One monster spleen!
(+Non Hoskins Lymphomia)

All about my monster spleen... In May I had my annual blood tests and they showed that I had hardly any platelets (the things that stop your bleeding). Normal range is 125K to 400K... mine was 20,000 (20K). So that started about 3 months of tests, blood work, 4 doctors/specialists, etc.... had an ultrascan, CAT scan and finally an MRI. Showed the spleen was growing. In June it measured 20 cm long (normal is 10-12). Final MRI in September showed it at 26 cm and we all agreed that it needed to go. So on Tues. Sept. 22nd, I went into surgery to get the spleen taken out. It was one of the largest my surgeon said he had ever seen. Almost 30 cm long. (see picture below). By week 3 after surgery, I was back to my four miles a day walk. Felt good! Then the autopsy... sigh... the speen was full of Non-Hoskins Lymphomoia (sp) and they were not sure it was contained in the spleen or had gotten out. So a bone marrow test in early November confirmed it in the bone marrow (stage 4). So now I'm taking chemo treatments (1 infusion a week for 4 weeks) then 1 every 3 months to try to eridacate it. Chemo hasn't been too bad just that I get really antsy sitting around for 6+ hours at a time with a tube in my arm...but if it helps I guess it is worth it. :) More later.... Click on any photo to see an enlarged version.
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So day after surgery... of course I'm in LaLa land!	A 13" incision on my left side abdomen.	By day two I felt a lot better and was really restless so I got to go on a walk... here I'm getting made moble with my tubes and connections.
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Me in my racecar going down the hallways!	Then they delcared I was good enough not to go back to bed so I got to sit in a chair from then on instead of laying in a bed all day!	Pretty cool that they now use staples instead of stiches!! Knowing me, that is better!
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Here is my surgeon holding my spleen after it came out. Make a fist like a gun (you know like kids shoot each other with). Now ignore the pointing finger.... the rest is the size of what a normal spleen would be. Mine was close to 3x that size.	After I got home (4 days later) I got some cookies delivered... black cats and black bats! Meatball and Booger were very interested in the cats (but not the bats!) <grin>
More as I know more...... Click on any photo to see an enlarged version.

My Spleen Autopsy

My Treatment Plan

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Last updated: 12/31/20