In the begining there was a wierd lump.

It all started with a weird lump the popped up just above my collar bone. I was just getting over a canker sore in my mouth that got a little infected. As it was finishing up I felt the infection run down my neck and it made a big puffy lump right above my collar bone. It stuck around for a couple of weeks so I asked my Stake President (who happens to be a surgeon) how long until I need to start getting concerned about this. He told me, 'if it's not gone in a couple of weeks get it checked out.' A couple of weeks went by and while the swelling did go down the rubbery lump never went away. So I asked a friend from church(who happens to be an ER doctor) what doctor he recommended, he asked what was up, checked the lump out, and gave me the "thats not good"look. That freaked me out. So I got an appointment with our family doctor. He felt my neck and said " Here's what were gonna do". I went across the hall for blood work, downstairs for x-rays, then back upstairs for a work in appointment with a surgeon. Of course nobody will say anything to you so all we had was maybe, and what ifs. This was all on Friday. On Monday they had me in surgery to remove the lump, and lo and behold there were more lumps. The surgeon said that if all goes well they will look at the biopsy here, but if they need to take a closer look they will send it off. They sent it off. A couple days later I got a call from the doctor that said we need you to come back in and get a full body CAT scan because we saw a few things in your chest. So I went back in got the head to toe cat scan and waited for my next appointment. By this time Shelly and I had the puzzle pretty much figured out that I had lymphoma. At the next appointment the Dr. came in and said" well Burke, this is your worst day and this is your best day. It is your worst because you have cancer, it is your best because you have Hodgkin's" He was a little supprized at our reaction because we didn't freak out. We knew it was going to be a challenge, BUT we were feeling very blessed.
Burke