On new years day I was cooking dinner and leaned my neck on my hand and I felt a lump hit my palm. At the time I had a sinus infection so Craig and I figured it was from that, so we decided I should wait it out and see if it would go away as I got better. It was almost 2 weeks later when not only had it not gone away, but a second one showed up next to it. I went to my doctor on 1/16 a couple days after noticing the second one. She said it felt as though I had one large lump and was pretty sure I had it longer than originally thought. She sent me for a
CT scan on 1/23.
The next day my doctor called and told me that the CT showed it was lymph nodes and I was sent to and
ENT, who told me that it also showed I have several more on both sides of my neck as well as in the little bit of chest that was scanned. I felt relieved to know that I didn't have some unknown tumor in my neck. He told me he was concerned because after checking my ears, nose and throat, I had no signs of an infection of any kind. I was then sent to get an
ultrasound (1/29) and a
fine-needle biopsy (1/31).
The ultrasound was uneventful and pretty much just like the ultrasounds you get when pregnant except in your neck. My nurse had 0 personality, but was good enough at her job so no complaints there.
As for the biopsy It wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it'd be. The numbing shot was really painful though. She did 4 slides which tested for
leukemia and
lymphoma. It was pretty gross because once she put the needle in, which was led by an ultrasound, she had to wiggle the lymph node around to fill the syringe. I was not expecting that, and was pretty grossed out haha. Craig deserved a husband of the week award. He was helpful all day making sure Ollie didn't climb on me and kept switching out my cold compress when it was time. After I was home and the numbness wore off I was hurting pretty bad because I wasn't allowed to take any aspirin. I could barely lift my head, though that was only the case for that day. I was graced with a lovely bruise that lasted 3 weeks. It took a very long 7 days for the results. When the ENT called he said the results were inconclusive, but did show abnormal cells. He had tested for
lymphoma and felt pretty strongly that that is was it is so he wanted to rush to get the open biopsy done. Also, by this point I was feeling some in my arm pits, which concerned him. He ran more blood tests to test for
HIV cat scratch, and
mono, all of which were negative.
I was scheduled for my
open biopsy on 2/15. Before you can have any kind of surgery you have to do a slew of blood tests to make sure your body can handle the
anesthesia, the blood loss, and your clotting levels. It is a pain because for the week leading up you have to make sure you don't take any medicines (asprin, blood thinner) or eat any foods (herbs, green tea, seafood, alcohol, oats and certains of fruits and veggies) that thin blood. My
Prothrombin Time (PT) was elevated the first time so the next day I was sent back to the retest. It was elevated again which meant postponing my surgery until I saw a
Hematologist/
Oncologist and get the OK. On the 15th instead of getting cut open I was getting poked and 7 veils of blood extracted from my arm.
This doctor was pretty sure it was an antibody in my blood. Apparently, if your PT is low it is usually discovered when you are between 1-2 and just started to walk and are fulling and skinning knees. Plus, since I had Oliver with no bleeding problems, it was highly unlikely. She thought there might have been an chance that I had a
vitamin K deficiency and put me on some supplements for a few days until she got the labs back. She said she wanted to make sure to get me on them that day, that way the surgery didn't have to get put off again. Because her specialty is also oncology she did a physical exam and agreed with my ENT that it is likely lymphoma. I felt it extremely comforting that my doctors were forward with me by telling me what they thought it could be. Bad news is much easier to swallow when you have heard them mention it before. After the weekend she called with the good news that my vitamin K is normal and so were the other tests she ran. One of them did show an antibody in my blood that will cause PT to show elevated when it isn't really. It is an antibody that actually highers my clotting risk, but she said she will deal with that only if it becomes and issue and that we needed to focus on the lymph nodes first.
Surgery day was rescheduled for 2/22. My mom and Craig went with me, which was really nice. You are never too old to want to see your mommy when you come out of any kind of big medical procedure. I got all prepped and then they sent Craig back to keep me company while I waited for my doctor to be ready for me. Craig thinks it is his job to turn any situation like this into a laughing matter. I don't find it as amusing as he wishes I would. He reminds me of my dad in that way, only my dad is better at it. Practice makes perfect or something like that. He did succeed at making time pass quicker. He was able to stay while the doctor came in and felt around to pick which one to take out. He answered all our questions and Craig got sent away for them to take me in. I remember moving over to the operating table and the two nurses strapping me down. I made some joke about teamwork and then was passed out from the drugs they put in my IV and the gas mask that was put over my face seconds after I finished my sentence. I was asleep in recovery for about an hour and was out the door within 30 minutes of that. I spent the remainder of the day in bed, drugged up on Vicodin.
