The diagnosis

We came home from our daughter's house just two days before the doctor appointment. This time both my husband and I went to see the oncologist. By now we were sure something was wrong, because I had noticed that I was more easily tired, but we were hoping for a benign easily treatable condition.

We waited for a long time to see Dr H. It was a Friday afternoon. The 4 o'clock appointment became 5 o'clock, then 5:30. Finally he arrived. He told us a lot of things that it was not, and kept referring to it as my disease. Finally I asked straight out, "Is this cancer?". The answer was yes. It was diagnosed, at least initially, as Lymphoplasmacytic Lymphoma, low grade or indolent (meaning slow growing and incurable).

He wanted me in chemotherapy immediately. My anaemia was getting worse, and treatment was essential. My hemoglobin had gone from 9.8 g/dl in mid August to 9.0 g/dl at the end of August. All indicators were that it would continue to fall and that I would soon be too fatigued to do much of anything.

His nurse came next. She was very nice and explained all of the options, how long I would be on Chemotherapy (1 day every 3 weeks for 6 cycles), which drugs I would get (CVP-R: Cyclophosphamide, Vincristine, Prednisone, & Rituxan), what I could expect in the way of side effects (yes, all my hair would fall out), and so on.