Sucker Punch (Email)

From: Brack

Date: September 21, 2012 12:38:02 PM EDT

To: 

Subject: The Results Are In...

Family and Friends,

Apologies for the mass email and I truly apologize for those who are caught off guard. Up till now it wasn't worth broadcasting that I was having a pesky lymph node checked out.

And as you know me...I'm a bottom line up front guy. A couple hours ago I was diagnosed with Hodgkin's Lymphoma (HL), the one and only. The pathology results that were made available last night from lymph node biopsy from last week showed "the clear presence of multinucleated Reed-Sternberg cells" so this leaves no doubt of the HL diagnosis... <now you can all exhale>

The good news is the diagnosis was not an incurable non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma. The better news is that HL is one of the most curable (as in it won't come back) forms of cancer with 95% cure rate for Stage 1 to something like 75% for Stage 4. HL is well researched and well understood with a known, effective treatment regimen. As some of you know the next step for me is staging. My go-to guy is Dr. Eric Seifter who is already off and running to schedule the next batch of tests that are:

1.     PET/CT scan to determine the staging. Has it spread? Where has it spread to? Probably won't get this test until at least next week because Dr. Seifter has to order nuclear material that I need to drink as part of the imaging procedure.

2.     Pulmonary function test (breathing test). We need to get a baseline of the lung function.

3.     Echo cardiogram

The primary treatment regimen for HL is chemotherapy with ABVD, a 4-drug regimen (a cocktail, so to speak). The initial thought is 12 total doses with a dose every two weeks. The bad news for some of you is it will likely cause me to lose my hair and you will be exposed to the dull corners, knots, scars and bumps that are my skull.

I'm convinced that my string very good luck is far from over. This will be another task/chore/undertaking that I will succeed in completing. As many who have already been in this position would say, I'm going to do my best to keep life as routine as it currently is. An upside is I might also finally lose that pesky 40 pounds I picked up since college. And I will truly appreciate all of the humor you have to bring my way. I've been called many unprintable names and described in many unflattering ways...by my best friends. I expect that to continue.

Love to you all