The hold-up on getting an appointment with a chest surgeon was apparently Blue Cross. Authorization just came today, and I’ll be calling in the morning to get it scheduled. Will keep you updated.
Never have I been so eager to have someone jam a big needle into my chest.
“Cautious optimism” are the words of the day.
We had our first visit with Dr. Nanda, the gravelly voiced Indian oncologist. Unlike High Desert Primary Care, he did not immediately drop the file as if it were on fire and say “Great Vishnu, it’s lymphoma!” He said that when one sees swollen lymph nodes on a chest x-ray and CT scan, the go-to diagnosis is lymphoma, simply because it’s a fatal and progressive disease.
HOWEVER, I’m missing symptoms I should have if I have lymphoma (especially night sweats, which I have not had now that the fever is gone) and I have symptoms (the internal bleeding in the legs, which has apparently now migrated to my right wrist, oh joy) that are not consistent with lymphoma. The next step is the same whether he believed it was lymphoma or not, which is to schedule an appointment with a chest surgeon (being taken care of by HDPC as we speak). I’ll meet with him, and we’ll schedule a biopsy. There will likely be a needle inserted behind my solar plexus and tissue taken from one of the swollen lymph glands. (He could take bone marrow at this time, but it would only show if the lymphoma had spread, not what flavor it was, so that comes later, once its presence is confirmed.) I expect to meet with the surgeon Tuesday or Wednesday and would not be surprised if I had the biopsy surgery done by Friday.
So, if it’s not lymphoma (although it probably is), what is it? Dr. Nanda thinks there’s a chance it could just be a nasty infection, since my symptoms responded so well to antibiotics. He tossed out lupus and HIV again (they love those diseases) until I told him I’d been cleared of those. Then he said it might be rheumatoid arthritis with subtle rheumatoid factors in my blood.
If it is lymphoma, at my age, it’s probably Hodgkin’s Disease, he said, which has a much higher survival rate (75 percent overall, probably even higher for someone my age). So it all comes down to the biopsy.
So the great medical adventure continues. Following EKG and CAT scan, I’ve now been molested by a little old Indian man. It’s a toss-up as to whether this is better or worse than the barium smoothies.
Will let you know more when I know more.
My nurse, Anne, called me while I was laid up at home, and said the CAT scan appears to confirm their earlier diagnosis: I have lymphoma. A biopsy will have to be scheduled.
To forestall people losing their cool, the following:
One reason this site was started was to point to relatively current information. If people look at books and other information on lymphoma more than 10 years old they may get the feeling that lymphoma is hard to treat. A book from 30 years ago would frighten even the most hearty person.
The fact is that lymphoma treatments have gotten quite good in the last 30 years with real treatment breakthroughs in the last 10 years (and in the case of some non-Hodgkin’s lymphomas treatments that are just recently developed). So the operative words are “do not panic”.
There are 20 to 30 different types of lymphoma. Treatment and outcome can vary between types. Also a very important factor is the stage or spread of the disease. Often times localized disease is much easier to treat effectively than cancer that has spread to multiple sites in the body. BUT: widespread disease is NOT cause for alarm. To present a case study – the author is a survivor of stage 4 Hodgkin’s Lymphoma (with lung and marrow involvement) – about as widespread as it gets. With the standard chemotherapy for this condition, the author achieved a complete remission (cancer gone) in less than 9 months.
Will everyone respond well to treatment – one cannot say, each individual responds differently. Fortunately if one treatment is less effective or ineffective there often is another treatment (or a third or fourth treatment) that may very well work. This combined with the new treatments being developed give a high degree of hope to those diagnosed with lymphoma.
http://www.lymphomainfo.net/lymphoma/prognosis.html
I appreciate everyone’s concern, but what I need are cool heads right now. If there’s a time to freak out, it’ll be later, and it’ll be obvious. It’s not now.
And Joel, if you’re reading this, finish that run! I want pictures. I’m very proud of you — it’s a hell of a great idea you two had, and I wanna see pictures.
Something mysterious showed up on my chest X-ray last week, and I have a CAT scan scheduled for tomorrow. They’re mildly concerned it might be lymphoma.
Hardcore Aliens fans can find a lot to dislike in “AVP – Alien Versus Predator
,” although anyone who has found “Alien3” and “Alien: Resurrection” to be causes worth championing likely doesn’t have the sense of humor to enjoy this film no matter what.
There’s a lot of wasted potential in this film — a great haunted house setting apparently inspired by “The Thing” is almost entirely wasted and the site is abandoned except for the destruction of it at the end; two of the three Predators are fumbling idiots and the last is a relatively cuddly guy who seems unaware that his relatives hunt and skin humans for sport; the tie between the human pyramid cultures is simply tossed out there, without anything being made of it, including how a “heat plume” could be spotted by cultures prior to the 21st century — but overall, it’s not a bad film. It has the requisite number of Aliens hissing and drooling acid, it has facehuggers and chestbursters and it has a pissed-off queen tearing up the joint.
There’s a token attempt or two to tie this into Aliens lore — the father of robotics’ middle name is Bishop, and is played by the same actor as played the robot of that name in Aliens — but mostly it’s “hey, these things are kewl!” and tossing them all into the blender and hitting puree, without worrying much about the logic of what comes out.
For someone waiting years for the next part of the Aliens saga, this is a disappointment. For someone who went in knowing it would be dumb fun (like, say, Predator fans, or those who have been burned enough by science fiction franchises enough over the past few years to learn their lesson), it’s dumb fun, incapable of offense.
This is a rental for most folks.
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