Diagnosis
1/28/03: How do you discover that you have Hodgkin’s, anyway? When Emmy had strep in December, I wasn’t feeling too well either. I felt my neck for swollen glands, and felt something like a small bean in the side of my neck. Since I had a doctor’s appointment scheduled for a few weeks later, I figured I’d have my doctor take a look. Instead of saying what I expected him to say (”That’s nothing to worry about. Let’s talk about your cholesterol.”), he said, “You should have a mammogram, and some blood tests, and please call my colleague Dr. Peter Naruns, a surgeon, to get him to take a look.” The nurse who arranged the tests spent a few minutes telling me how much she loves her new TiVo box.
That day, I made a list of everything I’d noticed that was wrong with me, including a sore shoulder on the same side as the neck lump and itchy skin. I felt sure the shoulder was related but that the itchy skin was probably due to the dry weather.
I saw Dr. Naruns that same day, and he said the bump (now officially a swollen lymph node) should be taken out and biopsied, turning that day from “not my favorite day” into “a day that really sucks”. He scheduled the surgery for the following Monday, February 3rd, and told me to plan on taking that day plus the following day off. He said the mammogram was probably unnecessary to diagnose the bumpy neck problem, but that I could have one if I wanted (why exactly would I want this?). He also did a soliloquy on how TiVo was changing the face of television advertising.
2/3/03: The surgery was uneventful, although the doctors say I developed quite an obsession with knowing what the beeping noise was while I was under anesthesia. They also claimed that I promised everyone a free TiVo box, so I’m taking it all with a grain of salt.
While waiting for the biopsy results, I got the blood test results, which ruled out leukemia. So far so good.
2/6/03: Mike came with me to get the biopsy results, which seemed like a lifetime later but was really only three days after the surgery. It was official: Hodgkin’s lymphoma. I don’t really remember too much else about that day - I know I called my family, and my boss, and that the itchy skin (a symptom of Hodgkins) got unbearably bad. I also made arrangements to see Dr. Peter Yu, an oncologist recommended by Dr. Naruns, the next day.
Mike and I spent the evening on various web sites, and two things were clear: (1) Hodgkins is very very curable, and (2) getting the correct staging is vital.
PS: The shoulder pain went away. I have no idea why. Also, I didn’t bother with the mammogram.