Catching you up.........

I found a mass in my neck last tuesday, the 15th. I called Dr mom and kept an eye on it for about 24-48 hours and after no change, I called my PCP. I was in there thurs am. She was very surprised at the size, started me on antibiotics and scheduled me for a ct scan friday. We were thinking possible thyriod or lymph node....no alarms yet.
I got a call monday morning that the ct scan indicated a swollen lymph node and that she wanted me to see a surgeon and for him to assess it.
The surgeon felt around my neck, armpit, and stomache on Tuesday morning and immediately sat down - it's lymphoma. He began talking about Hodgkins and non-hodgkins and i just sat there staring at him. I was in shock, a single tear went down my face and he began asking about if I came there alone, who do I have for support, he gave me a number of a shrink I could call. All I was thinking was WTF! It's a swollen lymph node, not cancer...How can he know this by just feeling my neck, he hasn't tested anything!
I just wanted out of there. So I wandered to my car, breaking down in there for a while and called mom. She called the surgeon right away - he gave me his personal cell number. She called me back and he said (to her) there are more lumps, besides the one I can see, that he felt - so he's "definitive" it's lymphoma.
To be safe, I have had blood work taken twice, went in for a chest x-ray yesterday and had a pregnancy test (no worries, not pregnant). I am scheduled to have the mass and nodes removed tomorrow morning. Both my dad and Brent will be there and we have lists of questions to ask. We should have the results of the biopsy on Sunday. I am planning on retreating to dads house most of the weekend to wait for the results.

If you want to learn more about it all, check out: http://www.leukemia-lymphoma.org/all_page?item_id=7030

For me, right now, I am on a roller coaster ride. One second I am fine, next I am crying my eyes out. I think the hardest thing for me to swallow is that my life could change. Plans and things I was looking forward to are quickly getting pushed aside (aka. Spain). It's the not knowing that is killing me.
There are three possible things that may happen: 1) nothing, he was wrong and I am fine; 2) Hodgkins, the better cancer, which would allow me to live my life as "normal" with just radiation a few times a week and if it is still stage 1 cancer, would be finished with all treatment by June; 3) Non-hogkins and we won't talk about that one, because it's not an option.