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August 23, 2007

Lymphing along

At the beginning of last week in Atlanta I noticed that the right side of my neck was warm and swollen and there seemed to be a soft lump in it. It was a little sore when I pressed on it. The next two days I woke up with crud in my ears, fever, chills and a terrible sinus headache. The lump was solidifying, too. I couldn’t tell what the ambient temperature was but I was sweating a lot with very little exertion. I called my Doctor in Philly, the wonderful Mark Watkins, and asked him what I should do. He advised me to go to an emergency room and get it looked at immediately.

The folks in the management office of the apartment building said we should go to a “good” hospital a bit of a drive away but still in “the perimeter.” There was no hurry so we took their advice. The emergency room clerk was very cute and the department was HUGE. It must have had 50 rooms. I didn’t have to wait very long to be seen and Keith stayed in the waiting room with his computer.

I sat in a comfortable dentist-type chair and nodded off. A few doctors came in, examined me and asked me a few questions. They were cute too! they told me that, given my other symptoms, the lump was just a swollen lymph node, gave me  a week to live  a prescription for Keflex and sent me on my way, telling me to make sure I saw my Dr. as soon as I got home. They assured me that, since it was painful to the touch and came on suddenly that it wasn’t cancer. Whew. We filled the prescription at Wal*Mart (sorry) and had a terrible meal at an awful chain restaurant with lousy service (Izzy & Irma’s??).

Over the next few days my fever and chills went away but the lump seemed to get worse. Now I could actually see it when before I couldn't tell it was even there without feeling for it. I’m sure no one else could see it but to me it looked like I had grown a second head. I was developing Lump Dismorphic Disorder.

I got back to Philly Monday afternoon and saw my Dr. on Tuesday afternoon. I gave him my aftercare papers and the blood work they had done in Atlanta. He looked at them and just shook his head and brought in his PA, John, to look at me also. They both agreed, nodding their heads sagely and saying nothing. I finally had to scream "WHAT THE HELL IS IT???"

He said I’d have to get an MRI on Wednesday (today) and a needle biopsy on Monday. “To be blunt, I think it’s lymphoma.” Oh great. Poverty, broken computer and now cancer. Thanks! I remained calm, as I always do in situations like this. (When I got my HIV diagnosis I took care of the stuff I had to do at the medical office and then bicycled home in the rain screaming "I DON’T WANT TO DIE!!!" with tears streaming sown my face. At least I keep the drama to myself!) I started freaking out a little later in the day while I was doing errands that weren’t going particularly well. For instance, Bank of America wouldn’t cash a check that they had written to me because I didn’t have more than one form of ID. (Fuckers.)

Before I left the office Mark and John assured me that this type of cancer was quite common and wasn’t going to kill me. (Sorry, folks!) One chemotherapy treatment should do the trick. Christ, I hope so. If not, this is going to turn into a “Plucky Cancer Guy” blog (“I‘m gonna beat this thing!”) and no one wants that to happen. Really. I know I’m not the only person who can’t stand that annoying Lance Armstrong.

I’m listening to “My Old Man’s a Fatso” from Back From Samoa by the brilliant  Angry Samoans.

Technorati Tags: aids, gay, health, HIV, non-hodgkin's lymphoma

Posted by HighStrungLoner in Gay at 1:52 AM

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Comments

Posted by: AskaLesbian on August 24, 2007 12:21 AM

Posted by: WrascalBC on August 24, 2007 10:37 PM

Posted by: compraxis on August 29, 2007 11:45 PM

Posted by: Frank on August 30, 2007 12:27 AM

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