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A busy day today;
Today I had another consultation with a Haemotologist at Peter Mac. I was booked in for a series of tests for next week;
A further appointment was also booked with my specialist for the following Tuesday. by next Tuesday the results of the above tests will be known and we will be able to ‘stage’ my disease and determine the treatment plan. A second opinion of the biopsy from the lymph node in my neck will also be performed by a pathologist at Peter Mac. Mum arrived in Melbourne this morning, and we met at the train station on route to the initial consultation with my specialist (Haematologist). Specialist checked my body physically, no obvious signs of other enlarged lymph nodes. No other symptoms. Referred me to another specialist at the Peter Mac Cancer Institute. Today I had an appointment with my GP to discuss the results from my ultrasound & biopsy. The conversation started off with “I have some bad news, the results came back and they indicate that you have Hodgkin’s Lymphoma“. My GP didn’t want to go into specifics, instead he faxed my details straight away to a leading Lymphoma specialist. I received a call from this specialist a few hours later and he agreed to see me the very next day. I didn’t really know what to think. It’s not every day you get told you have cancer, but at the same time I felt fine and had no health concerns. I called my parents and let them know the bad news. Mum booked a flight, and is due to land in Melbourne tomorrow. Today I went in for my first ever biopsy and ultrasound. Both were not very exciting. The ultrasound shows the node on my neck is 20mm in diameter. A fine needle sample was taken, along with 2 core samples. I was given local anaesthetic prior to the biopsy. No feeling then the fine needle was used, but the first core extraction was a bit of a shock. A tool like what is used for ear piercing is used and it was a bit sudden and I wasn’t expecting it. Today I went to GP about lump again… I should probably also add a bit of context here. I had first noticed a lump on my neck (right hand side) about the size of a pea in around September 2010 (1 year ago). I had been to my GP several times about this lump before today, there was initial concerns that it was Lymphoma and a blood test was conducted in May 2011, this test came back with nothing abnormal. My GP was of the opinion that the lump was a scared lymph node and as it wasn’t painful or didn’t change size I wasn’t worried about. Recently however I had just recovered from a flu and the lump had increased in size, hence the visit to the GP. This time my GP was concerned that the lump had increased in size and booked me in straight away to have a biopsy performed the very next day. |
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