It’s true; nothing is ever simple – at least for me. I went to the doctor today to get my sutures (aka staples) removed. I went in, lied down and the doc took this tiny tool, which is cross between a pair of pliers and a pair of scissors and pulled the couple of dozens staples in about ten minutes.
When he was done I figured it was good time to ask some questions.
“When we last talked you said the biopsy still needed to be completed, but it looked like a Lymphoma. Anything new?” I asked.
“It is a Lymphoma, specifically it’s a Burkitt’s Lymphoma,” he said. I don’t see too any of those in a year.
No kidding. I discovered later that Burkitt’s lymphoma is a rare non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma usually contracted by children in Equatorial Africa. Fewer than 300 cases are reported annually in the United States. The majority of those cases are in men over 40. It is usually highly curable, with heavy doses of chemotherapy.
The surgeon gave me a referral to a lymphoma doc who has experience in these – how much experience a person can have in something that only occurs 300 times annually in a population of 311,000,000 is of course curious.
Anyway, if there was any good news the doc said I need to increase the red meat intake in my diet to increase my iron and therefore my energy.
I am a bit anxiety ridden at the moment, as I am not sure what happens next. Do I have chemo? Will it be soon? In patient/outpatient? Will my doctors take a wait and see approach since there is no longer a mass (surgery remember)? When can I go back to work?
I’ll report more tomorrow.
Peace to all,
Bill
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