The Journey Begins - Part One

NED is a medical abbreviation for No Evidence of Disease. I was diagnosed with Follicular Non Hodkins Lymphoma in 2003. It started when I noticed a pea sized lump on my right leg in the groin area. Being a typical male that was still flying under a flag of invincibility I ignored it until I suffered a mild heart attack and found myself in the hospital. The small lump had grown to a size slightly smaller that a golf ball. Nature dealt me a one two punch when a needle biopsy came back positive. You can't imagine the feeling of being told you have cancer. It's kind of like a punch in the gut that takes your breath away. You tell yourself your going to beat this animal but you can't help but have the feeling that you have been handed a death sentence.

My initial diagnosis indicated that the cancer cells had not spread from the original tumor site and the prescribed course of treatment was 29 doses of radiation directed towards the tumor followed by one massive dose that produced radiation burns you would not believe. It was bad enough that I had to visit the hospital every day for thirty days but on top of that I had to drop my pants and let various young women and men blast a radiation beam at my privates.

It seems the treatment for cancer is way worse than the actual desease. The radiation did its job an the tumor kept getting smaller and after ten or twelve treatments it was basically gone. This brings me to what is referred to as "Dancing With NED" a condition all cancer victims strive to achieve where all blood tests, scans and x-rays show "No Evidence of Disease".