What's all of this business about?

This is my first blog post- chronicling my treatment for Hodgkin's Lymphoma.  Oh and Cat photos.  Probably a little bit of everything else as well (didn't you read the title?).

Back about a month and a half ago I went to my doctor for a swollen lymph node, and spent about 5 weeks getting inconclusive results on what it could be.  Fine needle aspirations, CT scans, right down to finally a lymph node biopsy 10/09/2012 which is the only way to tell if it was indeed a lymphoma.

So I was finally diagnosed on 10/15/2012 Monday late morning.  Which really strangely, was a relief, as I finally knew what was going on.

I meet with my cancer specialist, an oncologist, on 10/19/2012 Friday, where he laid out my prognosis and treatment plan:

I have Stage IIA Hodgkin's Lymphoma, which means I don't have any major symptoms; drenching night sweats a fever that won't go away, or loss of more than 10% of my body weight.  It's also in an early stage, and is highly treatable.  I'm lucky that I have a thorough Doctor, and a great hospital network at Swedish, so I was able to catch it very early on.  Hodgkin's is a pretty slow growing cancer, so a lot of people don't go to the doctor to get it checked out until they have severe symptoms, and the cancer is already wide spread.  Although many people who have it in an advance stage- are still highly treatable.  It's a sensitive cancer that reacts well to treatment.

My treatment is going to be 4 months (8 cycles, 1 cycle every 2 weeks) of chemotherapy, starting Nov 1st.  Specifically ABVD treatment.  Followed by a 2 week rest, and 4 weeks of radiation therapy.  Then it's a PET scan to see if any cancer remains, if there's none: remission!  And about 5 years of checkups, just to make sure it doesn't come back- and if there's no sign, I'm cured. The success rate is about 85-95%. With my age, good health, early detection- I'm on the high end of that scale, and the side effects of chemo should be more tolerable.

I'm a pretty "let's do this" A-type personality, so I'm pretty driven.  Compounded by a great hospital system, kick-ass insurance, a work place that is letting me take extended medical leave + securing my job while I'm away, and having a large network of the best friends anyone could ever have, and the most amazing girlfriend ever- I'm set.

One of the reasons for making this blog:  When I was diagnosed I scoured the internet for info, and found a TON of support forums, and many individual blogs chronicling their experiences with cancer- which helped me out quite a great deal.  So I'd like to put out my own into the pool as a resource, for those who need some help + info for when the get the bad news from their Doctor, and hopefully give them the same relief knowing what to expect.

Oh and Cats: