After my Friday appointment with the hematologist/oncologist, I have a whole weekend alone with my computer. And now that I've eaten one apple from the forbidden tree, I seem to have developed a taste for the fruit.

So I spend approximately 40 of the 48 hours researching. And now, I'm researching not-Lymphoma. In other words, I'm looking for diagnoses that might explain my swollen lymph nodes--diagnoses which aren't Lymphoma.

And it's a good list with exotic-sounding names. Sarcoidosis. Toxoplasmosis. Yersinia Pestis. Various autoimmune disorders. Even run-of-the-mill diseases such as measles or rubella. "I may not have lymphoma," I tell myself. "Why, it could be Kikuchi Disease." It does not matter to me that Kikuchi Disease almost always happens on the Asian continent, one place of many I've never been. It's a possibility, and that's enough for me.

Having not-Lymphoma, you see, is suddenly very important. Especially having not-Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma.

Still, I'm willing to consider Lymphomas, if it comes to that. I'll go with Hodgkins first, because it's curable in a lot of cases. In Non-Hodgkins, some of the large B-cell Lymphomas have good rates of cure.

But especially, I do not want to have something called Follicular Lymphoma, which is considered incurable. Anything but that.

Well, if this were a novel, and I were the main character, you know exactly what would happen to the main character.

And as I'll find out very soon, life can be a lot like a novel sometimes.