After seeing my primary doctor the very first time, he scheduled some tests and scans to help him identify the lump in my neck. Lumps can be very common in this area (just above the clavicle where the neck starts) and often end up being just plain masses of fatty tissue or cysts. One test led to another...and another... and another.
I did all of the extensive testing by myself so that Daniel could stay home with the kids. A couple times I wouldnt have had a choice anyway. The doctor demanded my CT scans back so fast that when radiologists told me 2 to 3 days, my doctor was calling the NEXT MORNING at 8am with results and shoving me into other tests already. Good for him- but it was a crazy two weeks starting with the CT scans leading up to the biopsy, leading to more CT scans, the PET scan to determine staging and the nightmarish bone marrow extraction.
So, knowing the biopsy was the last one to really determine if it was cancer- I just took off and got it done right after my doctor called. My primary doctor ordered a needle biopsy and the (very nice) radiologist said no way. He said "I've got your scan, of course, and the needle isnt' going to touch it. We need way more tissue than that" So I knew that wasnt a good sign. Should one start to worry when all the technicians in the room are exchanging glances?
Apparently I was bleeding heavily afterward so they kept me for observation. I sat in this room and a nurse came in every 10 minutes to apply (very hard) pressure over and over on the area of my neck they had just cut into...and the anesthesia was wearing off. No fun. But whatever- She was concerned about the excessive swelling (she thought it was blood under the skin and was trying to redistribute it...even showed me how to do it at home!) so she paged a doctor to come take a look. I'd been there an extra hour for observation and she told me since the bleeding stopped I could go but the doctor would take a look to be sure the swelling was ok, because she didn't think it was.
By then I'm sure the radiologist that had worked with me had moved onto other things. When she paged someone- a doctor I hadnt seen before came up as I was standing in this hospital hallway getting ready to get on the elevator to go to my car and go home. He felt around my neck and excused himself to check my scan and be sure there was no internal bleeding because of all the puffiness.
He comes back and says...loosely but I'm very close here- "Your report shows you did bleed excessively after the procedure and I'm glad they kept you- but that nurse just doesnt know that when you have lymphoma your nodes swell this much. When the cancer hits your lymph nodes they just spaz out. This isn't more bleeding- it's your cancer."
So I'm there alone on a Thursday for the biopsy, been given no diagnosis yet- that's what the biopsy is for- and this guy I've never seen before tells me I have cancer in the hallway as I'm getting on the elevator. He wasn't a jerk or anything- but he really shouldnt have done that. He just knew from my scan what it was but Daniel and I should have been told together from my primary doctor- after the stinking biopsy to confirm it.
Nice bedside manner buddy. Tell a young mother in the hallway of a hospital as she's going to her car that she has cancer and the lymphoma is making her body go crazy. "Spazzed out" were his words.
I told him I had no diagnosis yet and was simply there for a biopsy! He just shook his head and told me again... "Ok, but it's cancer Ms. Kendrick."
I drove home with my head whirling in shock from what I'd just heard. I would NOT have gone there alone if I had known that would happen. Daniel was pretty ticced- I dont know what kind of doctor he was, had never seen him before, don't know his name. He was just called over to check my supposed bleeding! lol. Well, that pretty well gave me the answer I needed but we held out hope he was wrong and waited to hear from my actual doctor.
Lesson from this? If you can help it, never go to a biopsy alone!
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