Diagnosis Day

I want to start off this post by saying how amazed I am at the response to this blog.  The fact that so many of you care and are finding encouragement through this really means a lot to me.  I'm working on a whole post dedicated just to the support we've received so far, so I'll spend more time writing about it there, but just the fact that so many of you are following this makes me know that we're not going through this alone by any means. 

So today I had my appointment at Lahey with my oncologist, Dr. D'Silva to discuss the results of the biopsy and the recommended treatment plan.  My parents came over to pick me up and Tiffany would meet us there after she dropped Genevieve off at ballet class this morning.  My sister Erin graciously offered to pick Genevieve up from class and take her to her house for a few hours after.  We met up in the waiting room and soon after we were called in.  No blood work today, just a visit with the doctor, so the four of us crowded in the small exam room and waited for him to join us. 

Dr. D'Silva came in and asked how I was recovering from the biopsy disaster.  I told him I was doing well and showed him the incision on my stomach.  Then he got right to the point.  "You have non-Hodgkin's follicular grade 3B lymphoma.  Because the tumor is larger than 10cm, it is treated exactly the same as diffused large B cell lymphoma.  It is curable, but in your case since you are so young, we consider it 'treatable' as there is such a long period after where it will probably come back."  Curable.  Treatable.  These were good words that I wanted to hear.  "Curable" refers to the high 5 year survival rate, so obviously since I have a long time after that to live, the odds of it coming back sometime down the road are greater, but I'm not worried about that right now.

The treatment is chemotherapy with a regimen called R-CHOP which stands for the names of the 5 drugs in it.  The treatment lasts for about 5 months; 6 cycles of 3 weeks each and may be followed by radio immunotherapy, which consists of radioactive injections to further kill off the cancer cells.  I have an appointment next week with the director of the lymphoma center at Massachusetts General Hospital, Dr. Jeremy Abramson, to provide a second opinion on the diagnosis and treatment plan and then my first treatment will be on April 1st.  I'm also scheduled to have surgery tomorrow to have a port implanted in my chest, which will allow access for the chemotherapy for the duration of treatment.  We'll also be back at Lahey next week for a teaching session.  This is where a nurse will go through all of the details of the chemotherapy with us to help us adjust to what life will be like for the next 6 months.

I know that the road is not going to be easy, but I'm filled with hope.  Even though this is what we expected to hear, the news hit Tiffany hard.  She doesn't want to watch me suffer and I'm sure it's a helpless feeling.  The side effects are supposedly nausea, vomiting and fatigue, and although there are drugs that can help, there is no way to totally avoid them.  It's still a trade I will gladly make to get rid of the cancer.  I read this verse this morning that encouraged me in Psalm 27:13-14 "I remain confident of this: I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord."  The land of the living.  Yes.  

After the appointment Tiffany and I stopped at a nearby Applebee's for lunch.  It's rare that we can do that with just the two of us, so we took advantage since her mom had Nadia and Genevieve was with my sister.  Once we sat down I looked up and noticed who was plastered on the wall in front of me: non-Hodgkin's lymphoma survivor Jon Lester, so I took that as another good sign.  

Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma survivor Jon Lester

This song has been on my heart lately.  I may not like the road I have to take, but I know who is by my side.