But recently I’ve started to have very little saliva most of the time. This had been accompanied by the also-not-mouthwatering red dots I was getting on my feet and legs, and the recurring strong pain I would get in my left ankle.

Last week I called my normal doctor and got an appointment for Thursday. On Wednesday I had my normal post-treatment 3-month blood tests. Normally I just an email notification when the results are available. I got a phone call instead. It was from the on-call Urgent Care doctor.

He’d seen my blood test results and said that I needed to hurry to an urgent care clinic to get a platelet transfusion. And to not get cut along the way. Apparently platelet counts are supposed to be at least ~120k per mm3 of blood. Mine were 5k.

That night I had a transfusion. The next day my normal doctor appointment was overridden by Dr Oncologist, who needed to perform a bone marrow biopsy. Then on Friday I got more blood. I was given Saturday off, went in Sunday for more tests, and now on Monday I am back getting more platelets.

Something is causing my blood to be real deficient, but we don’t have any data on what it is just yet. Hopefully we’ll have those bone marrow results soon!

He says the evidence is pointing strongly toward lymphoplasmacytic lymphoma. It’s not an aggressive cancer, which is nice. But that very trait also makes it recurrent. You can treat it, most of it will go away, but it will eventually come back again and again.

It sounds like the evidence isn’t totally conclusive yet, though. He’d like to get a tissue sample from an affected lymph node, and so far the only ones we know of are in my abdomen. We’re going to do a PET scan to see if we can find any more accessible ones to remove and dissect. That PET scan isn’t until the beginning of July.

This is starting to take a long time!

After looking at everything for a little while, he offered his current 80% hunch: Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. The other 20% side of the hunch goes to some sort of currently undetected infection.

He described Hodgkin’s as being quite curable, usually after weeks or months of chemotherapy and sometimes radiation. But before doing anything like that, we first need to find out if the hunch is correct.

The prime way to find out if it’s lymphoma is to biopsy lymph nodes and bone marrow. The bone marrow is no trouble, as hip bones are nice and accessible. If he doesn’t find any cancer in the bone marrow, the next step would be to biopsy one of those abdominal lymph nodes. This gets problematic; my spleen is massive, and is in the way.

He might have to remove it.

First things first, I headed to the lab and have them perform an entire page full of blood tests. Then, in preparation for the possible removal of my spleen, I got some vaccinations for infections that can hit the spleenless hard.

Tomorrow the doctor will be in during his lunch hour to give me a bone marrow biopsy. I can hardly wait!

On Sunday things changed.

I developed a pain in the left side of my abdomen when I took deep breaths, leaned in certain directions, or did anything that flexed my abs. In fact, anything that pushed my stomach forward caused pain; this included laying down to go to bed.

I spent the next few nights sleeping sitting up. Not so comfortable.

On the advice of Lauren, a friend who also happens to be an EMT, we decided to take me to the ER at Northwest Hospital to expedite the CAT scan. If there was something that needed immediate fixing, we’d really like to know!

After some more blood tests and a CAT scan we were told that there was not an immediate need to operate. However, the diagnosis noted three things:

1. Massive Splenomegaly (24cm, when 10cm is normal)
2. Intra-Abdominal Lymphadenopathy (abnormal lymph nodes in abdomen)
3. Suspicion of Lymphoma

That third one was a big shock. After the Urgent Care visit I’d been pretty convinced that the iron deficiency was making me anemic, and the anemia was making my spleen start to overfunction.

As soon as I got home I called to move that Hematologist/Oncologist appointment up to Monday.

It did not.

Today I got a massage, and when the masseuse pressed down on my back I could feel something in my abdomen complaining.

I went to the Urgent Care at Group Health Cooperative in Seattle. Lots and lots of tests ensued, including (but not limited to) blood, ultrasound, and x-ray. Five hours later I was discharged with instructions that my spleen is too big and I have an iron deficiency anemia.

On the way out we stop at the pharmacy and pick up some prescribed iron supplements. Also, as per doctor’s orders, I scheduled a CAT scan and an appointment with a Hematology/Oncology specialist for the 17th and the 22nd, respectively.

We arrived not knowing what was causing the pain, and we got answers for that. But we also had new questions; why was my spleen enlarged? Will the iron supplements be enough to shrink it?