Greetings all.   I'm a long term Hodgkin's survivor who was originally
diagnosed in August 1983 and recieved only radiation therapy initially.  
Cancer free for two years following.     After two years, I had a relapse and
was treated with 6 months of chemotherapy.   My last chemo treatment for the
disease took place in Jan. 1986.      I have been cancer free since.    
I've been out of the loop for a long time and have considered it a closed
chapter in my life for many years now.     Until recently.       I've had
some fairly severe back and neck trouble over the last few months.  I'm a
professional drummer and close inspection of my body position during
subsequent physical therapy revealed a possible explanation.  After making
some adjustments and changing a few things about how I sit and configure my
drums, the pain disappeared.      The only residual effect is a periodic
"pins and needles" feeling down my left arm when I sit in certain specific
positions.   If I change positions, it immediately goes away.     Seems like
a mild pinched nerve of some type.       Went to my doctor and we decided to
do an MRI to have a look and make sure I wasn't doing any further harm to my
nerves and decide a course of treatment.       The MRI shows a lesion of some
type in my C5 vertebra.    A full body bone scan shows no other activity
other than that single vertebra.     After seeing an orthopedic surgeon who
showed me exactly what was appearing on the scans, it seems that the vertebra
itself my have some malignancy in the bone as well as some soft tissue
protruding into the spinal column.    Nothing is compressing the spinal cord
yet but there is something in there on the scan.
He sent me for a CT scan of that area and did an X-ray in office.   The x-ray
shows the bone seems to be solid and not affected too severely so far.  
Given the fact that I was hammered hard with radiation directly in this area
at the age of 17, I'm not surprised that something is showing up here.     If
it is originating here and not metastsizing from somewhere else, I'm WAY
ahead of the game.   Always a good thing.     I won't know if it's anywhere
else until I see an oncologist and they run me through the ringer,which I'm
sure will be within the next few days.

I'm waiting on a call from the orthopedic surgeon with the results of the CT
scan so we can decide a course of treatment.          If the bone looks solid
and relatively unaffected, we may be able to do a needle biopsy and find out
what's in there and begin treating it.   If not, he is recommending removing
the vertebra completely and replacing it with cadaver bone.      That is
highly invasive and will definitely impair my ability to continue to work and
make a living.     I'd rather not go that route if I can help it.   It would
be tremendously invasive and  difficult to recover from enough to return to
work.           His opinion is that we may be looking at a relapse of
Hodgkin's after 20 years.   I'm looking for some resource on the Net to
browse and find exactly what the stats are for an occurence such as this and
possibly some suspected OTHER possibilities besides Hodgkin's.       Could it
be myeloma now? Or leukemia?  Or any number of others?     Within the next
few days I'll have SOME type of biopsy and probably know for certain what I'm
facing but unitl then, I'm going nuts wondering what I might have this time.  
    If it's Hodgkin's again...I'll whip it's a.s again.   I've already done
it and know what I'm up against.   I'm not afraid.     If it is potentially
something much worse, then I'd like to have some idea of what I might be up
against.

Regardless, I feel like I'm searching in the dark  right now for some
answers.   Can anyone here direct me to any resources that might offer some
help until I get fully entrenched in a treatment regimen?

Thank you for your help and your time.....

Pat McDonald