More Adventures in ABVD: Drumroll Please...

Background

I'm 43 years old and live in a suburb of Boston, Massachusetts.

After decades of having a stuffy nose and breathing through my mouth I decided to have surgery to correct the blockages in my airway. The procedure included fixing a deviated septum, cauterizing enlarged turbinates and removing huge adenoids. The surgery was successful (and painless) and my breathing improved dramatically once the splints were removed from my nose a week later. My care at Melrose-Wakefield Hospital was top notch and the staff was kind and professional. I felt better than I had in ten years.

Two days later I received a call from the office of my ENT. I was told that the biopsy of the adenoid tissue that was removed was inconclusive and the doctor wanted to see me that day. I learned that two hospitals had reviewed my biopsy and thought I might have Hodgkin's lymphoma. I would have to wait a week to have more sophisticated tests performed at Massachusetts General Hospital. Boy was that a long week!

On November 16, 2007, the diagnosis was confirmed. I had cancer. I was told that it was a highly curable form of cancer and that a CT scan suggested that it may have been caught in a very early stage. A PET scan confirmed that it was located in a single area of my body. Since I had no symptoms I was diagnosed with stage 1A Classical Hodgkin's lymphoma, a cancer that affects only about 8,000 people per year in the United States.

Friday, June 20, 2008

Drumroll Please...

I had my adenoid tissue biopisied a week ago on Thursday and I got the results back today. The tissue was benign. Yay!!! It's a big relief and suggests that I am in remission. I'll still get the rest of my body scanned in July.

The biopsy itself went very smoothly. The recovery was fast and I didn't have any bleeding. The nurses were amazed I was up and talking so soon after surgery. The people at Mass Eye and Ear were great and as hard as this is to believe, they even made a good plate of spaghetti and meatballs.