Hey there, long time no see! The last month has been a roller-coaster, full of ups and downs. In that order.
This is going to be really long. Check with your stomach first: is it growling? Grab a snack before starting to read. I care about your comfort!
At the beginning of December we did a bunch [...]
It has been a crazy last two days. Crazy in the sense that they were more than expected.
First, we got some good news: the CT scan after my fourth round was mostly unchanged from after my second round, so we’re calling this a “complete response after two cycles” and that the disease has remained stable [...]
Last Friday I had another CT scan. We wanted to see the effects of two rounds worth of chemotherapeutic bombardment, and we were not disappointed!
Lymph nodes all over my body that were enlarged and opaque had returned to normal-sized translucency. My spleen has shrunk from enlarged-size to much closer to normal. Observe!
Spleen as seen in [...]
Ok, that was really cool.
We drove to the Group Health Bellevue Medical Center nice and early; we didn’t want to risk missing the appointment for this test, since it seemed so tough to get scheduled.
Apparently the street address for the facility is so new that online mapping services provide a route that is completely wrong, [...]
We had our scheduled call with Dr Norman today to discuss the results of the blood tests, bone marrow biopsy, and CAT scan from last week. We’re getting close to knowing what I’ve got.
He says the evidence is pointing strongly toward lymphoplasmacytic lymphoma. It’s not an aggressive cancer, which is nice. But that very trait also [...]
Today I went in for my originally scheduled CAT scan; this time they scanned above and below where I was scanned a week ago. They want to reduce the amount of extra radiation that hits my body.
I had to drink two big canisters of a “berry” flavored Barium smoothie as a contrast agent.
Also, using paper [...]
Today we met with our Hematologist/Oncologist to get a preliminary evaluation of my situation. He checked all of my easily externally examinable lymph nodes, and didn’t find anything odd. I brought the blood test results, CAT scan images, and everything else I’ve got.
After looking at everything for a little while, he offered his current 80% [...]
During the last week, the discomfort in my abdomen has steadily disappeared. By Saturday it was as if nothing was awry at all!
On Sunday things changed.
I developed a pain in the left side of my abdomen when I took deep breaths, leaned in certain directions, or did anything that flexed my abs. In fact, anything [...]