If you didn’t automatically read the title in the voice of one Hubert J Farnsworth, you might try watching this video five or six times. That should help.
I’m being disingenuous. When he would say “good news, everyone” it was always followed by bad news for everyone. Everyone but him. Me, on the other hand, I …
June 12, 2010 – 8:17 pm
|
By Tom
|
Posted in Treatment Phase
|
Tagged csf, dizzy spells, double vision, fatigue, flow cytometry, intracranial pressure, neurologist, no evidence of disease, opthamologist, pet scan
|
Starting last Wednesday we’ve been visiting the SCCA every single weekday. Well, I had last Friday off. But every other single weekday!
One thing that was quickly clarified: we had in mind that the heart of the process would take 90 days. Bzzt! Wrong! That’s for allogeneic transplants, where the donor and the recipient are not the …
March 2, 2010 – 11:30 am
|
By Tom
|
Posted in Treatment Phase
|
Tagged allogeneic stem cell transplant, autologous stem cell transplant, bone marrow biopsy, cranial radiation, diffuse large b-cell, diffuse large b-cell lymphoma, follicular, indolent, indolent lymphoma, mri, pet scan, scca
|
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 …
January 8, 2010 – 1:41 pm
|
By Tom
|
Posted in Diagnostic Phase
|
Tagged antibiotics, bells palsy, cat scan, cerebrospinal fluid, charing cross hospital, chelsea and westminster hospital, codeine, complete remission, ct scan, cytarabine, depocyt, dexamethasone, dilaudid, diplopia, disphagia, dr feldman, dr norman, dr taylor, ear infection, fentanyl patch, group health, guys and st thomas hospital, heathrow airport, heparin, hospital hotel dieu, intrathecal chemotherapy, lumbar puncture, methotrexate, mri, myasthenia gravis, neurological symptoms, pain, permanent remission, pet scan, ptosis, victory lap, virginia mason
|
I’m fairly certain that we’ll get good data on this cancer from a biopsy of the neck lymph nodes that the PET scan pointed out.
I say this because I can feel a couple nodes when I press beneath my jaw bone. It’s fascinating, creepy, and scary all at once. I’m pretty sure they’ve got the …
We met in-person with Dr Norman to look at the slides from the PET scan that pointed out the neck lymph nodes. He was able to flip through the images to rotate my body lengthwise, giving us a view of the neck. It was really neat to see.
He warned us that the lymph node may …
July 6, 2009 – 4:41 pm
|
By Tom
|
Posted in Diagnostic Phase
|
Tagged adriamycin, chemotherapy, chop, diffuse large b-cell lymphoma, dlbcl, dr norman, group health cooperative, lpl, lymph nodes, lymphoplamacytic lymphoma, muga, permanent remission, pet scan, r-chop, rituximab, seattle cancer care alliance, second opinion
|
I got a call in the early morning from Dr Norman; the PET scan shows an abnormally sugar-hungry lymph node in my neck. He’s going to call and cancel my upcoming chest port installation surgery and find a surgeon that can do both the chest port installation and remove the lymph node in one session.
It …
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 …