Ep 8: Yeah its Hodgkin's Lymphoma

Monday 30th April 2012

Back to work today, I prepared myself for all the questions from everyone in the office, I work with a tight group of people who genuinely care about each other, I think we sometimes over look the amount of time we spend with our workmates and how much they care about us and each other. The day went by fairly easily with the time being absorbed by catch up from last week and prep for the week to come.  I had come to the conclusion that I wasn't likely to get a result today so dealing with the day was fairly simple, I have discovered that if someone tells me "don't expect something till X" then I'm all good.

We had volleyball that night at 6:15 so I had to be out of the office on-time to get there. As I rushed home Theresa rang to let me know that the results had just come in and that they would be sent through to the doctor who would likely ring me in the morning.  I don't think I could have waited till then so I asked, "what is it" she paused a little and said "yeah its Hodgkin's Lymphoma".

I have to say I was surprised at my reaction to hearing it actually said, I expected a deep rush of emotions but it was all a bit matter of fact for me.  Maybe because I already knew in my heart what it was and also maybe I was a little relieved.  I was expecting it to be some form of Lymphoma so I was happy it was Hodgkin's as that was the better of the two to have.  We talked a bit longer about what to expect next, said our goodbyes and I drove on. I phoned Jac to let her know as she was rushing home too, again both our reactions were more along the line of "oh well that's just confirmed what we kind of already knew"

I got home and rushed to change and get out to the Rec Centre, in the process stupidly leaving my phone at home.  We played the games, I cant remember if we won or lost but I do remember strangely enjoying the night.  We were de-sanding me, this is a ritual to remove half the sand from the volley ball court, off my hairy carcass after a game.  This requires the help of my able assistant Jacqui, another shining example of her love for me because its quite the task.  Jacqui's phone rang, she answered, it turned out it was my GP, he had been ringing my phone which was at home and was frustrated enough to look up Jacs number and called her to get a hold of me, it was around 7:15.  "Hi John its Doctor X, I have been trying your phone for a while now, I was thinking this is weird you always have your phone with you, anyway I have your results, it is confirmed Hodgkins Lymphoma, I'd like you to come in 1st thing in the morning so we can start the treatment plan".  Ok doc see you in the morning.

Tuesday 1st May 2012

Jacqui and I were in the Doctors Surgery for 9am, we were ushered in fairly quickly, the Doctor ran through the results of all the previous tests.

1. The FNA confirmed Hodgkins Lymphoma and a Lymph Biopsy would be required for further confirmation and staging.  
2. The lower Abdominal CAT Scan showed no visible lumps which would indicate at this stage that the cancer is above the Diaphragm which is very good news
3. The blood tests came back non specific.

So I was OK on the first 2 points but not OK on the blood tests, "Non Specific? what the hell does that mean?"  The Doctor explained that all the indicators, Platelets, white blood cells etc whilst slightly raised were more in the line of someone who was fighting a mild infection which may indicate that my body was not yet in full stress mode trying to attack the cancer.  "so does that mean we've got it early" In typical Doctorese, "at this stage we don't know, we need to refer you to a Haematologist who will do further tests and you will know more from there".

Now let me state something here and now, my GP has been awesome and I fully understand he has done everything he can to help me.  Simply put, when your faced with this stuff hes the "Go To Guy" for information and when he doesn't have it ya get cranky.  This is neither fair or reasonable behaviour on my part but sometimes the Crazy Bastard aint always up for reasonableness.

So we filled out the forms, had the referrals done and sent off to Sir Charles Gairdner Haematology with the closing remark, if you haven't heard from them by 10am tomorrow give them a call and find out whats going, you should get an appointment this week.

Sure I will