How it all started

Last Friday I received a call from a nurse at my doctors office. She said the doctor had asked that I come in to the office that day because he needed to speak with me right away. I was busy with several projects and did not want to go, but was curious about the urgency of the message. When I got there, I was led to an exam room and told to wait for the doctor. He walked in and said, "I have bad news." Then he sat down, looked me in the eye and said "You have Lymphoma." I did not know what that was, so I asked and he explained that it is a cancer within the lymphatic system. I was stunned.

You are probably wondering how this came to be, so I will back up a little. Throughout 2008, I had been experiencing a variety of health issues. I did not consider any of them very serious, and never suspected they were all interconnected. The most persistent issue was a cough. Nearly every day, I experienced some coughing. I visited doctors and did my own research and was told at various times that it was probably asthma or allergies or an infection. I was given an inhaler, antibiotics, and even hired a mold specialist to inspect my home. Nothing worked. Because the cough was mild and only occurred for about 5 minutes in the morning, I did not think it was very serious.

I also experienced a lot of night sweats. However, I attributed this to a pillow top mattress that has formed a little well around the area I sleep and I just figured that all the pillow-topness was making me hot at night.

Early in the year I experienced a rash that appeared on various parts of my body. I now realize the rash was occuring over each location of lymph nodes (neck, armpits, chest, groin, thighs, knees). I visited a doctor about this problem and she claimed that I had to much stress and anxiety and prescribed an anti-depressent medication.

Finally, a lump appeared under my right arm. Even then, I did not speculate, even in a worst case scenario sort of way, that I might have cancer. I figured my lymph node was swollen due to some toxin and possibly related to whatever was causing my cough.

My New Years Resolution was to solve the coughing issue and get healthy. So, I went to a doctor on January 5 and explained all the problems I have been having and told him I wanted to solve them all. I thought I would leave with a variety of remedies and prescriptions. Instead, they took a blood test and an X-ray. Three days later, I was asked to come back in. At that appointment on Thursday, the doctor told me they had detected what appeared to be a very bad infection, but that he wanted a CT scan to more accurately diagnose the problem. The scan was scheduled for Friday morning. Three hours after it was over is when the doctor was insisting I come back to his office to receive the news that has changed everything for me.