My Story

So I figured I probably should share my story kind of from the beginning on here. I have it on myspace.com but not here, so if you're interested here goes.....
At the end of February I switched to a new doctor. When i went for the physical I wasn't actually feeling well, had a bad congested cough. So my physical ended up turning into a regular office visit with a diagnosis of bronchitis and asthma. I also told him that I often had a recurring dry cough but seemed seasonal mostly in April and November but lasting a couple months at a time. He gave me some antibiotics and sent me on my way, making another appt for the physical. I finished the drugs, went for the physical and felt ok. But a couple days later the cough felt like it was coming back. So i went back in to him (meanwhile he had done bloodwork and it all appeared normal) he took a listen, no bronchitis, but sent me for a chest xray because of the history of cough. Also I had a bump (swollen lymphnode) on the left front of my neck which i had gone to a previous dr and told and nothin showed up in the thyroid and it only bothered me when i lifted my arms over my head so she just wrote it off as nothing). anyways the xray showed a mass behind my breastbone, so he called my work office and told me and said go get a CTscan. I dragged my friend with me, drank down that nasty nasty concoction of barium yuckiness and had the scan. When my doc got the results, again called me at work, to tell me that there's a mass in my breastbone, he suspects lymphoma and now i need to call an oncologist and he gave me the number. so I broke down at work, cryin at my desk. Probably scaring people. They tried to calm me, but inside my head, i was just like go away leave me alone, let me have my breakdown! Not that i could actually verbalize that through my sobbing lol. Anywho, i called my mom and she flew up from Mississippi and went with me to the oncologist. We never thought to get a 2nd opinion. It happened so fast and just felt comfortable and confident in the onc that it just never occured to us or at least to me. Everything through march went quite quickly. I had blood tests which all looked pretty normal. I then had a biopsy of the lymphnode in my neck. it was fairly large so they just took it out, ran there tests and on march 27th said i have classical Hodgkins Disease nodular sclerosing type 2A (A because i had no symptoms) The 2 because i had areas in two places above the diaghram that showed the cancer. I had two enlarged nodes in my chest, one behind my thrachea and one in front, two on the left side of my neck (of which one was taken out for the biopsy) and a small one on the right side of my neck.These are all the areas that the PETscan lit up.
So my first chemo was on april 13th. it went fine. That night went out to eat at Uno's i think it was and bought new furniture from jennifer Convertables for my apartment. Which was a good thing as now i'm out on the chair sleeperbed.
I have chemo every 15 days. The 2nd chemo went fine, a little more difficult finding a spot to go in. Also had to get neupogen shot. that was fine till the bone pain hit (ouch!) knocked me out for a day, right in the middle of moving rooms in my apt.Thanks god for my ma as she basically moved most stuff. the third chemo didn't go so hot. got through one back of the DTIC but it took forever, couldn't find a good position of my arm to get the drip going fast enough, then when tryinig to push through the adremyiacin (i'm sure I spelled that wrong, its the A of the ABVD)the cannula looked like it was going to pop out, then we just couldn't get it to drip at all and since I had passed a gallstone earlier that week the liver enzymes were raised. So the doc said stop and come back on monday to try. Came back and tried again, got the other back of DTIC (the D of ABVD) when to do the pushes again and was fine until the nurse tried to get a blood return and nothin would come. she was in the vein but the vein just decided it didn't want to cooperate. So that next friday I had mediport put in. That was crazy. They only sedated me for that i could feel the doctor pushing and it would hurt every now and then adn i'd ask for more drugs and still feel it. The last 10minutes of the surgery i just broke down and cried, a catharsis really, and kept crying for about 10-20 more minutes. But all with the port is fine now. Except no one excpet chemo nurses want to touch it lol,fear of clots and infection which is fine. the 4th chemo went well, used the port and all was good. I just ended up trying to pass more gallstones on a tuesday for 3hours and thursday for 12 hours, so my onc got me in with a good surgeon and that monday (this past monday) got the gallbladder taken out. Hopefully i'll be all healed up so I can get chemo on June 22nd!
so thats my story. I'm healin up everyday, able to get up easier and move around easier, but I'll probably be chillin on monday and tuesday of next week at home too.
so there ya go, thats the news thats fit to print....enjoy!!!