Rocco Maiolo's Ramblings and Musings

It was four years ago on January 27 that I was diagnosed with NHL, non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma, not the National Hockey League. Former, bad; latter good :)  It didn't occur to me until this year that our granddaughter was born on this day a year ago. I'm sure if I thought long and hard enough -- or did some clever Googling -- I'd come up with some classic or eastern idea that correlated these two events, but I'd rather dwell on being thankful for the birthday of our beautiful granddaughter, Grace, and being grateful that my follicular lymphoma is not active. For those of you who haven't been following my updates, here's a quick review. got sick in Fall of 2013 was diagnosed January 2014 (was in watch-and-wait protocol because my CT scan was misread: YIKES) did 6 months of Rituxan and Bendamustine: June - November 2014 (CT scan showed my swollen lymph nodes were shrunk into near oblivion)  did one year (February 2015 - February 2016) -- instead of 2 y...

Facebook Facebook is getting ugly. I was just talking to a friend who said he's only been on FB for about a year and he just uses it to wish people well on their special days. I like that. I think my friend is onto to something. In the last couple of weeks, we've become grandparents and a good friend has been diagnosed with lymphoma. "Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn."  I like that I can click one of these for my friends: And then there's all the daily Donald Trump posts... Need I say more? Maybe we should start calling Facebook, Hatebook. Politics and Ken Follett I'm currently reading Ken Follett's Edge of Eternity -- it's historical fiction set mostly during the cold war.   I'm amazed at the similarity between the political hot button topics of the 1960s and today's.  The emotional, strongly held -- sometimes violent -- convictions regarding Civil Rights in the 60s is not much different than how people f...

Hello Friends & Family: For some of you, this might be brand new information; for others, you are intimately aware of my journey in the last 6 months.   And then there are others who are somewhere in the middle. At the risk of being impersonal, I thought this would be the best way of getting out my most recent update regarding my lymphoma. Last week I had a biopsy of a mass in my back that showed up on a CT scan.   Contrary to what I was told, the mass turned out to be the same kind of lymphoma that I was already diagnosed with – low grade, follicular.   Since it had only grown by a few millimeters, I was given the option of keeping an eye on things and doing another CT scan in 3 months with the hope that things wouldn’t change. The doctor, however, was concerned that this mass is too close to my spine.  Option 2 was chemo.   I asked what she would recommend if I were her uncle.  She asked if I had anything against chemo. When I said no...

(June 2, 2014) I was in a waiting room today.  Waiting for a pre-op appointment for a procedure I’m having this coming Friday – a biopsy on a soft tissue mass along my spine.  I drew this picture.  I’m not much of an artist (that’s being kind to me). I had an appointment with my family doctor this morning and this other appointment in the afternoon, so I took the day off.   But I’m working anyway.   I can’t not work because it piles up and then I have twice as much the next day. The family doctor is nice, but, admittedly, she doesn’t know much about follicular lymphoma or soft tissue masses.   She’s not an oncologist. She suggested they might want to remove my affected lymph nodes.   I told her I don’t think that’s how it works with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. She said she prays that the growth in my back is benign.   She asked how I’m doing emotionally.   And if I had people I could talk to.   Like a pastor. The answers ar...