Mr. Tom, you have cancer

August 11, 2017 at about 4PM will forever be remembered as the date in which I received the dreaded, "You have cancer," phone call from my surgeon.  Long story short, I had a small mass removed from the back of my neck.  Pathology came back with a diagnosis - Diffuse large, B-Cell lymphoma (DLBCL), a form of non-Hodgkins lymphoma.  Happy Friday!  Welcome to the weekend!

The days and weeks that followed were full of many miracles.  I will list a few:

• My insurance helped get me into a place that does a PET scan close to home, even though they are out of network and I got to pay in-network prices.
• My cancer staged out at stage 1.  Typical DLBCL cancer patients are at stage 3 or 4 when diagnosed.  That is a HUGE miracle.
• I only had to have three rounds of chemotherapy (all now completed)
• I was able to continue to work while on chemo, although my brain was a little foggy as time went on
• All my blood work came back nearly normal while on chemo
• My prognosis is good.  My oncologist said that I have about a 90% chance of my lymphoma going away and never coming back.

I feel very blessed.  I am bumbled by His blessings.  I acknowledge that God knows us individually and He is the one that blessed me.  There are too many miracles for me to not acknowledge what He has done for me.  

So, what is next?  20 days of radiation.  Since the lymphoma was found on the back of my neck, the radiation doctor can use electrons (which dissipate in about 5cm of tissue) instead of photons (aka X-rays and which go through your tissue).  This will minimize the side effects of radiation.  This is yet  another small, yet mighty miracle.  It makes me want to yell at the top of my lungs that God is great and He is also good!