Danny Adams

   It started the second day of January, Danny woke up with severe pain in his back.  He's had back issues before, but this pain was different and we were worried.  We went to the emergency room where did they blood tests and a MRI which showed a bulging disk, nothing too severe.  He felt much better knowing what it was, some pain medicine and rest is all he needed.  
   Danny's primary care doctor got a notified that we were in the ER and asked to see him for a follow-up and made the appointment to see him on the thirteenth.  At that exam it was noticed that some lymph nodes were larger than they should be and when Danny said he didn't have a cold, Dr. Sy ordered a check x-ray, that was done the same day and we went back to our normal lives.
   Dr. Sy called the next day.  There was large mass in Danny's chest.  We were to make an appointment for an urgent CT scan, which we did for the following Monday, the 18th.
   We never made it to that appointment.  Saturday morning there was swelling in Danny's left arm.  A lot of swelling, it was nearly twice as big as the right arm.  We called an advise nurse as it was becoming painful.  The advise was to head back to the emergency room where we got the CT scan.  Now it shows the mass was growing around the main vein from his arm and squeezing it closed and causing blood clots.  Lots of blood clots, so large you could see them protruding through his skin.  It was then that he was admitted to the hospital to figure out what was causing the mass and address the clots.
   The hospital stay lasted just over a week and it that time he had more CT scans, blood tests and biopsies of the lymph nodes and the chest mass.  The growth near the clavicle that we thought was a lymph node to biopsy turned out to be a blood clot!  Waiting for the results was difficult but they finally came - Hodgkin's Lymphoma.  A bone marrow biopsy confirmed it was stage two and Danny got an oncologist, Dr. Boyle.
   We were not unfamiliar with Hodgkin's as Danny's daughter had it when she was nine years old.  She is now 29 years old and has two wonderful children and living life to the fullest.  Danny's treatment was going to be the same thing; four to six rounds of a chemo called AVBD followed by radiation.  AVBD can damage the heart and lungs so testing was done prior to starting.