...tell them you're busy that day!
At Mayday Haematology I saw a nice Doc who talked me through some more tests I was gonna have. In retrospect I think she may've hinted to me quite heavily what it was looking like - being a specialist, and with the symptoms I was presenting by that point (tiredness, increasingly bad night-sweats, the aching pits, and some random itchiness), it must've been quite obvious what was going on, but she never actually said the 'C' word (or the 'HL' words) so I think I kinda subconciously ignored the subtext.
From then things moved on at pace - that appointment was on Tuesday 27th Jan - she booked me for a return appointment 2 weeks later that was gonna be my diagnosis, with various tests to come in between.
(As a side - I've gotta give props to the NHS - the amount of times I sat in waiting rooms listening to people complain about having to wait an hour or something, but the fact is - it's bloody free! And every single member of staff I've met has been polite, friendly, and professional. And when I needed tests in a hurry, I waited just a few days for tests that would normally take weeks to arrange and conduct. I just can't fault it)
The first of the tests came on the following Friday. I was expecting to have a needle biopsy on one of the lumps on my neck, but as it turned out they decided to just do a full biopsy the following Wednesday. Instead I had the bone-marrow biopsy. This was a delightful procedure that involved jamming a rather large needle into my hip bone, and kinda jiggleing and scraping it around to grab some bone marrow. When I met the nice lady Doc who was gonna do it, she used the classic phrase; "hopefully it won't be too excruciating!" - nice! As it turned out, it wasn't really too bad - certainly not pleasant, but coulda been worse. The best bit came when she did the whole thing, then said "oh dear... that's not going to be a big enough sample - we better go again". Awesome.
Next (other than more blood tests - surprised I've got any left!) came the full lymph biopsy the following Wednesday, along with a CT scan. Lex was good enough to come along with me for the whole day, which was cool since there was a whole lot of waiting around. The CT was quick and thoroughly unexciting. They injected me with some contrast stuff that gave an odd sensation of warmth all down my body, and a funny taste in my mouth, but it didn't last. Then you just go in and out of the big donut machine a couple of times and that's it. Took less than 10 minutes. Dull.
Next the long wait for the biopsy, which was gonna be under a general aneasthetic. It's the first time I'd had any surgery, but it's only a very simple one & I trust the Docs, so I wasn't too worried. Finally the time came - I had to put on my oh-so-attractive patient's gown, and was lead to my trolley and laid down. The aneasticians (I'm not even gonna pretend I can spell that), took me into their room, stuck in the canula (temporary little thing that lets them put in drips & whatnot), and injected the stuff, and boom - I was out like a light.
Woke up what seemed like 2 minutes later, a bit groggy, & gradually realised I was in the recovery ward. They'd decided to go for one of my under-arm lymphs (for those who don't know - I didn't - there's, like, 50, in each place - so 1 going really doesn't affect anything). I quickly realised my (left) pit was aching like a mofo. Asked for painkillers once someone realised I was awake, but was told I couldn't have any 'til I was moved to the day surgery ward. That happened some amount of time later (could've been 10mins or an hour, I really couldn't say), but once I was there a nice nurse quickly gave me tea and biscuits (I'd had nothing to eat or drink all day, and by this point it was early evening), and, more importantly, a badass little painkiller that sorted me right out. A little while after that Lex was alowed to come in and wait with me, and eventually they gave me a box of good painkillers (but not as good as the nurse's ones!), and I was discharged.
So then it was just another week's wait for the results.
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