My son had his initial consultation today. They said that they need to bring his biopsy forward from 29th November to next week but there is no availability.
He has a head scan for next week and they're still trying to sort out PET scans.
In the meantime his symptoms are worsening. He's getting headaches and had one night sweat.
So his concern - and mine - is, if the cancer is spreading whilst he awaits all the tests and yhen treatment, is treatment still as effective?
Sorry to hear your concerns……. the thing is when it comes to Lymphoma, it can turn up/spread anywhere….. but the important thing to get that it’s the same condition and even although it can be in different places in the body it’s still very treatable.
Ensuring clear Staging is important as this set the best treatment route…. but this takes time to do.
At the point when I started my chemo (I have a rare skin NHL) my skin was 70% covered in tumours, my bone marrow was full of cancer cells and it looked like I had swallowed a brick!! It was something out of a Tom and Jerry film.
My jaw had seized, my gums had swollen and we're covering my teeth. I was having great difficulty eating and was living on a liquid diet and my breathing was starting to be restricted and the pain was off the scale.
I had an initial 15min blast of chemo and that got me through our family Christmas. It was amazing the difference that first a Chemo blast made to the point I actually had some Christmas dinner.
During that evening the staff kept coming in to watch my teeth re-appearing!!!
Take a breath and another….. as scary as this looks this can be treated ((hugs))
To be totally honest if his clinical team were very worried they would take a good guess as to the way forward and start some treatment biopsy or not…… my biopsy results were not back before I started my first chemo - take a breath and let’s look for you to make some progress ((hugs))
As you said before, unfortunately at times you have to be your/his advocate 
You dwell on the what next…… not the what if’s?
First thing tomorrow you sit on the phone and get in context with the Heamatology Department and ask to talk with his Haematologist and ask when is treatment starting?…… don’t be fibbed off…… at a minimum and based on what the discharging Dr said……. your son should be seen quickly and answers given.
As I described earlier on in my replies I was in a very very bad way to the point that the mass in my neck was starting to restrict my breathing and the pain as so bad I was on my hands and knees on the floor shacking my head to try and release the trapped nerves that were inside the mass……. and the pain meds I was on was making me have hallucinations…..
But I still had to wait a good 4 weeks before treatment started……. So an appointment on Thursday is great…… we actually did not have my new biopsy results back when I started treatment but their best guess was correct ((hugs))
