Sept 12, 2009- My wife and I had joined up with a running group this year to meet other runners and in my wife's case to have a back-up plan in case I got injured. We meet every Saturday morning at 6:00am at Freestone park, get some advice and then head off for runs of various lengths (5 mi, 6 mi, etc). Well this fine Saturday morning the marathon runners were going out for 7 miles, after we had a nice discussion about nutrition and running. I being a slow runner ended up bringing in the rear this day, but I was able to run most all of the 7 miles and felt really good. After the run while taking a shower I noticed a small lump just above my right leg that was sore to the touch. Thinking I had pulled something in my hip flexor, I iced the spot, and then when with my son to the "Y" to lift weights.
Sept 16th, 2009 - the lump in the abdomen is not going away, and in fact I can feel it pull when I ran on Monday night and also on Tuesday morning. I am now realizing I probably have a hernia (after 5 year of running?), I make plans to call the doctor on Friday as Thursday I am taking a day trip up to the rim. I start to run a fever that night, and decide I will call the doctor as soon as I am back from the rim, maybe I can see him late afternoon on Thursday. That night I have my first bout of night sweats. Now I have sweated during the night living in Arizona, but this is soak the pillow, feel like you are sleeping in a water bed with a leak, kind of sweats (something I am very familiar with since I did have a water bed and cats in my early marriage and woke up many times drenched because the cats punchered the bed - always on my side.)
Sept 18th, 2009 - I get in to see my doctor at 9:15am Friday morning, his office is closed on Thursday afternoons so this is the earliest I could get in here. He looks at my lump, does the whole poking around - the turn your head and cough - test and says, yes I think it's a hernia. I will set you up with a surgeon. I leave his office and head to the surgeon's office and am seen right away. He does his tests (the turn and cough lines) and says it looks like a hernia, we can wait a bit - how is Monday? I think well if we do it Saturday, my wife will not need to miss work, I will have the weekend to recover - I suggest this, he agrees and we are set to have hernia surgery on Saturday Sept 19th. I then run to the hospital, get blood drawn and an EKG test, do all of my pre-op calls. Call family and wait for Saturday morning to arrive.
Sept 19th, 2009 - hernia surgery - can't tell you allot about it, as I thankfully slept through it. Surgeon tells my wife that in doing the surgery there are some enlarged lymph nodes that he took out that did not look right. I wake up having to pee, but am unable to stop shivering from the anaesthetic, I cannot relax enough to go. I finally dribble a little and say, let's go home. We continue to have problems and end up back in the ER at 6:30 that night where I meet my new friend "the Catheter". We become quite close, he stays with me where ever I go (pun intended.) I find out that I had about 1.7 liters of full bladder, which is not a record, but is my personal best. I return home with my new found friend and continue with the night sweats.
Sept 23rd, 2009 - Surgeon's Office, we arrive expecting to meet with the physician's assistant to have my friend "Mr. Catheter" removed, but are instead greeted by the surgeon. He checks my hernia site, still too much swelling, but looking good. Takes out my friend, an altogether strange experience and tells me to have a seat. He then tells us that something is wrong with the lymph nodes that were around the hernia site, he is not sure, but they could be cancerous and they are sending them out for a second opinion. I may or may not have some form of Lymphoma. He will know for sure in a week. I tell him of my fever that comes on in the late day and the night sweats. He tells me to keep getting up and walking, but he doesn't think this is from the surgery. Take it easy and he will get back to us.
Oct 1st, 2009 - After a little over a week, I receive a call from my surgeon. It is definitely Lymphoma, do I have an oncologist? No I tell him, no one in my immediate family has ever had need of one. He can recommend someone to me, I tell him to send me to whoever he would go to, or send his family to see. He tells me that his office will set up an appointment for me and call me later in the week. This is Thursday at 1:30pm, there is not much week left. I call my wife with the update, we agree to meet and call our boys and parents.
Oct 2nd, 2009 - 9:30am, I receive a call from the surgeon's assistant, Misty. She tells me I am meeting with my oncologist at 2:00pm that afternoon, please get there a half hour early to fill out paperwork. I call my wife, let her know what is going on and we meet and get there on time. After a wait, we meet with our oncologist who lets us know I have a rare form of lymphoma, an Anaplastic Large Cell Lymphoma, that is very aggressive, but is also very treatable. We will start chemotherapy the following Thursday, after using Monday to Wednesday to get preliminary and baseline tests and blood work done. We meet with the nurses who will be doing our chemotherapy - they give us plenty of reading material to go over, they pull out a calender that will record our next couple of months. Chemo every three weeks, drugs to take on what days, lab visits to do before and after treatment, it is overwhelming, but it is written down so we have a map of how our lives will be for the next two months. In a little under two weeks I have gone from hernia surgery, to cancer patient. In a little over three weeks I have gone from marathon training, to not being sure what I will be able to do. . .
My wife was right to join the running club, she continues to train for the marathon, and I intend to train for the half. If I can run it, she is going to drop down and run it with me. This will be the fifth time I have ran the PF Cheng's marathon (3) or half marathon (1), but it will be the first time I do this as a cancer survivor. . . you are never ready to hear this news. I share this to let you know how quickly life changes. What is important today, may not be so important tomorrow. Life is short, don't waste it. Trust in God and lace up the shoes, the fight is not easy. . .but then neither is running.
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