Neck Biopsy

I got to see the ear, nose and throat doctor to discuss a biopsy on the lymph node in my neck.  While there in his office he stuck a needle in my neck to suck out some lymph node juice with the intent to find cancer cells, so we could avoid the full on surgery.  They found nothing in the sample they got.  Well it looked like I needed to go under the knife.

                On September the 26^th Renée and I got to the hospital and checked in.  I was given a little stone with the word “strength” etched in it.  It reminded me of one of my favorite Book of Mormon scriptures, Ether 12:27.  I saw her little pile of stones so when I got the chance I peeked at what another one said, just in case I thought mine was dumb.  All I saw was one that said “happiness.”  Well I guess she decided I needed to be strong instead of happy.

 We got to wait in a room with a reclining chair, which I sat on.  As we waited I took the opportunity to let Renée know what kind of delicious food I was going to want after we got out of this.  Hamburger, or burrito, or maybe something with a milk shake I was going to milk it for all it was worth.  Right about that time one of the nurses came in and let me know that I would not want any of that.  The anesthesia that they were going to use on me was going to shut my body down… that included my digestive system.  Besides the fact that I might get nauseas just putting that much food in my body might be a bad idea, not to mention it was all greasy.  I asked the doctor if they could just put me in a twilight state so I would not have to go all the way under.  He said no because the lymph node they were after was on my carotid artery and he didn’t want me to move and slice it open.  I was greatly disappointed out about that.

"Wouldn't it be wonderful
if I could do with a knife what
 that old Spaniard did with a brush?"
-J.S. Steinman, BioShock.

It finally came time for the procedure and I had to say goodbye to Renée.  I was led to the operating room and had a feeling of anxiety.  I always think it is pretty darn cool to see what is going on and how they are going to do it.  But this time I just felt a little nerves.  I guess it didn’t help that I had just started playing a video game called BioShock and the first level bad guy you have to defeat is a crazy Picasso of a surgeon who wasn’t held back by pesky little things like ethics… I was in surgery.  When you encounter this crazy surgeon in the videogame you see where he works and you see the surgeries he wasn’t happy with.  Their arms where strapped out to the sides on tables that hung from the ceiling… When I laid down on the table there were straps.  I keep playing the game.

It is held together with glue.

I woke up in a totally different room with an ice pack on my neck.  I didn’t know how much shoulder I was showing or I would have had Renée pull it up for me before she took this picture with my phone and sent it out to everyone, but now it’s on my blog.  I had no desire to eat anything heavy so we went to subway. I ate half and that was a bad idea.  I was nice and nauseas and by the time I got home I went straight to bed.  The next day I felt like I was walking on a boat all day.  The day after that I thought I had enough strength to go a play DnD.  I would just be sitting on a couch I would be fine.  I took a two hour nap after.

After waiting about two weeks we got the results and meet up with the oncologist.  That was on Friday the 7^th.  He let us know it was Hodgkin’s Lymphoma, Nodular Sclerosing.  Very curable and only 6 months of chemo, as opposed to Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma which is much harder to cure and about a year and a half of chemo.  So the good news is that I have Hodgkin’s Lymphoma, Nodular Sclerosing.