History

HISTORY of Vern's Lymphoma in his neck

Symptoms .. Actually this really started some time in 1997 because when I would go to the dentist and try to put my head into the chairs headrest I could not reach back to it.
..
I was also becoming tied more easily than I was use to.
..

I also noticed I had trouble turning my head around to view traffic when back the car.
..
In August of 98, while walking on my treadmill
one morning, I became short of breath real quick and I started to have trouble breathing.
..
..
..
..
..
..

Diagnosis .. Mentioning this to my Group Health doctor, Dr.Eaton said it was probably arthritis in my very thick neck.
..
..
I have sleep apnea so I checked with my respiratory doctor, Dr.Sandblom, had my "CPAP" machine checked. It was O.K.
..
Dr. Eaton still said it was probably arthritis in my very thick neck.
..
I called my primary care office. Dr. Eaton was not in and his partner, Dr. Roper took me in right away, that day. After having an x-ray he
had scans made of my neck and then made me an appointment with a neck specialist, Dr. Ramona. He had me on the table in a couple of days, taking a biopsy. The report showed me having a "Malegnant Lymphoma" tumor on the left side of my troat.

.. Click here to see a diagram of my neck What is Lymphoma?

After my diagnosis I was given a appointment at Central Group Health in Seattle with Dr. Callehan of the "Oncology Dept." where I had more scans made of my whole body.
... This is where I asked for a couple copies of the scan films. They gave me two films, cuts in my heart-lung area. I put them on this web site. See : HEART LUNGS ... Through September and October I had Chemotherapy where through an IV three liquid chemicals were administered to me, "Doxorubicin", "Vincristine", and "Cyclophosphamide". For five days after that I had to take "Prednisone" pills.

I had relieve in my throat the very first day, September 4, 1998. It felt great.

This treatment was repeated for a total treatment of three times with two week rests in between. I also had several blood tests and body scans again.

I did loose hair on top of my head, parts of face and another place.

I also had another problem: On friday, Oct. 2nd, my jaw locked to a point I could only open it 3/4 of an inch. After a couple of appointments with my primary care doctor I started treatment with Dr. Truelove at the UWMC hospital where he has been working to get my jaw back in place. He said this happened because the quick change of tensions in jaw, it made it easy for my jaw to jump out of place, especially because I have such a bad over-bite.

In December I had radiation on the affected area of my neck to make sure all of the bad tissue was gone, in hopes that it will not return. This problem is called "non-Hodgkin's lymphoma" (NHL). This radiation was administered for 20 days, completing on 21, Dec. The Group Health Radiation Group with Dr. DEWette, were just great. See: RADIATION REPORT.

The affects of radiation were terrible, but I delt with it. I could not eat or drink all through the holidays. I had trouble sleeping because sinus fluids kept hanging up in my throat. If I had to sneeze, the pain was un-real. Dr. Truelove says they are working on something to help the healing of this throat condition. My throat was actually raw, exposing the nerves to anything that came by.