**FORGIVE ME--THIS IS LONG** but I wanted the ones who want to know everything that has happened thus far. How this all started: Sometime last year probably around summer or a little before I had started getting an all over body itch. Nothing really could stop the itching. I just itched...all....the...time. Finally in November it went from your regular I itch all the time to OMG my arms are burning and itching. There was no rash or anything else. Just a burning itch on arms, legs, back, face, neck, etc. I suffered through that days at a time then it was just regular itching again. However, Dec 17 I couldnt take it any longer. The burning itch on arms and neck were back and I finally went to the doctor. The doctor figured the same as I did, that I was probably just allergic to something. He prescribed me a night time allergy medicine and told me to start taking Zyrtec and if the itch was still there in two months to come back. He also did blood work on me. When it came back he said my white blood cell count was slightly elevated at 11.5. (Normal is 10-11). He said it could be due to the itching and wed see if it was lower when I came back. ..Well, I made it a month before I was back because I wasnt getting any sleep because I constantly itched. During this time I had been researching online to see what could cause these symptoms. I did see Lymphoma on the list and told my best friend Christina that I hoped it wouldnt be something like that. I started thinking I was allergic to my new dog because it did seem to get worse once she got here and she is constantly crawling on me. The itching was mainly on arms and legs and these are definitely the places the dog loves to lay on lol. This time the doctor prescribed me Prednisone and said that it would stop the itching, but if after I stopped taking the itching came back, then we would do some other tests to figure out why. The prednisone was a God send! I barely itched at all. It was amazing not having to scratch all the time and I could finally get some sleep. He did run a full comprehensive blood panel on me and when results got back my white blood cell count was 11.6. .1 more than last time--so he set up an appointment at the allergy doctor. I went to allergy doctor two weeks later and it was found that I was allergic to grass, trees, weeds, pollen, dustmites, cats, and borderline on dog. I was given choices as to what kind of treatment that I wanted and I said Id get back to him since I wasnt sure if I wanted to do the allergy shots because that meant driving to Concord twice a week. I had gotten strep throat about two weeks before the allergy doctor appointment and had been sick during that time. Well, Saturday after the allergy appointment, I woke up with the worst neck pain ever. I figured I had just slept on it wrong and didnt think much else about it until later when I looked in mirror. I could see on the left side that it was swollen. I felt it, and I could feel a swollen lymph node. But I could SEE it was clearly much larger on left side. I was freaked out and send a message to a doctor asking what could cause that. She told me if it still hurt in morning to come in their office because I might have pulled a muscle or it might be more serious. Next day, I went to the doctor and Dr. Barrier came in and asked what the problem was and I told him. He could also physically see just by looking at my neck that it was swollen. He called in Dr. Kribbs to come check it out too. They are both there feeling around my neck and I am crying at this point. Not because it hurt so much (which it did) but because now I have two doctors in the room feeling around on my neck which made me think this is serious. They wondered if possibly I had an abscess in my neck from the strep I had a few weeks ago. They drew my blood and it came back with a white blood cell count of 16. They sent me off with two antibiotics and was told to call first thing in morning to let Dr Barrier know if my neck still hurt and was it any bigger. I called him and said yes it was bigger and it definitely still hurt. He made me an appointment that day for a CT scan and an appointment at the Ear nose throat doctor. I went for CT scan and then later went to ENT so he could view the CT scan. He looked at the scan for a while shaking his head and then used the telescope to look down my nose to my throat. After he did that, I will never forget these words ever....Im not going to lie to you or beat around the bush. I think its Lymphoma. Hodgkins. I completely broke down. My life flashed before my eyes...thinking of all the things I want to do in life and want to experience some day. I thought that I am only 29! I was completely devastated. Doctor wanted to do a needle biopsy. We went in the other room and he tried to get something out of the lymph node but really wasnt able to get much. By the third needle he put in my neck I was feeling very nauseous. As soon as he finished, I felt faint and told him. The nurse leaned my chair back and was fanning me off. Then I felt like I was going to puke and wanted to sit up. As soon as I did, I threw up in the trashcan. I am sure that it was 1) from the pain of the needle and 2) the STRESS!!! I left there and was told results would be a few days. THE WAIT!!!! OMG excruciating. I literally could not eat for days. I lost 8 lbs in a few days because I just couldnt eat anything other than 2 crackers at a time. I slept so much because I was so stressed and cried so much I was just emotionally drained. The biopsy finally came back but was inconclusive due to the small sample. They scheduled an open neck biopsy for the next day (Thur). Went in Thur and was given something to relax me because I was still pretty well shaken up and I had never had any kind of surgery before. I remember Dr. Whitaker coming in to room and then he left to prep the room. The nurse wheeled my down hallway on stretcher and apparently gave me the sedative because I dont remember a thing after that LOL Dr Whitaker took a huge chunk out of the lymph node for testing but couldnt remove it because it was not only in my neck but also my chest and the size of a fist was wrapped around my windpipe. He did say that I will probably have a dip in my neck later on because of the size he took out (but I was ok with that). Again, results take a while. A long while. However during this time I felt stronger and wasnt crying as much. I know God was helping me. I kind of came to peace that I might have Hodgkins. I was told by all the doctors and nurses that if you were to get cancer in my age range, this is the one you want. It is one of the most curable cancers. I still thought I dont want any kind of cancer but I knew it was too late for that lol. ((Well I am going to quit here for a while--Sorry for the length. I will finish the rest when I get back on!)
Posted on: Fri, 07 Mar 2014 04:36:27 +0000
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