New here, diagnosed May 18th

bros

So on May 18th, after a few months of abnormal blood work and the discovery of a large spleen, I was diagnosed with Chronic NK Cell LGL T-Cell Lymphoma (A Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma). The first thing my oncologist said when he walked into the room at diagnosis was day was, "So to start, it is treatable, but not curable, and we are going to send it into remission." He then told me about how rare it is - a pathologist he consulted at MD Anderson Cancer Center in Texas said he had heard of five cases in 30 years, excluding mine - and all in people much older than 24 years old. From there, the oncologist started to explain the biologic process behind my cancer (Basically, a lot of NK cells in my bone marrow, very little of the good cells, and a few T-Cells sprinkled in there to make it rare). I was told about my oral chemotherapy regimen (which I am on now) and was advised to look into fertility preservation before starting chemo, which I did the following Tuesday - now that was a bit awkward if anything was ever awkward.

 

The doctors have no idea how chemo will last and my current regimen is Prednisone 50 mg x1 daily and Methotrexate 15 mg x1 weekly - the Prednisone stops after 30 days, then I get weaned off.

 

This whole thing is just odd. I sort of expected to get cancer at some point because of medical history (Born extremely premature) and family history (Maternal aunt survived cancer, paternal grandfather and maternal grandmother died of cancer), but not at 24.

Unknown

Second opinion

do you a place for a second opinion? That is always a good idea.

bros

unknown said:

Second opinion

do you a place for a second opinion? That is always a good idea.

Second opinion

Went to a local oncologist first, he checked out my blood, had no idea what was going on. He referred me to the guy at Columbia, who was able to figure out the diagnosis - the local oncologist concurs with the diagnosis, as it was similar to what he was thinking after my first visit.