On a scale of 1-10, 10 being the worst pain imaginable, I would have to give it about 3. It rarely bothered me, sometimes it gave me troubles sleeping on my left side.
Eventually the pain progressed, and appeared to be present whenever I did something active, such as going to a jog. At first I didn't consider it to be anything major. I was overweight (about 96kg and 171cm tall). I just moved in with my girlfriend, who pushed me to get off my big butt. So I thought, it was just my body getting used to exercise. I started losing weight. Again, I was thinking that my diet changed since I moved out + I started exercising.
The pain would not go away, but it would not get worse either. One day I decided to go to a walk in clinic to get it checked out. The doc said it was muscular pain, which I found to be odd. She told me it should go away within few days, and that I should stop exercising for a few days. So I did. But the pain did not go away.
That's when I decided to make an appointment to my family doctor. When I came to see him, he said he could feel my spleen being firm and oversize under my ribs (he actually pushed his fingers under my ribs, ouch). He told me that it's not good, and ordered a barrage of tests including X Ray, Ultra sound, CT scan, blood tests, urine tests. When all the results came back, they showed some lesions on my spleen, and 1 slightly enlarge lymph node near my pancreas.
My family doctor told me right away that its lymphoma, a term I've never heard before. He said not to freak out, which concerned me, but said it can be cured with some medicine, after which I didn't think of it as much.
He then sent me to a hematologist for more testing. That appointment must have been 3 weeks away.
Meanwhile, I started looking for reasons for spleen enlargements. It must have been 2 days of searching until I finally found lymphoma as the reason, and remembered that what the doc said it was.
That's when I started worrying a lot. The worst part was not knowing. I just knew tiny bits about chemotherapy, mainly the really horrible side affects. To be truthful, I almost had a breakdown. I wanted to avoid chemo at all costs. I started reading about alternative therapies. But unfortunately non of them offered any hard proof of success. That's when I started looking at chemo, learning everything I could about it. The terminology is tough, but my girlfriend is a biotech major, so she helped a lot deciphering the code.
I concentrated on credible sources of information like American Cancer Society and Leukemia & Lymphoma Support Foundation of Canada.
Meanwhile, I was lucky to be transferred to another hematologist/oncologist at the Princess Margaret Hospital.
This pretty much the cancer hospital in Canada, and one of the best in the world (Canada spends almost all of its medical research budget on cancer).
On the very first appointment with Dr. Michael Crump at PMH (Princess Margaret Hospital). We did a bone marrow biopsy(ouch), and scheduled a spleen biopsy. By this time, I already had the symptoms of a lymphoma. I lost weight (about 12kg), loss of appetite, and can barely do anything that's very active because of the pain. I also itch like crazy. And my spleen grew to the size of about 2 golf balls, and can be easily seen with naked eye, as it is already coming out from below the ribs.
I had the misfortune of doing all of the biopsies during the holiday season (Christmas and New Years). That made the wait time unbearably long. I think it was about 3 weeks before I got my bone marrow biopsy back. Which showed negative for lymphoma (boy was I happy). Shortly, it was time to do my spleen biopsy. Once on the operating table, the surgeon decided not to go for the spleen, but go instead for the lymph node near the pancreas. I said do what you think is best. Because operating on the spleen can cause it bleed, and could result in removal of the organ.
The results came back shortly after, INCONCLUSIVE! how torturous! ahhh!. That means I have to do it again. On the next appointment with Dr.Crump, he surprised me when he told me that he wanted to do another bone marrow biopsy, this time the left side. I was not happy. But I agreed, I needed to know what it was ASAP. He expedited another spleen biopsy appointment. And made sure that the head of pathology department of the hospital (Toronto General) analysed the sample.
3 days later, I was back on the operating table, and this time they did go after the spleen. Everything went smooth. I think it was about 1 week after the biopsy, when they called me and gave me the results of both biopsies.
The bone marrow biopsy showed fibrosis, which is indicative of early lymphoma activity.
The spleen biopsy did show Diffuse Large B Cell Non Hodgkin's Lymphoma.
I did not know how to react. All I could think is how do I go about telling my parents. I am the only child, and they both had mothers die of cancer. This would kill them. The only thing I had going for me, is that they were in the process from the start. And I kept telling them, that according to statistics, there is 90% cure rate. Just to prepare them for the worst possible scenario. It helped them a lot. They took it a lot better than I thought they would. I am happy.
They told me that the next day I would have chemo... great and not so great. Chemo can make you sterile, although it happens rarely, I do not want to risk it. I rushed to the sperm bank, and they said they can only do it tomorrow.. the day of chemo, which is at 9am. However, they were supppppppper nice about it, and said they would open the clinic just for at 7am! Thanks Mount Sinai!
Today is is January 31 2012. After a rough night of almost no sleep, I woke up at 5:45am. 6:15am the taxi was already waiting for me to drop me off at the clinic. Everything went fine.
Then it was time to wait for the chemo, about an hour and half. I was nervous. But my girlfriend was there for me, she calmed me down.
This is the pic of me getting my first R CHOP chemo!
It went fine. I just feel super duper tired. But thats because of lack of sleep + the nurse giving me benedryl which sent me to sleep, and she kept waking me up for blood pressure and temperature tests. Every 10 min!!
Its 8:52pm right now, and I am about to go to sleep. Good night!
p.s. I promise not to make such big posts in the future.
The next appoitment up on the menue is a follow up with Dr.Crump on my birthday! Feb 17.
I will let you know how that goes.
By the way, the R CHOP chemo is given every 3 weeks, for 6 cycles.
