So Saturday(9/25) marked 2 special occasions my 5 year wedding anniversary and 10 months of being cancer free.

My wife and I spent the day at the Naples Grape Festival. We pretty much ate our way through the event while looking at all the arts & crafts that were for sale.

The weather was outstanding and we stopped at a couple of places on our way home. Later that day we went out to dinner at the Olive Garden. That is one of our favorite places. We ate so much salad and breadsticks that we had to box our dinners up and take them home!

So on Monday 9/27 I had to go in for my routine scans. It was more annoying than anything else because we have been so healthy these last 10 months. I had to laugh at this older gentleman that was in the CT waiting area. We both had to drink the contrast and we both had the fruit punch flavor. He was having a hell of time drinking the fruit punch. He kept saying man this stuff is awlful. Well I had downed half my bottle before he even finished his first cup. You’re suppose to drink a cup every 10 minutes and obviously he was not following his schedule. He looks over at me and says .. “How in the hell can you drink this stuff?” .. and I replied .. I look at it this way .. drinking this stuff is a hell of alot better than going through chemotherapy again. I did not know why he was getting scanned, but he seemed to agree with that and drank a few more cups without arguement.

So the scans went off without a hitch except for the injected contrast making me feel like someone had put a torch in my crotch! I have gotten the warm fuzzies before, but this was definately a new sensation. I was glad when that was over.

I did not feel well the rest of the day. I think the fruit punch contrast was not sitting well with me, but I sucked it up and plowed through the day.

My wife went out to dinner with her girlfriends (it’s nice to see her get out and do something for herself) and that is when the phone rang …

So I pick it up and my ONC is on the phone. I am thinking .. this can’t be good. It seems a lymph node in my neck is considerably larger than it was at my scans in June. So I feel around my neck while I have him on the phone and sure enough there it is. 

So I ask him what does this mean .. and he says I need you to come in the next day so we can discuss what to do about it and biopsy it.

So needless to say I have talked to him and I am patiently waiting for my scheduled biopsy. We have decided to just remove the whole thing so that there will be no doubt that they have enough to make a diagnosis.

My ONC is a little worried and confused. Usually (I am told) my type of Lymphoma (Agressive B-Cell Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma) comes back in a fit of rage not some sort of slow growth.

I am not worried though … I got through this once and I’ll be dammed if I won’t get through it again. I am more worried for my wife. She had already closed the door on the whole cancer thing a couple of months ago. She hides it well, but I know all of this is really hard on her.

It’s hard to get worked up about it …. I feel like a battle hardened veteran now. The ONC was like .. I am sorry to say, but you will have a good size scar on your neck after the biopsy .. and I was like is that all? I have been through worse you know? We chuckled at that … it’s wierd how some things just don’t seem so bad anymore.

Well hopefully my biopsy will get scheduled today. I’d like to get this over as soon as possible. I have a party to go to on October 2nd and I do not want to miss it. My friends Chris & Edna are hosting it and they usually get pretty crazy.

I will be sure to update this after the biopsy. I won’t get the results until October 12th though.

Update: My biopsy is schedule for 9/30 at 11:30am. I will post when I get home from it.