keith’s new self

[See my post hodgkin’s lymphoma - a journey begins for context.]

In the hospital I got the standard bed and gown, and nurses wasted no time hooking me up to a saline drip and taking blood samples. I was visited by several different doctors, often accompanied by residents who were there to learn from the masters. Dr. Evans came by: “You have a mass the size of a pineapple in your chest”. I didn’t ask “Organic pineapple or chemically grown? There’s a big difference!”. The biopsy operation was scheduled for the next day. I was to not eat or drink anything (even water) as of midnight that night - my only food was a delicious saline/dextrose solution IV.

The biopsy operation was interesting - it was under local anesthetic with sedation as this was safer than general anesthetic (being fully unconscious). It started with a oxygen mask that had a mix of some kind of sedative. I remember telling the anesthesiologist that it wasn’t working, and he said that it was just a “cocktail”, and that the main course was coming soon. They had to insert “large” IVs into arteries in my arm and foot, so that they could quickly administer drugs if necessary. I was fully conscious for them sticking in these large needles, and it hurt like hell. I remember yelling “Jesus Christ that hurts!” as one of the anesthesiologists stuck me in my wrist. I remember hearing one of them shout “He’s reacting!” - I get the feeling they thought I was more sedated / anesthetized than I actually was. I also felt a searing slicing pain in my chest - possibly the surgeon cutting in but I’m not sure. In any case - it was more pain than I expected, and I still have some lingering emotion from it that I’m working on releasing.

In post-op I started coming around, and at some point I noticed an intense pain around my shoulder blade that was so painful it had tears coming up. The nurse gave me a shot of something in the IV which quickly took that away. I heard later that this pain was not uncommon and would fade away over the next couple days, which it did.

After a couple days of recuperation I got my initial diagnosis of Hodgkin’s lymphoma. They didn’t know what stage the cancer was at - that requires more testing. I was to see an oncologist the following week and start treatment. A couple days after that I left the hospital, gladly going home to a comfortable bed and real food.

tags: cancer, hodgkin’s lymphoma, lymphoma

posted: 9:36 am