Don't be afraid to ask your Doctor to run some tests!

Since the revelation that I may be sick with Lymphoma a lot of people have asked me what were my symptoms and why did my doctor run these tests. I've decided to let you all know what's going on...

Since mid-December my body just hadn't been feeling great. My muscles were sore all the time. I would wake up and painfully get out of bed, get ready for work and feel OK, but after my 5 mile drive into work getting out of the car was a chore, and my legs ached and my joints hurt like I had arthritis. So, during a routine doctor visit, I shared my complaints and asked the doc to order some blood tests, to check for cancer, arthritis, liver issues etc. My results came back with high levels of Alkaline Phosphatase, and a high level of sedimentation. The doctor ordered a abdomen scan of my liver, the results came back showing I had a slightly enlarged liver, but more alarming was that my spleen was 75% larger than it should be with lacerations and other granular looking particles inside. Cool thing about AZ is I asked for copies of the films and got copies within a few hours. With my limited anatomical knowledge I concluded that I knew nothing they were talking about...

The results of the ultrasound led my primary doctor to order a CT scan with contrast. The contrast is iodine, you have to drink some nasty blackberry flavored kool-aid drink. They also injected me with some iodine. I asked for copies of the films and was able to pick them up the next day. Having copies of the films on CD is way cool, the CD's come with there own viewer, if I can figure out how to save images to .jpg I'll post some.

The results from my CT scan pushed my doctor to send me to an Oncologist. Luckily my doc was able to get me into the best Oncologist in the valley. He normally has a 3 week waiting period to see new patients and I got in to see him 3 days after my CT scan. This wouldn't have happened this quickly in CA, what I've written about took place in a few days of each other. My Oncologist ordered a PT Scan, they scheduled the appointment for me, I had my test - got images on CD again an hour after the scan - when I checked them out I got a little nervous, I knew that the hyper active cells would glow from the radiated sugar they injected me with, I figured my bladder would glow, but I was surprised by how bright my spleen was. I found 3 other lymph-nodes that were glowing as well, so I knew the report wouldn't have the best news. The results supported what I had seen, and that I had 2 nodes near my spine that were indicative of hyper-metabolic activity, as well as one in my thigh and neck. The Oncologist ordered a Biopsy which brings us to the present day.

Yesterday was my Biopsy, they took a sample from the 1 cm node in my thigh and now we sit and wait for the results.

I'll keep you posted on my prognosis.