Diagnosis Update

 This blog post is a little behind, but better late than never!

Well, it's something I think I knew from the time Dr.K. called me, the results of my surgical biopsy are in. The pathology report concludes that once again the Lymphoma is back, Nodular Lymphocyte Predominate Hodgkin again this time. I was a year ago this time that I was battling this in my neck for the first time.

This however as most of you know will be my fifth battle with cancer in four years! You would think I'd be able to say it gets easier each time, but that is not the case. It actually gets a little more difficult each time, mentally , emotionally, physically more difficult. I had a lot of pain with this surgery, and rightly so, this was a major surgery just for the biopsy, NCI (National Cancer Institute) definition explains it as:

A procedure in which a tube is inserted into the chest to view the tissues and organs in the area between the lungs and between the breastbone and heart. The tube is inserted through an incision next to the breastbone. This procedure is usually used to get a tissue sample from the lymph nodes on the left side of the chest. Also called Chamberlain procedure.

My incision scar.

That I guess does explain the soreness, along with the fact that just after surgery I had been doing too much too soon!

I seen Dr. S. on the 7th of February to go over this pathology report with him. We discussed many things that day as far at what the report showed and also some treatment possibilities for me. He also discussed the spot on my right upper neck that showed up on the Gallium Scan. It is actually located just next to my right ear, which is call the Parotid lymph-node. see diagram at right.

Dr. S. is not convinced at this time that this is a cancerous lymph node but that it's more a reactive lymph node doing it's intended job, which is to gather infection. So this one will be monitored for now, and possibly a new scan to double check it if it becomes palpable.

Treatment option of choice would be Chemotherapy, however with my options becoming very limited for Chemo, he will be discussing this with Dr. S. to see if there is a regimen she can come up with for me. There is a study that shows some promise using rituximab because nodular lymphocyte-predominant Hodgkin lymphoma (NLPHL) express CD20, rituximab may be used as a nonmutagenic treatment option to avoid late toxicities in this rather indolent entity.

Right now Dr. S. is thinking radiation, he is certain he can get it with radiation. We also discussed the possibility that we might do a combination of radiation and chemotherapy. However, this is a preliminary right now, what Dr. S. is going to do is bring up my case in front of the tumor board at their meeting this week, he is also going to consult again with Dr. K. about chemo options this week as well. He said I should hear from him and be back in by the end of the week, so enough about speculation for now.

Tonight is game night! Brenda and I, along with my son Travis, and Uncle Don will be attending the Windsor Spitfires game tonight at the WFCU Center. We have tickets for one of the suite's, I had won these back in January at an event held at the WFCU Center. I was suppose to be doing another event this evening, and that was to be live on the 6pm news on /A\ Channel. I had set this up with Arms Bumanlag who is the weather man and does announcements for community events on his weather segments. This is going to be a PSA for the Windsor & Essex County Cancer Center Foundation's annual bowl-a-thon. Nancy Gibbons from the Foundation and myself were to do it along with Arms, but firstly, I forgot I had the tickets, and game time is 7:05pm and Arms does his segments at 6:15, 6:30 and 6:45pm, and these are being done outside Bowlero Lanes. The two main factors though are related to my neuropathy, and that is I could not stand that long because my feet would be in extreme pain and two, the weather for today is going to be a high of -9 Celsius which would cause even more pain in both my hands and feet. Had the shoot been indoors I most likely would have done it, but Arms being the weather man does his segments outdoors. So Nancy Gibbons will be handling the shoot with Arms. I'm sure he and I will get together at some point for a cause.   

Arms Bumanlag

So this blog entry is being shelved for now until I know more about what is going on as far as treatment options and schedule goes.


Update : Windsor lost their game to Owen Sound 6-4. We all had a fantastic time at the game in the comfort of a suite! Still waiting on news of a treatment plan as well.

So in the meantime I've arranged for Liz McMillan from Patients Against Lymphoma to do a guest article here on my blog, coming soon, so enjoy.

Love and Hugs to all no matter where you are in your journey.
Tim. xxx