Staging and Purpling

When we first got Nick’s diagnosis three weeks ago, the Ear Nose & Throat specialist told us that he was fairly certain Nick had lymphoma. A week later, the hematologist confirmed that it was Hodgkin’s lymphoma and that Nick had a 13 cm mass in his chest. This on its own meant that the disease was in an advanced stage. Stage I is when only one lymph node is affected, Stage 2 means there is more than one site affected above the diaphragm, Stage 3 means the disease is also seen below the diaphragm or in the spleen and Stage 4 is if it’s spread to internal organs such as the lungs or bone marrow. The letter A or B is added to denote whether advanced symptoms — night sweats or weight loss — are present. Nick had recently started having night sweats, so we knew that we were already at Stage 2B, and because of the size of the mass in his chest, it was also considered ‘bulky’ disease. Nick had recently noticed swollen nodes in his pelvic area and the doctor said that, given the size of his mass, she anticipated the cancer would also be present below the diaphragm (Stage 3B bulky), and that, based on the results of his blood work, she suspected it was also in his bone marrow (Stage 4B bulky).  So, that is what we came into today’s appointment prepared to hear.

Nick’s test results indicate no evidence of cancer below the diaphragm or in the spleen and no spread to the bone marrow or other organs, so although he’s still considered to have advanced lymphoma, this is much better news than we’d been expecting.

After our appointment, we grabbed some lunch then dropped Nick off at res so he can hang out with his friends and finish off the jacket ritual which will conclude tomorrow evening. I had planned to wait until after that to update the blog, but I knew a lot of you would be anxiously awaiting news on how today’s appointment went.

Stage 2 of the jacket ritual starts with rubbing the jacket with sandpaper to remove the water-proofing layer (because what’s the use of water-proofing, really), then rubbing the jacket with alcohol, and, finally, taking it to one of the ‘purpling stations’ set up around campus. A purpling station is pretty much what it sounds like – you dip your gold-coloured leather jacket in Gentian purple dye. The sanding and alcohol prep allow the dye to be easily absorbed into the jacket. Legend has it that purple became the traditional colour of engineers in honour of the Titanic’s engineers who wore purple, or possibly because it’s the colour worn by the Engineering Corp in the British military.

The purpling event took place on the day Nick was in Ottawa having his PET scan, so he had to figure out how to purple his jacket on his own. A friend generously offered to host his purpling session at her house off-campus, since the dye isn’t allowed inside any campus buildings because it stains everything it touches.

Once dyed, the jacket is left to dry in anticipation of the post-exams ceremonial event – the jacket slamming. During Frosh Week in September, the tradition is that the Froshies have to climb a metal football goalpost, which was stolen from the University of Toronto in 1955. The pole is greased with lanolin and is in the centre of a large pit filled with mud and cold water. Nailed to the top of the pole is a Scottish tam. The amount of time it takes the Froshies to retrieve the tam is the number of minutes they are required to slam their jackets on the ground at the jacket slamming (in order to receive the coveted ‘last man standing’ bar for their jacket). This year, it took them 140 minutes. You can Google ‘Queen’s Eng Jacket Slam’ to get an idea of what it looks like when 800 engineering students slam their heavy leather jackets on the ground in unison, but Nick says you have to be there to really experience the full effect. He also says we aren’t allowed to be there to experience the full effect. Engineering code or some such nonsense. Anyway, after being slammed on the ground for a couple of hours, the jackets become the correct shade of purple-gold and can be proudly worn around campus.