Beginning of the End: Back to the original problem

For the first time in my life, I work for a big company. A big company which generally treats their employees well. One of the perks I get is called HealthResource, a great little benefit that basically works as a health advisory service. When I have questions, I go to them, and they give me advice and information.

Starting out with diabetes, they were very helpful right from the beginning: the nurse took a couple days, but managed to compile a great list of doctors of various types for me, including both a endocrinologist and internists. The internist was for the original problem I had gone into the doctor for to begin with: my swollen glands/nods around my neck and head.

At first glance, an internist sounds like he would be someone fetching coffee for the real doctors, but that's a real misperception. Internists specialize in Internal Medicine. This seems to make them feel like they are also specialized Endocrinologists, but don't let them talk you into allowing them to treat your diabetes - that's not their specialty as a general rule.

I was advised by HealthResource to seek out an Internist for my swollen lymph nodes, which by now had been swollen for quite some time - 6 months or so by my best estimate. After giving up yet more blood and fending off his assurances of being quite capable of handling my diabetes, he was able to recommend more doctors for the lymph nodes.

This is about the time I found out that they were, indeed, lymph nodes that were swollen. Lymph nodes carry and store lymph throughout the body, which helps your body fight infection. usually, when you find your nodes swollen, it is a sign that your body is trying to fight some kind of infection.

My internist ultimately recommended both a surgeon and a hematologist - which was really just a cover-up, I think - he didn't want to scare me with the oncologist word, but that's what he is in actuality. The surgeon was for a biopsy on one of the nodes.

My oncologist actually turned out to be a very odd sort of fellow, but very skilled. It turns out he is the Head of Oncology at my hospital. He definitely seconded my internist's desire to get a biopsy... and of course wanted more blood tests done.

The next step was the surgeon. Quite a nice fellow, not much of a personality or handshake, but those hands were rock steady. Those first two qualities don't mean much to me in a surgeon, but that third quality had me convinced he was the right man for the job.

I had hoped to convince him to just do a "needle biopsy" where they use a needle repeatedly to remove small areas of tissue from the node, but he urged that it was never as effective, and most of the time led to having to get the removal/full biopsy done, anyway. I took his word for it, and I gave him the green light to get this done.

I was still quite optimistic about everything at this point.