Health Update for Family and Friends
Hi there
On December 9,2024 I played Chambers Bay with Brad Cox one of my good golf friends. He noticed, as did I, that I was particularly short of breath. The next day, I mentioned it to my primary care physician thinking she would order some pulmonary function tests or something similar. Instead, she had me go to the emergency room to rule out a pulmonary embolus. As part of the evaluation, the ER did a CT x-ray, that to everyone's surprise showed a 8 x 10 cm retroperitoneal mass.[underneath my heart, surrounding the aorta, and near my kidneys]. The mass had a particular fuzzy/mushy appearance on x-ray that made it very suspicious for a lymphoma.
X-ray appearance is one thing but it is not definitive. There needs to be a tissue diagnosis after either a biopsy or an excision. On December 19, at Overlake, interventional radiology did a biopsy through my back under conscious sedation. They removed tissue from the mass that was submitted to pathology for diagnosis. Subsequently the pathology department at Overlake submitted the tissue to the University of Washington for consultation. On December 27, that consultative opinion came back as essentially normal lymphatic tissue. However, the pathologist noted that there was only overall a rather small amount of tissue. Basically, pathology wanted more tissue to examine. Currently waiting for word from the oncologist as to how to proceed. I suspect she will want to surgically excise the mass in the near future.
While Overlake has been wonderful in terms of my medical care to date, both Diane and I favor the Fred Hutch Cancer Center at the University as our preferred oncology care center. This goes back to our roots at UW medicine. However, it is never easy to connect with the university in terms of arranging medical care. Lately, through Michael, my Strength Coach at the weightlifting gym, I've been learning how to use AI. Yesterday I used AI to search the Fred Hutch for faculty physicians in the hematology/lymphoma division. Fred Hutch puts on an annual review course for oncologists and AI was able to provide me with the list of lectures. Last year three physicians gave lymphoma lectures. Went to the Fred Hutch website and I looked up those three physicians and one of them had listed her email contact. I emailed her and got almost an immediate response and in this way I'm now connected with Fred Hutch with an appointment with Dr..Christina Poh on January 9th. I corresponded with her today : she wants to do a PET scan which will be on January 8th. Maybe I will need an excision biopsy of the mass eventually.
There have been associated medical problems going on for the last few months as well. These are probably related to the probable lymphoma. I have a diffuse skin condition with a lot of itching that is, in retrospect, probably due to various cytokines secreted by the lymphoma. Once again, AI was amazing when I asked it about lymphoma and skin conditions. Also, I was back in the ER at Overlake once again early in the morning on December 21 to rule out a blood clot in my lower leg. Ultrasound did reveal a blood clot, but it was in the Soleus muscle and not a classic deep vein thrombosis. The ER physician put me on injectable Lovenox [a blood thinner] ,twice a day, which certainly seemed to me to be excessively aggressive treatment. Yesterday I saw the vascular surgeon at Overlake who agreed. For now, I'll be on an oral antithrombotic medication until all this oncology stuff is straightened out
