The events as they have unfolded are these: Margo noticed a small lump on her neck when we were in San Diego in Oct and upon our return she saw our primary care physician who prescribed an antibiotic to rule out some type of infection. She took the Rx for almost two weeks and it was not getting smaller and she felt like there might be another smaller lump just above the initial one, so she got in to see an ENT monday before Thanksgiving and he did an excisional biopsy two days later on wednesday. We met with him last thursday and he said the diagnosis was a lymphoma but he wasn't sure which type. He scheduled an appointment with an oncologist the next day and after meeting with him we had a much better idea with what we are facing. It is Diffuse Large Cell Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma which according to him is the most common and has an 80% cure rate over-all. (Which was very comforting to know). Margo has felt well and has no symptoms which are good things and he feels that it is likely just confined to that one area in her neck. He is a radiation specialist and so referred us to another oncologist that does chemo. He said that this type responds best to chemo and that they would probably not do radiation unless it is in a fairly small area in the neck which they will know after the PET CT scan that will happen tuesdayDecember 9th. We have an appointment with the chemo doctor on wednesday and we anticipate that she will start the chemo immediately. Thursday and friday were terrible days, mostly for the lack of information about what we needed to do and what the prognosis would be. Words cannot begin to describe the feelings of melancholy and despair I felt when contemplating Margo's disease and the possibility of losing my dear eternal companion. I could easily become a bitter, angry, lonely old man. We all shed lots of tears and I felt like I couldn't breathe for a while. But we are feeling much better now and there are times when it just seems like a bad dream from which we soon hope to awake. We are so thankful for the outpouring of love and faith from family and dear friends.