It Takes a Village to Help Recovery

UPDATE: The rogue tonsil was addressed and put in its place on February 4th, 2016.

I recently met with Dr. Geiberson and Dr. Samad and the conclusion is that the tonsil was enlarged due to the lymphoma.

So, if you are not familiar with this lymphoma, it is a cancer in the blood and as the lymph nodes clean the blood they collect little particles and can become enlarged.

Lymphatic System

Where and when your lymph nodes enlarge can be very random, which is why CT scans and blood tests every 3 months are essential to make sure they do not interfere with any organs etc.

In this case the Lymph node was blocking part of my airway and so it needed to be removed.

Dr. Samad and I have decided to continue the watch and wait method. Until I start having symptoms, such as extreme fatigue, hot flashes and extreme weight loss, there is no reason to start treatment. Dr. Samad did tell me however, that it is extremely rare for someone my age to have this, and a watchful approach is best. If anything to make sure no lymph nodes are getting in the way of my regular bodily functions.

THE PROCESS: Recovery is a dish best shared

Having a tonsil removed as an adult is probable the worst idea anyone has ever had. I have had biopsies, natural child birth and a c-section and NOTHING is comparable to the pain of recovering from a tonsillectomy.

The combination of not being able to swallow anything, not eating and the drug cocktail of morphine, antibiotics, Gravol and Tylenol (all in super yummy liquid formats) was in itself horrific. I slept as much as I could and in all honesty lost a week of my life, being on morphine for 6 days inhibits a persons ability to live.

The operation itself was fairly easy; The kind nurses brought me to my day surgery room and got me changed (TIP: If you wear cotton underwear you get to keep them on!). Dr. Geiberson and Dr. Crompton came in and explained a bit of the process. I was wheeled into the OR where a flurry of activity happened around me while I was being prepped for surgery. Dr. Crompton then gave me a mask with some "oxygen", the last thing I remember is hearing him say "OK you can call Geiberson in" and that was it.

I woke up, maybe 2 hours later in the recovery room. It was fairly surreal, I couldn't see much and I didn't remember where I was. The nursing staff was amazing, they spoke softly and assured me everything was ok.

All of a sudden however I started crying. It was overwhelming and this feeling that all of these people where going out of their way to take care of me was too much. I remembered all of a sudden all the things that friends and family were doing for me to help me during recovery and the emotion was too much,

As I was crying I started telling the nurses how my friend had hired someone to help clean my house while I was sick and I was so thankful.

And here is the silver lining: I could not have done this without the help of my friends and family. All of the kind gestures, homemade soup, homemade ice cream, trips to the pharmacy to get me gravol, cleaning ladies, postponed renovation help and kind messages are the only things that made me get through the horrible experience. I want to officially say THANK YOU to everyone who was there, who even just sent me a note to see how I was doing, or made me soup (mmm soup), thank you thank you thank you!

I also want to say a special thank you to my partner in crime, who not only fed me morphine for 6 days he also took care of our crazy monkeys, kept the house clean and finished our bathroom!!

Because of everyone's help, I was finally able to leave my house after 7 days and resume a normal life :)

UPDATE: The Good , the Bad and the Tonsil

I am guilty of not updating everyone sooner on what's been happening.

The truth is everything has been going VERY well. It's been really rather boring on this front.

My new oncologist, Dr. Samad, who works out of the Horizon Health Network is great. He is calm and patient and most importantly answers all my questions and is respectful.

He has suggested I have a CT scan every 3 months, for 2 years. If these CT scans remain good then we can move to having them only every 6 months.

On my last CT scan, everything was looking great: Dr. Samad says that my lymph nodes have either gone down in size or stabilized and he was very optimistic about the state of my Lymphoma.

What's the catch then? I have a rogue tonsil. My left tonsil for some reason is unhappy and has decided to cause a ruckus. It is swollen quite a bit larger than the right and is starting to take up too much room down there.

I was sent to see another ENT, this time it was Dr. Geiberson. Strangely enough, he takes his patients at the ENT clinic at the George Dumont. So there I was, just over a year late run the same room where Dr. Robichaud hd diagnosed my Lymphoma in the first place.


Dr. Geiberson sent a light down my nose and into my throat, and took a picture of my tonsils. He recommended having the tonsil removed for biopsy since the cause of the swelling is unknown. It may or may not be connected to my Lymphoma.

So I thought maybe I'd get an appointment in a few months, however SURPRISE! I'm going in on Thursday to remove the culprit.

I'm happy it's being done so quickly, to be honest my throat is sore a lot and the slightest cold bug makes me uncomfortable.

I'm also anxious about it, I mean I feel like I've come full circle, more tests more unknowns.

But you know, At least the ice cream will be good.