How I ended up Here!

I guess this is my story. During Spring Break of 2007 I went to urgent care for a cough that I had been battling for weeks (has been gone for months now) and a recent painfull sore throat. The doctor ordered me to have a chest x-ray to see if there was something causing my symptoms. It was a Tuesday. The next day the phone rang and Kaiser showed up on the caller ID. I knew something was wrong because they do not call unless there is a problem. My heart sunk. The doctor told me that the x-ray had shown a mass in my chest and neck and that I needed to have a CT scan ASAP as it was likely Lymphoma. I guess the Tuesday of my x-ray was the last day of normal as I had known it. I remember that day vividly as my parents and 2 aunts were on a cruise to Baja and they were docked in San Diego for the day. That was a fun day. We were at Seaport Village, Horton Plaza, Sammy's Woodfire Grill, and we entertained by the fact that Loli smuggled a chocolate cake off the ship for Angela.

Well back to my story. The CT scan I had confirmed that I did have 2 masses (or 1 contiguous ??), one in the chest and one in my neck. I had a left VATS surgery to get a biopsy of the mass. It was very nervous as I waited for the results. I got the call (after school one day) from the surgeon and the pathology came back non-cancerous. I was so happy!!! Words could not describe. I was referred to a Pulmonary doctor and underwent a series of blood tests to see if they could find an explanation for my tumor. No luck. The panel of Pulmonary doctors agreed that it needed to be removed. They had a feeling that they cancer was hidden deep within the mass and the first biopsy had not produced a large enough tissue sample. So here I was again, cancer was suspected and more tests needed to be preformed. How dumb I was to forget the renew my cancer insurance in February.

Well, to make a long story short, I had another CT scan and it showed that the tumor had grown about 1 cm in about 4 months. My 2nd surgery was scheduled, a left VATS again. This time my doctor said that he was going to take the whole thing out! He did and 8 days later the diagnosis was in: LYMPHOMA. That was a sad day.

I have since met with the oncologist twice, have had numerous other tests, and have finally scheduled my chemotherapy, and so continues my story...