Judg3's Journal: I'm 28, and I have cancer

Last weekend I and my beautiful girlfriend were going to take a nice romantic overnight trip to Duluth,MN and stay in a bed and breakfast. We were going to go shopping, eat out, take a lot of pictures, just be romantic. On Sunday, we were heading back down to Minneapolis to see Moby.

Sounded like a wonderful weekend, didn't it? I thought so to.

So I was really tired on friday, decided to just call in and sleeeeeeeep and get caught up, didn't want to be worn out for the weekend, ya know?
So, towards the end of Friday night, my shoulders felt a little sore, thought it was weird but ignored it. Went to sleep.

Woke up saturday with horrible pain in my chest, everytime I'd breath needles of pain would go rippling throughout my upper body. I thought, again, maybe I slept on it wrong and I'll just see if it gets better.

So, pack up the car and go pick her up - she sees I'm in pain and decided to drive - no argument here. We had to make a quick stop to the Museum of Internation Art to see an exhibit with her class. We wait in line, I'm not talking, face is sweaty, it's starting to hurt even more... Exhibit starts, I go maybe about 5 minutes into when I get nauseous and just have to sit down, so I tell her to carry on and I'll just rest.

So, for the next half hour or so, it just kept getting worse, no matter how I sat or laid or moved my body, the pain wasn't subsiding.

Finally, she comes from the exhibit and sees that I can ahrdly walk I'm in so much pain - she grabs the car, and we get rushed to the nearby HCMC.

They ask me whats wrong, take my info, my vitals, and put me in a room. More and more doctors come in to check on me. Xrays, ekgs, ultrasounds, the whole works.

I've been waiting there a good 5-6 hours in triage, the whole time thinking 'damn it, i must have gotten pneumonia, i need to take better care of myself". And then it happened...

3 doctors come into the room, all the others leave. The one grabs my hand, looks my in the eye and says "It's not pneumonia, there's a tumor in your chest, and we need to find out what it is".

Many many hours later I've been examined more and more. Finally, they decide they need to do a biopsy. So they put me under, make a 4 inch incision above my heart and extract some of the badness.

Then I go home.

I receive a call with what I have, it's called "B-Cell mediasternal non-hodgkins lymphoma". Cancer.
It only took several months for it to get to the size it is, and if left unchecked, I would be dead in another 2-3 months.

But hey, I don't go down that easy!

So today I had a bone marrow biopsy to make sure the cancer didn't spread there. Tomorrow I have an abdominal/pelvic CT scan to make sure it hasn't gotten that big. Then Thursday, I start chemo - first a day of antibodies injected into my system to prepare for the real treatment, then the next day the real chemicals are injected. I don't remember all the names, but I do recall the doctor saying that the 1 IV drip alone will be over 1500 for the drug alone.... So far, in less then 2 weeks, I've spend 45,000$ in medical bills. $45,000... thats insane.

Anyway, after that treatment, I take steroids for the next 5 days - then wait a couple of weeks and I do it all over again.

So weird to be on top of the world one second, the next you have cancer... life is strange

Wow.

[dexterpexter]

Wow. I am so very, very sorry. I simply couldn't imagine.

Thank-you for posting this here on Slashdot. I must say that you put some things in prospective for me tonight. I am very sorry that this had to happen to you. Even though I am just a /. stranger, I certainly wish you the best possible outcome.

oh my gods

[SolemnDragon]

Wow.

Oh, my.

Let me just put my prayers in, right here, and say that i certainly hope for the best for you. I know that I haven't really posted in your journals before, but this is too important to be quiet about- i will add you to my prayers list, and i'm very glad that you caught it as soon as you did. I know that it isn't as soon as it might have been, but i'm glad that it was caught before it was worse.

I just can't think of anything more valuable to say than that you deserve to be well, and that if th

Don't let the bugger get you down!

[MonTemplar]

Man, that sucks. I know two of my uncles on my mum's side have had run-ins with cancer - thankfully, both were eventually given the all-clear after lengthy treatment. But my grandmother (on my dad's side) was too far gone by the time the doctors found out what was wrong with her, alas.

Is there a history of cancer in your family, perhaps?

Good luck with the treatment. Keep us posted!

-MT,