Oncologist visit #1

“Cautious optimism” are the words of the day.

We had our first visit with Dr. Nanda, the gravelly voiced Indian oncologist. Unlike High Desert Primary Care, he did not immediately drop the file as if it were on fire and say “Great Vishnu, it’s lymphoma!” He said that when one sees swollen lymph nodes on a chest x-ray and CT scan, the go-to diagnosis is lymphoma, simply because it’s a fatal and progressive disease.

HOWEVER, I’m missing symptoms I should have if I have lymphoma (especially night sweats, which I have not had now that the fever is gone) and I have symptoms (the internal bleeding in the legs, which has apparently now migrated to my right wrist, oh joy) that are not consistent with lymphoma. The next step is the same whether he believed it was lymphoma or not, which is to schedule an appointment with a chest surgeon (being taken care of by HDPC as we speak). I’ll meet with him, and we’ll schedule a biopsy. There will likely be a needle inserted behind my solar plexus and tissue taken from one of the swollen lymph glands. (He could take bone marrow at this time, but it would only show if the lymphoma had spread, not what flavor it was, so that comes later, once its presence is confirmed.) I expect to meet with the surgeon Tuesday or Wednesday and would not be surprised if I had the biopsy surgery done by Friday.

So, if it’s not lymphoma (although it probably is), what is it? Dr. Nanda thinks there’s a chance it could just be a nasty infection, since my symptoms responded so well to antibiotics. He tossed out lupus and HIV again (they love those diseases) until I told him I’d been cleared of those. Then he said it might be rheumatoid arthritis with subtle rheumatoid factors in my blood.

If it is lymphoma, at my age, it’s probably Hodgkin’s Disease, he said, which has a much higher survival rate (75 percent overall, probably even higher for someone my age). So it all comes down to the biopsy.

So the great medical adventure continues. Following EKG and CAT scan, I’ve now been molested by a little old Indian man. It’s a toss-up as to whether this is better or worse than the barium smoothies.

Will let you know more when I know more.

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