Erika's Treatment Update -- Week 41

Hi!

This has pretty much been an uneventful week, except for my visit with my BMT doctor yesterday so I'll keep it short. I had my blood counts taken yesterday which were really good considering I'm a week out of chemo (usually this is when they're the lowest). It appears that the Procrit shot I got last week is working since my red count is slowly climbing. Of course I experienced huge amounts of back pain the last few days as a result. The new spots on my skin are healing once again and seem to no longer be a concern. Both my oncologist and BMT doctor think they're related to the chemo I'm getting. I discussed my CT scan results with my BMT doctor yesterday and he wasn't surprised by the spot on my liver. He believes that there's a 90% chance that it's lymphoma and a 10% chance that it could be an infection. Of course it was difficult to hear that news, but I guess I kind of realized it myself and just didn't want to admit it. Fortunately I have never received radiation to that area of my body so it's possible to use that treatment method. I'm scheduled to have a liver biopsy next Friday, April 8th to confirm that indeed that's what it is and to get a proper diagnosis. After that we will discuss treatment options.

Chris and I never did go skiing last weekend, we felt it was better that I don't push myself and follow my doctor's recommendation. Now that my red count is steadily climbing and I'm feeling more energized however, I hope to plan a trip up to Tahoe soon.

Erika's Treatment Update -- Week 40

Hi!

Yesterday was a half day spent at Stanford for treatment. I went in to get blood counts, meet with the doctors, and had my 12th round of chemo. The pre-meds for the chemo pretty much knocked me out the whole afternoon/evening. I woke up every couple of hours just to take Tylenol for my fevers and to drink some liquids. I also experienced some mild nausea, but nothing that couldn't be controlled with meds.

As most of you know I had a CT scan done on Monday to determine the prognosis of my disease. I had been very anxious to get the results, especially since this time they did a CT of the chest, abdomen, and pelvis. As my oncologist put it "I'm thrilled with the results." Apparently my tumor in the chest and several nodes in the lung have responded better than they expected and the doctor's are just in awe. With the amount of intense treatment that I've had in the past (including two transplants), it's HIGHLY unlikely to see these type of results, in fact they had never seen anything like it. Of course Chris and I were very pleased with the news. On the other hand, there's a little bit of a concern with my liver. The last scan that I had showed a little mass which they weren't too concerned about until my liver numbers were elevated. The reason for doing the full body scan this time was specifically to see what was going on with that little mass. They can't exactly tell what it is by the scan so it appears that I will have to go through some further testing. I should find out in the next couple of days if I will need to have a PET scan done or a liver biopsy. Although it's unlikely to have a mixed reaction from chemo (meaning shrinkage in one area and growth in another), it's not unheard of.

The spots on my skin have pretty much healed and look like old bruises now, however I've gotten a whole bunch of new ones. My doctor looked at them yesterday and she said these look more like a rash that you can get from the chemo so they're not worried. I have an appointment with the dermatologist again next week so she can take a look at them. I'll also be seeing my BMT doctor next week, which I always look forward to.

I'm not sure what our plans are for the holiday weekend yet. We were supposed to go skiing with some friends in Tahoe, however after I told my doctor about being short of breath the last time I was up there she didn't really recommend that I push myself. I was able to convince her to give me a shot of Procrit which will increase my red blood cell count, but that takes up to three weeks to start working.

Hope you all have a great Easter!! Thanks again to those of you who post comments, I really enjoy reading them!!

Erika's Treatment Update -- Week 39

Hi everyone!

Hope you all had a good weekend. We were up at Tahoe for the weekend and just got back tonight. Here's a quick summary of our weekend and how I've doing since my last visit to Stanford...

• Chris and I drove up on Saturday morning and arrived in Tahoe in the afternoon (it was beautiful weather up there). We were exhausted from the day before and driving so we simply took a nap, made dinner, and played some board games with my sister, dad, and aunt. Sunday we woke up early and went to Diamond Peak for what we thought would be a full day of skiing. After going up on the lift I noticed it was very hard for me to breathe (due to the elevation and my red blood count being low) so we had to take many breaks going down the runs. After lunch I was way too exhausted and out of breath to continue (and the snow was very slushy) so we decided to call it a day. I think that's the first time I haven't been able to ski a complete day which was pretty upsetting. I think until my red blood count is back to normal it's better for me to stay away from high elevation areas. Also when we got back to the timeshare I noticed that my ski boot had put too much pressure on my calf where my biopsy was and it opened up the wound enough to bleed and cause pain, which meant that we wouldn't be able to ski the next day as intially planned. We still managed to make the best of the rest of the day though and took Pebbles down to the lake shore where she played with a whole bunch of dogs ten times her size and swam in the lake for about a minute. The lake was freezing cold as you can imagine so she shivered the whole ride back to the condo. Monday morning we slept in, had lunch, and took off for home. We had to drop my sister off at Sonoma State first so it was quite a lengthy drive. Overall we had a great weekend and it was nice to relax and get out of the Bay Area for a few days.
• As far as my mysterious rash is concerned, it has gotten much better and the spots look more like bruises that are in the process of healing. The dermatologist that I saw at Stanford last week didn't feel comfortable having me wait two weeks to come back for a follow-up so most likely I'll see her early this week instead. Besides the low energy level and shortness of breath that I experienced in Tahoe I have been feeling generally good. I've had no fevers for almost two weeks now (knock-on-wood) and no side effects with the last round of chemo. I even went into the LLS office last Thursday to volunteer for two hours and are going back in this Wednesday to help out again.

