Round 2 Begins

OK I wrote this yesterday but then fell asleep and forgot to post. I thought I’d post  it anyway since it reflects a lot of what we were thinking about as we began this new phase. I just got back from the latest session and I will make a report on that soon.. I am feeling ok now.

Round two of our battle with T-cell lymphoma officially begins tomorrow at 10:40 AM.. My first chemotherapy session will begin then. This will be a very different type of chemotherapy then what I did before. Last time we infused the CHOP combination. This time the drug is Brentuximab Vedotin, also known as adcetris. Side effects are supposed to be much less. The chemical is delivered by antibodies directly to the lymphoma so hopefully it will work faster and I will retain my hair and the other things I lost at the last one. Even though the cancer is the same it feels quite different. This time it is pushing on organs and nerves which causes a lot of pain. In the first chemotherapy group I rarely needed to use pain pills or nausea pills. I haven't even gotten to the chemo yet and I've been regularly using the pain pills. The good news is the doctors expect the lymph nodes to shrink and the pain to dissipate very very quickly over the next week or so. Of course, anytime you're using a new chemical you really have no certainty when and exactly how it's going to affect your body. That's a little scary. I am hoping and praying that my body handles this just as well as it handled the first round.

Joyce and I were talking in the car today and discussing how we are feeling about this.  To me the scary part is the harvesting of stem cells and then transplanting them back into my body at a later time. Anytime the word transplant is used that seems pretty serious. I know that we will have to be at Stanford hospital for that and I don't know how long we will be staying there. At least with the first round of chemo we got used to what was going on. I am feeling this will be a whole new experience. Things got a little more serious. Nevertheless God is not overwhelmed buy a more serious cancer situation, nor does it matter whether by a little or by a lot he overcomes. That's what we're praying for and that's what we're asking you to pray for.