Your story is so much like ours. Kevin found his lump in April. We saw the doc in May. Ran the 10 day course of antibiotics, then did a CT which showed the big enlarged lymph node plua a few others that were getting that way. But, Kevin was in denial and convinced the doc to let hime go back to work in Alaska, where he stays for 3 weeks at a time. I was livid because I KNEW it was OC. He had every symptom and had had many of them for months as I read more about them. So, I made an appt with an ENT the day he got back. They couldn't see anything and put us off another week until I convinced them to do an MRI. Things flew into motion at this point, but we were mid-July. He started chemo on July 25th. If the doc (and Kevin) had listened to me we would have started almost 2 months earlier and it would not have involved as many nodes as it did. All in all though, his tx would have been the same. They hit him hard with all the big guns as you can see by my signature. Even the IMRT. He had 60tx. We have a 1 year PET next month. Nerve wracking, but trying to stay fearless and positive!!
So glad you are getting together with family this weekend. You have a great start, and yes, you sound VERY sane!! ;o)
Kathy