah had to go to work, but I was feeling pretty well from healing, so I spent the morning just resting in the house with just me and the dog. Then I got a call from my surgeon's office. Thinking that they were just confirming my appointment to remove the stitches, I answered just as Rebekah instant messaged me that she'd missed a call from them.
My surgeon greeted me, and my heart stopped. I heard him say something along the line of the pathology was back and that there was no easy way to say it but it looked liked cancer, likely lymphoma, so he'd already called an oncologist, and they'd be calling to set up an appointment that day for as soon as they could get me in. I remember hanging up the phone and turning back to the TV then slowly beginning to sob and scream at the ceiling. I'd messaged Rebekah that it was cancer, so as soon as I was able to sort of speak again, I called her and told her what the surgeon had said and that I needed her as soon as she could possibly get home. She wrapped up as quickly as she could to head home from Boulder. In the meantime, I called my dad to come over because I didn't want to be alone.
That Friday, I got the stitches out and was given the initial pathology from the surgeon, who had never been the diagnosing physician before and was clearly very shaken (I'd feel really badly for him except, you know, cancer). He clarified that it turned out that the tumor he removed was not a schwannoma but a lymph node.
I had my initial consultation with my oncologist on 11/19 where we went over what we had and knew then, asking questions and beginning one of what's going to be too many blood draws. At this point, the diagnosis is Diffuse Large B-Cell Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma, though some finalizing of the exact diagnosis will come this Tuesday. Lymphoma is a treatable and usually curable cancer.
Other than many panic attacks, I am well and not actually experiencing any symptoms from the lymphoma, so the oncologist believes that we found it early. I had a bone marrow aspiration and biopsy done last Tuesday to make sure it hasn't invaded my bone marrow, and I did a PET/CT scan on Thursday to make sure it hasn't spread to any other part of my body, all part of staging it.
I will be meeting with my oncologist on December 4 to review the results of the tests and begin the plan of treatment, though it looks very likely that I will begin chemotherapy the week of December 10.
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