The "News"

It started simply as a sore throat in late January.  Then my glands (which was actually two lymphs nodes) enlarged within two weeks and thought my body was having a hard time fighting an infection.  Back in October I had a knee operation to clean up a serious Staph infection that went septic; had over 21 days of antibiotics via PICC Line whereas my immune system was surely compromised.  So week three of sore throat visit my family doctor and looks in my throat and gives me ("more") antibiotics which the cancer laughs at.  Little did I know my doctor talked to my wife as she was concerned that I had leukemia or something else; you know I was wondering why my wife was so nice to me (honey your always nice to me!).  Back to story; so I get sent to ENT specialist and before you can say "one mississippi" he tells me I have cancer, but not 100% (need the biopsy).  He just didn't want to completely depress me and/or provide some level of hope.  Colleen is with me and she starts crying but recomposes after the doctor says it is curable with an 70-80% cure rate.  Heck I wanted the 100% rate.  Must say the news did not rock me at all as I was most likely in shock or thought it was a bad dream. 

Sidebar:  already had cancer (bladder) once back in Dec 1999; caught it early and was removed via surgery.  Mom died of lung cancer and Dad of brain cancer; sister has had breast cancer and is doing well (go Donna!). So I have some history of cancer in family.

So I'm thinking what to do but could not clearly rationalize after the "news".  My thoughts went wildly everywhere: kids, wife, my death, etc...  WOW, what the heck is going on!  Colleen and I left his office, got in the car and prayed. I needed to be alone to process, pray and try to wrap my arms around this little terror in my body and how it is trying to destroy my mind too.