Things that can be symptomatic, problematic, and automatic

~~First off, I want to THANK ALL OF YOU who have sent me well wishes, prayers, flowers, and supportive quotes. You are all amazing and it truly brightens my day. I thank God everyday for all the support I have around me. ~~



Yesterday consisted of my first trip to my oncologist, whom we will refer to as TiVo as we can never remember how to pronounce his name and it comes out sounding like TiVo. I was surprisingly chipper yesterday, so it made for a good day to start my oncology journey. As I sat in the waiting room with my entourage (Dashing & his parents and my dad), I filled out more paperwork. I have felt like a secretary recently with this duty. So on page number 6,000 5, the form asked me for my name, job title, and chief complaint. Did you catch the irony in this as quickly as I did. Let's brainstorm here, chief complaint for seeing an oncologist...hmmm...I don't know, cancer maybe??!! So maybe I'm being harsh...but I at least got a good laugh out of it!


My actual appointment was, I'll be honest, not the best. After being examined ALL OVER, I had the pleasure of having a bone marrow biopsy. This is where TiVo has you you lie in a fetal position because you will be crying like a baby and hammers tools into your Iliac Crest (part of your hip) to remove marrow and a chunk of bone. This is to test if the cancer has crept into your bones too. Dashing gracefully held my hand and stroked my head and neck as I broke his hand, twice.


Later, a nurse came in and started to explain the treatment and symptoms. So after the painful procedure, I'm hearing about diarrhea, nausea, fevers...."Oh the hair loss will begin about 21 days after you begin treatment... you can wear things such as a turban..." Yes this was her solution at one point. I have to stop her and say..."I'm not feeling so well, is that normal?" I had worked myself up, gotten flush in the face, and needed to lie down and have some crackers before I fainted. Ugh - this is a lot more than I thought.


I move on to my next appointment... Today, I had a PET scan to identify areas in my body where the crazy cells are. Seems like they are contained in my chest - which a very very good thing. This means I'll probably be diagnosed at stage 2a Hodgkin's Lymphoma - which in the end is just a number, but it makes me feel better about it.


The problematic thing now includes that I'm starting to have symptoms. Today I started having shortness of breath and pressure in my throat. This is probably because my tumors are pressing against my right lung, trachea, and neck (so that frog I thought I had in my throat may actual be another tumor - thank you PET scan for this notification). No need to worry about these things - just minor symptoms that make me feel winded after I chatter. They say that this will subside once I start chemotherapy, which could be as early as next Wednesday.


The entourage and I are heading up to northern Arizona for the weekend to get away. Dashing and I had a little time yesterday to do 'normal' errands together - so I'm hoping the same for this weekend. One more appointment before we get to leave town....cannot wait!