I had a regular 3 month follow-up PET/CT scan scheduled after the weekend we got back anyway, so I just kept that appt. It showed what I thought, a large swollen superficial lymph node and two smaller ones deeper and further up the chain. Luckily there were no signs of disease anywhere else and we had caught it very early. A biopsy still had to be performed and was scheduled for a couple days later. That weekend we had a family reunion at my parents' house. I got the news from a friend in the pathology department since it was a holiday weekend. It was cancer again. I learned that the next step in treatment would be chemotherapy then an autologous bone marrow transplant and there would be no way I could start residency before October. It was good to be surrounded by friends and family when getting all of this news. Even if nothing can be said or done to help, just the presence of loved ones around helps.
When we got home we took the house off the market, I contacted my residency program, and we set up a schedule for treatments. I was lucky again to find out that one of the most effective chemotherapy regimens that is used for relapse of my disease is done outpatient. That was the treatment the doc preferred and definitely the one I did. Being stuck in the hospital for 5 days at a time was like Chinese water torture. I would receive chemo 1 day every 2 weeks until my PET scan was negative and then move on to the transplant. An appt. was made with the transplant specialist at Washington University in St. Louis since the University of Missouri doesn't do bone marrow transplants. It was frustrating not having any sort of time line and having to try and coordinate how things would be done between the two institutions and specialists since everyone has a certain way they like things done and their own opinions, but everything has worked out.
I saw the transplant specialist at the end of June after 2 rounds of chemo. She recommended doing a PET/CT(to make sure I was in remission,)when we got back from our trip to Utah, one more round of chemo (which I was not happy about), and then waiting 3 weeks to let my body and blood counts recover a bit before starting the bone marrow transplant. Even with the bone marrow transplant all the docs I have talked to have said there is only a 50-60% cure rate. Nothing like the flip of a coin! However, when they say cure, they mean cure. As in, it will never come back.
We went to Utah to visit my in-laws over the 4th of July and had a great time seeing tons of family and friends. I had the PET/CT on the 7th of July and it was completely negative. My cancer is in full remission again. I'm glad, but I'm not getting too excited about it considering how quickly it came back last time and looking at what I still have to go through. I did my last round of chemo before the transplant on the 8th and then had all the tests needed to make sure I can do the transplant (PFTs, Echo, EKG, CXR etc.) on the 12th. Now I just wait to feel better before they practically kill me and then bring me back to life. I'll explain the bone marrow transplant in more detail in my next post. For now, I'm just glad I'm finally getting my taste and energy back little by little.
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