HOW AND WHY DID IT HAPPEN?

My Fight with Lymphoma - A Survivor

Dr. Francisco C. Tang  a.k.a.  Dr. Huang Nung Yang

I was asking this question to myself. I’m a physician, a dermatologist with no stress or pressure, I don’t smoke, I don’t take alcoholic beverages, more so, drugs, I live a happy and athletic life-style, I play bowling, I swim, I play table tennis, I bike to and from my work and/or for leisure. And yet, here I am stricken with this deadly cancer. I didn’t know GOD has a purpose for me.

It all started in the latter half of 2011 when all of a sudden, out of no where, I started to have uncontrollable itching at night starting from my fingers, spreading to my palm in one hand at a time or sometimes both.  I would apply topical and take oral anti-pruritic meds to no avail and I have to take sleeping pills to calm my nerves down to be able to sleep.

Then starting that winter from Dec. of 2011 to Feb. of 2012, my scalp started to itch, thinking that it was due to the cold-weather, because my scalp was dry as I didn’t wash my head daily which I used to do. I did it in 2-3 days instead. Again, as a Dermatologist, I used medicated hair shampoo and hair wash, applied topical drugs to no avail also, until the itching slowly spread downward into my whole body. I continued using all available anti-pruritic meds in our clinic – steroidal and non-steroidal oral, topical, and shampoo but still to no avail.

In late April of 2012, I experienced renal colic and with bladder- discomfort and urinary frequency. Knowing I had this problem before, I went to see my Urologist and an abdominal ultrasound was done confirming multiple bilateral renal stones and a tiny urinary bladder stone which I excreted later on, spontaneously but with a twist and unexpected finding, the ultrasonologist was surprised to see multiple hyper-echoic masses in my spleen and surprisingly asked me if I was aware of it. I answered in the negative. She then suggested me to see a Gastroenterologist for further work up.