Diagnostics - continued II

May 1

So this week I had a surgical follow up and spent some time at NIH. Follow up was fine. No news is good news there. Suburban had trouble with the slides and sent samples over to NIH for a more “expert” pathology. While waiting for those results I spent half a day at the NIH Lymphoma clinic. Got the workup, blood tests and spoke with their leading Lymphoma research Dr. He said it’s either Hodgkins or, well, not. Don’t remember the specific name of the alternative Lymphoma type. If it’s Hodgkins he’s set me up with a referral to Washington Hospital Center, a colleague of his he highly recommends. If it is NOT Hodgkins, they have protocols that fit and can treat me in Bethesda. He strongly suspects that it IS Hodgkins. We expected the final pathology results today.


Well, got the call today. The pathology results are inconclusive. They need to go back in to get a better (larger) sample. Spoke with the coordinating RN tonight. She was starting to get things lined up. Monday will be a virtual bronchoscopy, which is a very high resolution CT; and a pulmonary function test. Wednesday will be a consult with the Thoracic surgeon from the NIH lymphoma center. Essentially, they are taking the diagnostic responsibility on full. They are gathering as much info as possible before the next surgery, which I believe will be video camera aided.


So, the news I thought I’d have today from the biopsy did not materialize. The diagnostic process has been reset to Monday morning.