No real news, but…

Yesterday was, technically, the beginning of therapy - we reported to UCI for Pat to have her blood drawn for baseline testing. We begin in earnest on Monday. While nothing in the outlook has changed since my last post, we have been in touch with the 2 doctors and they have, at out request, chatted. Our subsequent conversation with Dr. Lilly’s nurse gave us a much better insight into the situation. It was pretty much as we had suspected. The evaluation of the bone biopsy showed 7 of 24 cells with chromosomal abnormalities “consistent with a diagnosis of lymphoma.” For Dr. Krishnan, that information did not push her to recommend the less aggressive cycle of every 2 weeks. Dr. Lilly, on the other hand, felt that the presence of the disturbed cells was enough to warrant the more aggressive periodicity of 2 weeks. Apparently they agreed to disagree and were comfortable leaving the decision up to Pat. We have a couple of weeks to settle on the specific course of action. Pat’s reaction to treatment will play a part in the decision. If the white blood count goes too low, the decision is made for us. The same would be true if Pat finds the treatment excessively debilitating. In either case, Pat begins the therapy at 8 AM Monday.

We continue to be “whelmed”, not overwhelmed, by the tremendous outpouring of goodwill and offers of help. Some have been sensitive and inquired as to our feelings about Pat’s being put on their prayer lists. While that doesn’t conform to our belief system, the personal support that the action represents is, in itself, comforting and appreciated.

Pat is tending to her gardening chores and will soon be on her way to have her nails done. Tonight we are off to dinner and the Segerstom Hall for a concert. Tomorrow we will do our usual Sunday walk around the lake, Pat staying for breakfast, and me taking off for Long Beach to pick up Lauren. Tomorrow afternoon we’ll take Lauren to the theater with us, while we do our last ushering gig for a while. Well that brings us pretty much up to date. I’ll probably be posting more regularly now that Pat has begun her chemotherapy. We can’t thank you enough for the all of the love and support that we feel.

We have just gotten back from UCI and our consultation with Dr. Lilly. He went over the bone marrow report thoroughly. It turns out that there is evidence of the marrow having been invaded although there were no lymphoma cells per se. That makes it Stage IV, if only an early Stage IV. So the treatment cycle becomes 2 weeks rather than 3 weeks. The treatment is called R-CHOP with the initials standing for the 5 drugs that are used. We start treatment On April 19th. Blood is drawn the day before and an injection to raise the white blood cell count is administered the day after treatment. After 4 cycles of treatment the basic tests, including bone marrow biopsy are redone to determine the efficacy of the treatment. If she is clear then, Pat will get 2 more cycles and then be finished except for periodic bone marrow biopsies to check for relapses. As we proceed I‘ll report progress and additional steps as they are manifested.

This was a bit of a blow. On our consult with Dr. Krishnan at City of Hope on Tuesday she did not mention the fact that the report on the bone marrow said that cells were found “that were consistent with lymphoma. This upset Pat quite a bit and we are working off our steam.

After our consultation we had lunch overlooking the beach in Laguna, stopped for gelato, and did some shopping on our way home.

At this point we are trying to get on with our lives and are concerned that the love that all of you have for Pat could prove burdensome. She is torn with saying please don’t call and having to go through the story repeatedly. This blog is the way out. I will post any news here as soon as possible. If you want to talk to Pat about ANYTHING EXCEPT LYMPHOMA, she would be delighted to talk to you. Among the most desirable subjects are: food, wine, shopping, movies and theater. Feel free to give her blog address to anyone who requests it.

Thanks for all your love and support.

Comments

I just changed the settings so that anyone should be able to post comments. Still learning!

Slight change

We have been able to move the April 13th appointment to April 8th. As a result we should have more news by the end of next week. Pat continues strong and were off to our Wine Club meeting this evening.

Just to alert you that there will probably be no new posts until after April 6th. Don't get confused by the prior post. I think that I have the hang of it now. Thanks for being so understanding, Pat can get a bit down going over the story repeatedly,

Pat News

As you know Pat was recently diagnosed with lymphoma, a form of cancer. The diagnosis is just about certain and although chemotherapy is the almost certainly the course of action, a few more tests are being done to ascertain precisely the course of therapy to pursue. Pat has been consulting 2 specialists, one at UCI and the other at City of Hope. In general the response to therapy in this condition is quite good - just how good a result to expect will depend on the results of the tests being done now. Appointments on April 6th and April 13 with theses specialists will define the course of action that we will take. We will be starting the treatments almost immediately after that.