Since my first treatment treated me mildly, I had a chance to settle into my new lifestyle here at Camp Chemo, commonly known as our house.  However, I still haven’t had as much opportunity as I would like to respond to the many emails sent to me directly, and to the posts here on my blog.  I had ambitious hopes of being able to reply to everybody, since you took the time to support me and talk to me about your challenges, but until I can accomplish that goal, I’m going to use a quicker route to answer some of the common questions that I’ve received. 

Q: What type of cancer do you have?

A:  I have Follicular non-Hodgkins Lymphoma.  It’s a slow-moving plodding kind of cancer.  The slow-moving part is good and bad.  You have some time to figure out a plan to fight it, but it gets a lot of time to spread around before you know you have it.  

Q: How did you discover it?

A: I had a little itsy bitsy pink spot in the right upper corner of my forehead about the size of a quarter that just stayed there for months.  It didn’t itch or hurt, and nobody else noticed it.  When I had my annual dermatology appointment, I showed it to the doctor.  She took a biopsy and sent it off.  It came back benign, and we celebrated.

Q: So, wait a minute, if it was benign, then why are you on chemo?

A: That’s where this doctor was amazing.  Two days after the good news, she called me.  She said she had been reviewing the notes from the pathologist, and even though the diagnosis came back negative for cancer, she wanted to take another biopsy and run it through a different test.  She just didn’t feel certain that we had the whole picture.  Turns out that she was 100% correct, and the second test came back positive for lymphoma.  

Q: Did you have any other symptoms?

A: None.  In fact, I had a complete blood work-up and chest x-ray which both came back fine after the first biopsy.  My dermatologist really went above and beyond the call of duty.  She could have just as easily put my file away after the first test.

Q: So the cancer is on your scalp?  Is that what “follicular” means?

A: It is on my scalp, but also in other internal places as well.  Follicular doesn’t have anything to do with hair or scalp, it’s just what they call those particular cancer cells.  I still don’t feel or see the cancer at all.

Q:  What is the chemo like?

A: The actual name is CHOP-R.  The letters each stand for a chemical (the “P” being Prednisone, a strong steroid).  The “R” stands for Rituxan.  Rituxan is not chemo, but a biological agent that hates my type of cancer.  While the chemo kills good and bad cells, the Rituxan just takes out the bad.  It’s pretty much the state-of-the-art when it comes to lymphoma.   It increases your chances for success by 1.5 gazillion percent.   The doctors say that on a 1-10, my chemo cocktail is about a 3.5 in terms of how it impacts me.  I’m having a treatment every 3 weeks for 18 weeks, or 6 rounds of chemo.  

Q: Did your hair fall out yet?

A: Not yet!  But I’m expecting it to any minute now.  Probably eyebrows and eyelashes too.

Q:  Is your cancer curable?  

A: They don’t talk “cure” with this one.  They talk “manage”.  They use the word “remission.”  But they also talk years, and decades cancer-free.  With medicine making such tremendous strides every day, 10 years from now hopefully this, and all other cancers and afflictions will be remedied with a vaccine or other cure.  

Q: Why aren’t you talking about your cancer on the air?

A: I have a little, but this blog is the more appropriate place for people to be updated regularly.  I’m sure it will come up on the air from time to time, but mostly when it’s to talk about the fundraising events of the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.  I’ve worked with them for years even before my diagnosis.  If I can help to shed some light on their wonderful efforts, I’m happy to do so.   

Q: How are your wife and daughter?

A: Everybody is doing very well.  We went through all the normal stages when I was first diagnosed, and we still go through the disbelief from time to time, but tears have been replaced by hope, and the shock has worn off.  We again thank everybody for your concern,  your prayers, and for reaching out to us.  Your support makes an indescribable difference, and has been something we have all leaned on to get through the longer days.

Q: Is this the last question?

A: Yes. 

This entry was posted on Thursday, June 19th, 2008 at 2:11 pm and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.