Diagnosis

In April of 1996, I had just started back to work after having my first baby. I was excited to get back to work, feeling that life couldn't get any better. I had a wonderful husband and a brand new baby boy. It was within the first week of being back at work that I found my swollen lymph nodes.
I was sitting in traffic (wonderful rush hour traffic that creeps along) and had had long day. I rubbed my neck because it was a little stiff. I was surprised to feel bumps all over my neck. It was like someone had popped popcorn under my skin. It didn't hurt, but was very strange.
At that time I was a surgeon's assistant. I had assisted on numerous surgeries where a lymph node was removed and a diagnose of cancer was found.
I walked into my house, walked up to my husband and said "I have lymphoma. I'm gonna die."
I was very matter of fact, no hysterics. Me looked at me and said "No you don't. And no you won't." I replied that  made an appointment with our primary care physician for that week. When I saw him he had a concerned look on his face, but explained that fighting an infection could cause my lymph nodes to swell up. I was skeptical but agreed to try a week's worth of antibiotics.
When I returned for the follow up appointment, I had more lymph nodes pop up. These were above my collar bone. I saw the look on his face. Just like me he knew I had cancer. He explained that the next step was to see a general surgeon for a lymph node biopsy. I was scheduled with a surgeon that I worked with. I saw the surgeon within 5 days and we had scheduled the biopsy for 2 days later.
This biopsy is not one where they can look  at the tissue while you are in surgery (frozen section) and give you a diagnosis by the time you wake up from surgery. I had to wait 5 days for a diagnosis.
The surgeon and I agreed that if he received the results prior to my follow up appointment, he would call me. At that time, I was working in orthopedic (bone) surgery. The doctor and I played phone tag the day before my follow up. He had the results, but we just couldn't connect for me to hear them.
On the day I saw the surgeon for the results, my husband, my son, and I went into the office and were told that I had lymphoma. But the surgeon looked at me and said "But you already knew this didn't you?" I did. I was not surprised at all. I was diagnosed with Nodular Sclerosing Hodgkin's Lymphoma. That basically means that the Hodgkin's caused my lymph nodes to harden.
My next stop was an appointment with an oncologist. I was scheduled with the oncologist within 3 days. I was scheduled with one of the sweetest, kindest people I have ever met. Dr. D. Thompson was patient, explaining everything as often as we needed. He never made us feel like he needed to hurry up to get to the next patient.
Our first step with Dr. Thompson was an explanation of my diagnosis. Hodgkin's Lymphoma is one of the cancers that has a high cure rate. I was told 75% chance of remission. but truthfully, if you are the one diagnosed with Cancer, you see your chances as 50/50: either you die or you live.
We had to determine what stage my cancer was. I was scheduled for a CT scan and that day I had a bone marrow biopsy. If it was in my bone marrow, stage 4, my only option was chemotherapy.
My bone marrow was clear. My CT scans were inconclusive. My cancer was extensive above my diaphragm, the mass in my chest was borderline in size, but nothing showed below my diaphragm. If I only had the cancer above my diaphragm, the treatment was radiation, if it was below my diaphragm I would need chemo. Dr. Thompson was concerned that it was so invasive all the way to my collar bone, that it could very well be below my diaphragm. (At this time PET scans were not yet in use). We discussed having an exploratory surgery. I went back to my general surgeon and we scheduled a staging laparotomy (they opened my belly and took lymph node biopsies from multiple places. While he was in there the surgeon ended up removing my spleen because it was affected by the cancer.
I went back to my oncologist and our plan was made. I would have chemo every 2 weeks for 6 months. More scans would follow and if I still had some cancer I would continue the chemo for 2 months at a time.
I started my chemo (Adriamycin, bleomycin, vinblastine, and DTIC) within 3 months of my first diagnosis. It felt like it had been years since my first diagnosis.