Thank you to all for the birthday wishes via email, cards, and e-cards!! It was a great day, one of the best birthday's I've had!

Erika's Treatment Update -- Week 38

Hi!

Well I've had my share of Stanford these past two days. Yesterday I went in for my 11th chemo. My counts were good (no elevated liver numbers), my cultures were negative, and no mystery rigors/fevers so my doctor gave me the okay to proceed with chemo. I had my treatment around 5pm and slept through the entire rest of the afternoon, evening, and night. No fevers or nausea so far (knock on wood) this time around...yuppee! I also got the okay to go skiing this weekend :)

My skin biopsy results were a different story. The results showed some type of unspecific dermatitis, which basically means there's something there, but they don't know what it is. We do know it's not lymphoma, which of course is good news. There were more spots all over my lower legs and arms so it was decided that I see an infectious disease specialist and dermatologist today. The infectious disease specialist had no idea what it could be, she asked if I had all my vaccinations when I was a small child and that was about it (wanted to eliminate measles/mumps as an option). The dermatologist was just as clueless and said she hadn't seen anything like it. Both haven't eliminated the possibility of it being GVHD (graft vs host disease), however that is very unlikely due to the pattern of it. For now I'm just supposed to keep an eye on it and if it gets any worse I'm supposed to go back. Thankfully it doesn't itch or bother me, however pretty soon I will start to look like a relative of a leopard if it doesn't clear up! They removed the stitches from my biopsy site also which was nice, it was starting to look like I was growing a bunch of long, unattractive hairs on my calf...yuck!

So that was my excitement of the last two days. Right now I'm not scheduled to go back until the 21st for my full body CT and then on the 23rd for the results as well as treatment.

Erika's Treatment Update -- Week 37

Hi everyone!

Today was quite a long day for me at Stanford. What was supposed to be a normal day of getting chemo and seeing my doctor's turned into some unexpected events instead.

Last week I noticed some pink rash like spots on my leg and arms so I went to Stanford so my nurse practioner could take a look at them. They took some blood tests and she circled the spots so we could keep an eye on them. The spots seemed to get better as the days went by, however my blood tests showed some very abnormal liver levels (about 10x higher than what they were the week before and much higher than the normal). The concern was that the chemo I'm getting was possibly affecting my liver worse than expected, a sign of graft vs host disease, or even the possibility of my lymphoma spreading. They repeated the tests today when I went in and thankfully they were back to normal (they're not sure what could have caused the elevated numbers or if it was simply a lab mistake). I'm going to have a full body CT scan on March 21st to make sure there's nothing funny going on that they might be missing out on. My chest x-ray today on the otherhand showed an improvement on the main mass, which is always nice to hear.

I was also seen by the head dermatologist today for the spots on my leg and they felt it was best to do a biopsy to rule out any type of infection or possibly the lymphoma spreading to my skin. After a painful dose of novacaine and a couple of stitches, I still managed to walk two miles tonight at the track training for the TNT walk team (I couldn't do more because of a nose bleed that wouldn't stop).

As for chemo today, that's another story...when my oncologist came in to see me I started shaking uncontrollably and had a fever (which I've been having on a daily basis) so they ended up doing all kinds of blood cultures from my cathether and arm and she felt it was best to admit me into the hospital for a couple of days. After much begging, Chris and I were able to convince her that it wasn't necessary for me to be admitted and that I would be much better off at home...she finally agreed. Unfortunately, they can't do chemo until the cultures and biopsy come back because it would be to risky to do if I have some sort of infection. Right now my chemo is on hold until this coming Monday pending everything comes back negative. I'm hoping to eventually get back to my Wednesday chemo schedule otherwise I probably won't be able to take my tap classes, which I was very much enjoying.

So it has definitely been a tough, unpredictable day, hopefully next week will bring some better news. My dad has booked a timeshare up in Tahoe for next weekend and Chris and I are looking forward to finally going up there so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that everything will be better. I've been wanting so bad to go skiing this season!!