T-Cell Lymphoma

In April I began having pain in my right groin. I had Eric check the area for any reason to explain my pain. The only thing he found was a small red bump that looked like a mosquito bite on my inner thigh. I went to my Family Doctor for my breathing/allergy issue and while I was there I showed her the bump on my leg and told her about the pain in my groin. In mid sentence she cut me off and said you can only talk to me about 2 different things in one visit. Then she said from her little stool it looks like a staph infection to me, take this antibiotic and you will be fine. So I took the medicine as directed. The pain never went away but grew more painful and the size of the spot grew as well. It was a weekend and I was in too much pain I decided to go to the ER. The ER doc happened to be a good friend of our families, Olin Vance. He looked at it and said we need to take a little biopsy of it and see if we can drain it. The culture he sent off came back fine and so he sent me home with pain meds. The days went by and this spot on my leg kept growing. It was super painful because of wear it sat on my inner thigh. It was constantly being rubbed by my other leg. Ouch, I began to despise this new addition to my leg and wanted it gone NOW. So I figured if I went back to the ER they would see how nasty it was and cut it out. Once there a nice PA told me I wish we could cut it out but unfortunately this isn't emergent and so you will need to go to your primary care doctor and get a referral to a surgeon. The next day Eric changed my primary care doctor to a new one and made me an appointment to have this "thing-a-ma-jig" out of me once and for all. I went to this new Doctor and was so impressed by there promptness and there genuine concern for me and my pain. By the time I saw this Doctor it was the beginning of May. With a referral in hand I made an appointment with the surgeon. When I went to the surgeons office he was super kind and told me he had never seen anything like it before. He said that it was most likely double the size inside my leg and he wanted to take it out as soon as possible. We talked about worst case scenario, he said when he sends the mass off to the pathologist there is a chance they won't know what it is. And so in that case we would just chalk it up to having a weird deal and unless another grew back we wouldn't worry about it. I asked him if it appeared to be cancerous and he said not at all. On May 19th he finally removed my mass. The surgeon told Eric he was able to remove it all and it was about the size of a golf ball. He said it was very granular and he had never seen anything like it. The mass was sent off to the pathologist here in AZ and they said it was some sort of lymph tissue but they didn't have all the necessary tools to give it a name. So my mass went off to Minnesota to the Mayo Clinic pathologists. On June 1st while I was up north enjoying the cool weather and family, I received a call from my surgeon. He said he received the results from the Mayo Clinic and he was sad to tell me that it appears to be Lymphoma. I said, " I have cancer"? He said yes, you have a form of lymphoma called T-cell lymphoma. Then he began to tell me of a cancer center with a really good oncologist that he has worked closely with before. He hung up after giving me the address and phone number to the oncologist. I had an appointment scheduled that day with Dr. Joseph Nabong at the Ironwood Cancer Center. I invited my Mom to come with Eric and I so that she could take in all the info given to us. We all three were super impressed with the doctor. He was gentle, calm, knowledgable. Everything we weren't he was and I immediately felt at peace with what was going on in my body. I have a serious fight going inside my body and I need chemotherapy to attack it and rid it once and for all. The form of lymphoma is aggressive and rare. The doctor wanted to get right on my therapy so that I would have the greatest chance of remission. I began to have pain in my left breast and when I called the doctor he told me I needed to go to the ER. He said that we needed to make sure the lymphoma wasn't already spreading. The CT scan I had showed a mass on my left breast and on my liver. It isn't very relaxing to be in the hospital. In fact they poke and prod you so much you hurt worse while there. But I was grateful to be in good hands where testing could be done if needed. I spent three days in the hospital while doctors scheduled different tests and blood work. On the last day the pathologist came in and did a bone marrow biopsy. I was so relieved the pain was short lived and the results of the biopsy came back clear. I had an outpatient mammogram done the next day and the radiologist there couldn't believe that the mass on my breast was now nowhere to be found. What a blessing! Two miraculous blessings in a row. My spirits were high and the oncologist said we're starting chemo ASAP. Friday June 18th. It went well sitting down at the cancer center with all the white haired people drinking my chemo juice. I was there for 3 hours and left with only a headache. I felt very good for the next two days and thought I was getting lucky with my symptoms being NONE. All that changed drastically on Sunday day three after my chemo. I felt like life was being sucked from me. It literally feels like my body is dyeing. I have no energy and I feel nauseous. The symptoms today, 7 days out of chemo are getting better. I still have nausea but I believe its caused from heartburn. Each day is getting better, I understand I must continue on with the treatments for my families sake. I will do it for my family, but I DON'T like it! Not one bit!