The First ENT Appointment

I first met with Dr. Karen Hermansen of Ear, Nose and Throat Specialists of Northern Virginia on Monday, June 26, 2006 for what I thought would be a fine needle aspiration biopsy. A matronly woman, she initially looked to be better suited to baking than surgery. Despite her outward appearance, I could tell immediately that Dr. Hermansen was an expert in her field. What's more, she was the first medical professional to give me an honest opinion which was that she believed I had Hodgkin's lymphoma. I asked her why Hodgkin's vs. the non-Hodgkin's variety and she said that it was a hunch based on my age more than anything. She answered a few questions from my wife and I and then assured me of what I already knew which was that of the cancer types, Hodgkin's is one of the most treatable with one of the highest overall cure rates. She further put me at ease by expressing a sense of urgency I felt had been lacking by the various medical professionals I had dealt with so far. Dr. Hermansen decided to forgo the fine needle aspiration in favor of an open, surgical biopsy because she wanted to get pathology results as quickly as possible. When doing surgical biopsies, a pathologist is on site to give initial results right away. If she were to do the needle biopsy, the sample would have to be shipped somewhere and results would take a week or more to get back. She then instructed her assistant to clear a time for a surgery the following Wednesday, June 28. This would not only take some "negotiation" with the hospital but required some fairly significant alterations to her own schedule. She also began to give me instructions on how to schedule a CT scan for the following day but then stopped herself. Realizing that my head was already spinning, Dr. Hermansen picked up the phone herself and got me on the following day's radiology schedule at Reston Hospital... no small feat. This urgency and reassurance was exactly what I needed at the time. Thank you Dr. Hermansen.

Before we left the office, Dr. Hermansen asked me to come back into the exam room. She had a new Nurse Practitioner and asked if she could feel my neck as a learning exercise. As the nurse practitioner felt the mass, Dr. Hermansen described it as a "classic presentation" of lymphoma since it appeared that several lymph nodes had fused together.

I left her office still anxious and scared but somewhat hopeful that at least I had the "good" cancer. (my friend Ed, the writer mentioned below, who just finished treatment for Hodgkin's used this term and said it was from an episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm. I don't watch that show so I'll have to take his word for it.)