Thanks to everyone for your calls and texts the past few days.  I apologize for not getting back to each of you, but I've had a busy past 3 days.  My port surgery went well, I'm still a little sore, but I can move my arm pretty well, with little pulling in my chest. You can't really tell anything is there.  I had 2 dr appts on Thursday and today, and along with that, had other random appointments, had to work, and go out to dinner with some fantastic friends :) (Carini's...yum!) So, here is my update.

I went to the dr yesterday at St Mary's. My CT scan of my abdomen and pelvis came out clear, and my PET scan confirmed the hot spots I have in my left supraclavicular area, chest and axilla, but there is no other evidence of any other lymph node or organ involvement in the rest of my body.  The bone marrow biopsy came out negative, as well.  This is all good news! :)   I have Stage 2 lymphoma.  Because my pathology reports favor the non Hodgkins type, they will treat me with as Diffuse large B Cell lymphoma (DLBCL).  This involves a regimen of chemo along with a targeted therapy drug.  It is called R-CHOP.  R stands for Rituxan, and it targets the B cells and essentially blows them up.  This is the drug they will give me next Wednesday, and it can take4-6 hours to push it.  It takes so long because they have to monitor any reactions to the drug.  If you think of the cancer cells as bubbles in my body, and as this drug reacts, it pops the bubbles and releases toxins.  They may have to give me benadryl, wait to push the drug until the side effects wear off, etc.  But it is killing cancer cells, so even though I may not look pretty while getting it, I appreciate what it is doing.  The second day, Thursday, I will go in for the CHOP portion of the treatment, which are the chemo drugs, and those should only take 45 min to an hour.  If all goes well with this first treatment, then I can get the rest of my treatments all in one day.  I will get 6 treatments, every 3 weeks. So, I could be done with all of this by mid January.  Yay! I'm going to Disney world! Well, a Disney cruise, in March ;)

So, I mentioned that I start next Wednesday.  I'm happy about this, because I need to get started.

I went for my second opinion appt at Froedtert with Dr Fenske.  While Froedtert is nice with a great reputation, we waited an HOUR AND 1/2 for our appt to begin.  Once we saw the dr, it all went well.  Their pathologist did say that the sample did have characteristics of both HL and DLBCL, but they actually thought it did favor DLBCL more.  So, they agree with the St Mary's protocol, he pretty much said everything Dr. Shah said re: treatment.  Yay! I'm sticking with St Mary's.  Dr Fenske and Dr Shah also both said they have worked with each other, and if necessary, they can consult each other, so that made me and Ryan feel better about everything. Plus, after that long wait, and I felt that Froedtert had less of a personal touch than CSM, I feel even more confident going with CSM.

Dr Fenske did review all the stats and prognoses with us, and he assured us that even though Hodgkins get the reputation of the "best" lymphoma to have, DLBCL is also has a very good outlook, and given than I have essentially zero other risk factors and am low on the IPI risk scale (google it, if interested), I can achieve full remission and be cured just as well.  So there. :). DLBCL is a very aggressive lymphoma, but given that, aggressive lymphoma also responds the best to treatment.

So, there it is.  I'm starting chemo on Wednesday.  My Mom and Ryan will be going with me.  I will let you all know when my next treatment dates come up, I think I'd rather get through this first one with my family, since it may be a rougher one.  

I plan on enjoying this weekend, maybe I'll get my sushi this weekend, since I won't be able to eat it while on chemo (raw fish=potential bacteria=bad news), and I'll work Monday and tuesday, before I take the rest of the week and weekend to go into combat with lymphoma.  Thanks for all your prayers and well wishes! Keep them up, I'll need them next week, fo sho! :)

Xoxoxo