Prepped for a couple days for a routine colonoscopy this morning at 7:30 a.m. By 9:30, my life had changed and would change again and again in the next week. The prep for this procedure, as everyone knows who has had one, is worse than the procedure itself. My exam was expected–by me–to be routine since it was scheduled almost at the max interval between these tests which is 5 years, if you are over 60, and since this was maybe my third one since 60. Mine was scheduled after 4 years because of several polyps excised in the prior exam. Good thinking doc!
In the groggy aftermath of the wake up the doctor informed me that he had located a mass in the cecum on the ileocecal valve. This valve prevents backwash from the large intestine (i.e., feces) into the small intestine. The cecum is the pouch between the large and small intestines, and is also home to the appendix. The mass was 5 cm or a little less than 2 inches. He cut a strip from it for assay purposes. He also didn’t like a sort of bumpy texture he saw in the rest of the colon. Those initial assays came back with lymphoma written all over them.
We got together that afternoon for a discussion in which the local pathologist confirmed his findings: non Hodgkins lymphoma (NHL). I quickly got on the web to confirm several points in the discussion. NHL seems to be of two general kinds: aggressive (high grade) or indolent (low grade). Each has pluses and minuses. The former can apparently be attacked successfully and gotten rid of totally. But the attack must be swift and sure because left unchecked it is quickly fatal. The latter can be suppressed and lived with, with less intensive treatment but is often not easily totally eradicated, being more of a chronic nature. Each, they said, was survivable. There are many, many kinds of NHL.
I felt pretty good. We were going to get this thing.
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