Pathologist's Report--Nasopharyngeal

As promised, here is the basic text of the pathologists report on the needle biopsy of the lump in my neck that precipitated all of this:

Clinical History: Other related clinical data: Right anterior triangle level II-III, 3-cm firm mobile mass, right anterior neck.

Diagnosis:
Right anterior triangle of the neck, aspirate:
Malignant Cells, consistent with metastatic tumor, favour primary Nasapharyngeal Carcinoma.

Microscopic Description:
The specimen is adequate for evaluation of a lymph node in that there are a small number of lymphocytes at the edges of the smears; however, there are also a moderate number of groups of poorly differentiated cells, some of which show suggestion of squamoid differentiation. There are few giant cells. The cytology is consistent with metastatic malignancy, likely nasopharyngeal in origin; however, a lung primary should also be included in the differential diagnosis.

The rest of the document is the health system's gobbledygook...

Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma; damn!

On Wednesday, September 19, 2007 at about 4:30 pm, Dr. Olson, in a very straightforward, no nonsense manner informed me that a biopsy of a lymph node in my neck reveals that I am harbouring a Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma. He was gracious enough to give me a copy of the pathologist's report (which I will try to input at a later time when I have it with me). Good Doctor, that one...

So far we've done the CT scan of the neck and chest, and we have an appointment with a Dr. Williams at the University of Alberta scheduled for Tuesday, October 2, 2007 at 11:00 am. We were contacted by Dr. Naiker's (the GP) office yestereday to discover if an MRI had been scheduled yet. I told Susan (gee, I like her!) that we were unaware of an appointment. She is going to order one as soon as possible... we should hear today.

I keep using the 'we' pronoun because this isn't just about me at the moment. Gail, my darling wife, is in this with me. In ways that I can't articulate right now, I think that it is harder on her. But she is my nearly constant companion, my shadow, my lover and best friend. Our daughters are also affected. And my family, and Gail's family, and our friends, and the people I work with... There doesn't seem to be any casual bystanders, well, expect maybe for the neighbours who haven't got a clue as to what's going on...

I had originally intended to play this one very close to my chest and let as few people as possible know for as long as possible. I was dissuaded of this very early on (hours!), and in some ways I'm glad that we have told the number of folks that we have. It should make it easier in the long run.