Diagnosis

Today I’m going to backtrack a bit and talk about how everything came to a head.

Back in very early 2008, I noticed two small red bumps (size of a pencil eraser) on my right leg, one by my ankle and one on the back of my calf. At the time this didn’t seem strange or odd but in the coming months that would change drastically. With each passing week, these bumps got larger, then swollen, and painful. By late March, I was having trouble walking and both bumps were now the size of racquetballs. Time to see a doctor.

My primary care physician put me a course of antibiotics in hopes this was a staph infection of some nature but after seven days there were no changes. I was then referred to a general surgeon, who first performed two series of ultrasounds to rule out possible blood clots. As these tests came back negative, the next step was the dreaded biopsy.

Two small biopsies were taken (one from each bump) and within 10 days time I received a phone call. “Mr. Richmond, I am terribly sorry to give this news, but the biopsies show you have a subcutaneous B-cell Lymphoma.”

Hold the frickin’ phone! I’m at work, not a care in the world, and to the most part completely ignorant to the wide world of cancer. The doctor might as well been speaking Chinese because I had no clue what just happened until he said, “I can refer you to the North Shore Cancer Center if you’d like?” OK, there is was in plain English…”Cancer”. My whole world as I knew it collapsed.

First I called my wife (soon to be ex now). Then I called my parents and my brother. I told a few close co-workers, instructed my boss I’d be leaving for the day and then somehow managed to drive 50 miles home with tears streaming, anger brooding, and hope dwindling. My main focus was my son Gabe and what time did I have left.

I decided if I was going to have cancer and fight the good fight, I might as well be seen by the best oncologists in New England. I immediately called the Dana Farber Cancer Institute, had a second larger biopsy taken from my calf (to get the classification of Lymphoma, there are over 85 kinds of non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma), and made an appointment with Dr. Arnold Freedman. He is an amazing oncologist, who focuses on Lymphomas. He and fellow Dr. Alfred Lee would oversee the next six months of my chemotherapy treatment.

I’ll get more into that shortly. I need a break. Thanks for reading.

~Cheers