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" Shortly after my 40th birthday, I took a sip of Pinot Grigio and immediately felt a stabbing pain in my neck and shoulders. I was at a cocktail party with colleagues and didn&amp;#039;t want to make a big deal out of it, so I continued chatting. But the pain lasted for several hours.   At first I wasn&amp;#039;t too worried\u2014I had recently had a massage, and I figured the therapist must have pushed too hard on my neck and around my collarbone. But during the next few weeks it kept happening. Whether I had a glass of wine at a party or a beer at an Indians game, each time that stabbing pain would kick in and last for a few hours. Nothing I did\u2014 ice, heat, ibuprofen\u2014seemed to help.   When I finally figured out the connection between alcohol and the pain in my neck and collarbone, I didn&amp;#039;t know what to make of it. I&amp;#039;m not one of those people who runs to the doctor every time she has a headache, but this was just too weird. So I Googled &amp;quot;pain in lymph nodes after drinking alcohol&amp;quot; (I had had mono and swollen glands as a kid, so I knew that there were lymph nodes in both areas that were hurting).   I quickly found a thread on the Leukemia &amp;amp;amp; Lymphoma Society website where people were talking about &amp;quot;weird alcohol pain.&amp;quot; They had Hodgkin&amp;#039;s disease, a cancer of the lymphatic system. The idea that my odd symptom could have anything to do with cancer seemed crazy! Besides, at the time I looked it up I didn&amp;#039;t have any of the classic symptoms of Hodgkin&amp;#039;s, like a lump in the neck, armpit or groin, fever, night sweats, unexplained weight loss or itching. I had been pretty exhausted, but I just blamed it on all the travel I&amp;#039;d been doing for work and pushed it to the back of my mind.   Just a few weeks later I was in the shower when I felt a lump sticking out from my left collarbone. It was really hard and about the size of one of those bouncy balls kids get from supermarket vending machines. It didn&amp;#039;t hurt, but this was one symptom I couldn&amp;#039;t ignore\u2014and I had a sinking feeling it meant Hodgkin&amp;#039;s.   Answers, please!    I tried not to panic. I immediately went to see my primary care doctor and calmly told him about my symptoms and what I had read online. He ordered an X-ray and a blood test, but both came back inconclusive. Because Hodgkin&amp;#039;s is not that common (only about 8,000 people are diagnosed with it in the U.S. each year), he said I probably had a bacterial infection and put me on antibiotics. I really, really wanted to believe him.   I started the medication\u2014and of course, I wasn&amp;#039;t supposed to drink while on it, so I didn&amp;#039;t feel any neck pain. But a week later, the bottle was empty and the lump was still there. Before I could go back to my doctor, I happened to tell my brother and sister-in-law what was going on. In one of those weird twists of fate, my sister-in-law regularly sees a hematologist for an unrelated blood disorder\u2014 Hodgkin&amp;#039;s is considered a blood disease because it originates from a type of white blood cell. She called her doctor and he agreed to see me the next day.   As I sat in Dr. Alan Lichtin&amp;#039;s office anxiously waiting for answers, he told me that feeling pain while drinking alcohol is in fact a symptom of Hodgkin&amp;#039;s, but a pretty rare one. In his 25 years of practicing medicine, he&amp;#039;d only seen one other patient who&amp;#039;d experienced the same thing. He told me he wasn&amp;#039;t 100% sure that I had cancer, but he wasn&amp;#039;t taking any chances: He ordered a surgical biopsy for later that week. Unfortunately, when I got the results, my suspicions were confirmed. I had stage IIB nodular sclerosis Hodgkin&amp;#039;s disease, which, I was relieved to find out, is considered an early diagnosis.   A wealth of support    I&amp;#039;m still puzzled that I didn&amp;#039;t freak out or start sobbing right in the doctor&amp;#039;s office, but I was just so determined to stay strong for myself and especially for my parents, who were with me when I got the news. My older brother had undergone surgery the year before to remove a malignant tumor from his kidney. (He&amp;#039;s healthy now, but his illness was devastating for my parents, who are in their 70s.) And suddenly another one of their children was facing cancer. All I could do was turn to Dr. Lichtin and ask, &amp;quot;What do we do now?&amp;quot;   Surgery wasn&amp;#039;t an option. With a blood cancer like Hodgkin&amp;#039;s, there isn&amp;#039;t a malignant tumor to remove. The lump in my neck was a lymph node that became swollen because of how the disease was affecting my entire body. To fight the cancer, I&amp;#039;d need to start chemo right away.   I went to the Cleveland Clinic for six-hour chemo sessions once every other week, for 16 grueling weeks. My mom and dad went with me to every appointment, and whenever I needed a shot of inspiration my dad would simply say, &amp;quot;Normandy.&amp;quot; I grew up watching World War II movies with him, and during the time I was in the hospital we often talked about how heroic the soldiers were and how they must have woken up every day wondering if it would be their last. Thinking about them helped me keep my own battle in perspective.   While I was going through treatment, my parents took care of my dog and stayed overnight with me after every chemo session. Friends brought dinners, walked my dog and shoveled my driveway. My two brothers kept me laughing, even when laughter seemed utterly impossible. My boss and other colleagues even kept me company during chemo several times. I know it sounds clich\u00E9d, but getting sick really renewed my faith in the goodness and generosity of others.   I&amp;#039;ve been in remission for more than a year now. I&amp;#039;m finally starting to feel like my old energetic self and am able to once again be active and do things like ice skate. The first few times I had a sip of alcohol I was on pins and needles, waiting to feel that pang of pain. But thankfully I haven&amp;#039;t\u2014and hopefully I never will.   Since I&amp;#039;ve battled cancer, many of my coworkers, friends and family talk to me about their aches and pains. I&amp;#039;ve literally had people come up to me and say, &amp;quot;Feel my neck&amp;quot;! I usually humor them and do it, but I remind them that if they&amp;#039;re worried about cancer or any other condition, they need to see their doctor. A lot of people brush off symptoms\u2014especially strange ones\u2014because they&amp;#039;re afraid of being perceived as a hypochondriac or crazy. Don&amp;#039;t be. Listening to your instincts can save your life. I know it saved mine. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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