Independence Day, 2012

Hello, my name is Chris.  It's Independence Day 2012 and this is the first entry in a new weblog I'm writing about my experience with Cancer.  Tonight I'm sitting in the hospital in Westminster, Colorado receiving the first blood transfusion of my life.  The patient ID bracelet on my left wrist says the following:
Dawson, Christopher David
Sx: M
DOB: 10/19/1982
Age: 29
Admit Date:  06/21/12


It's a Wednesday.  Which is really a perfect day for the Fourth of July because you can maximize your vacation time around it.  I had planned to take the second part of the week off, head up to the mountains for some camping to escape the record heat we're having, and breathe some cool, thin air into my lungs.  Turns out life had some other ideas in mind for this weekend.


When I was first diagnosed with cancer, two weeks ago, I had been feeling sick in one way or another for the previous several months.  Being a naturally healthy and active person I had managed to develop a general disinterest in the need for doctors in my life, and so had been avoiding going to see one as if my life depended on it.  It turns out, it did.  I got a chest x-ray and they found a large mass (tumor type of thing) in my left chest above my heart.  It had grown around my wind pipe down in my chest making it hard for me to breath and causing a number of other problems.  They suggested I to the hospital right away.  So I checked in the next morning.

The basic details of my diagnosis, called Adult Acute Lymphoblastic Lymphoma (ALL), are rather clear for my having learned of my disease just two weeks ago.  But I'm still waiting to learn more, to get additional opinions on my labs and specimens and test results.  Right now I'm just in this early learning, reacting, absorbing, phase, but I'm also deep into the first round of treatment of my cancer.  So I'm having to adjust in many ways at once.  Things have happened fast.  But I want to start writing things down as they go so I can record this and also keep some of the people I care about up to date.


Much more to come.

Much Love,

Chris