Snoopy's Updates

Erika's four-year ongoing battle with non-Hodgkin's and Hodgkin's Lymphoma after an autologous BMT and non-myeloblative allogeneic BMT.

Friday, April 29, 2005

No Tahoe again

Unfortunately we decided to cancel our trip up to Tahoe again this weekend. I just haven't been feeling so well the past few days and we felt it wasn't worth it to go up there for me to feel miserable. I know I definitely wouldn't have the strength to ski. It appears that this chemo has had minimal side effects on me so far. The only thing I have experienced the past two days are the usual fevers, but I'm not sure those are being caused by the chemo. The last two mornings I have also woken up to episodes of rigors which have taken a lot out of me. I've been sleeping about 14-16 hours a day so you can imagine how exhausted I must feel. Lucky for me, I have many kitties to keep me company in bed all day.

Wednesday, April 27, 2005

Erika's Treatment Update -- Week 45

I just got back from my visit to Stanford. I didn't meet with my oncologist today since she was out on vacation, however I met with my nurse practitioner and had a new chemo called Velban.

Last week (prior to going on vacation), my oncologist had called me to tell me the treatment options that her and some of the other lymphoma specialists had decided on for me. After talking some more with the pathologist, it appears that nobody is certain what disease(s) I may actually have. I could have Hodgkin's, non-Hodgkin's, or both. They don't think they will ever know for sure, so the best thing to do is to treat me as if I have both. One thing they agreed on however, is that most likely I'm no longer responding to Gemzar (the chemo I was getting) since the disease spread to my liver and grew. We've also discovered that the CT I had done last Friday (to rule out a blood clot in my lung) showed that there may be some new nodules in my lung that weren't there on my last CT. This would further conclude that I may have stopped responding to Gemzar and we need to move onto something new. As a result, they have decided to try Velban.

I've never had this new drug before, however I've had two other drugs in the same family (one with CHOP and the other with my first transplant). The side effects are minimal and it takes about five minutes to infuse which is nice. The plan is to do this chemo every week as long as my counts can tolerate it. I'm a little bummed about having chemo every week, especially since Chris and I have been talking forever about planning a trip to Japan and that probably won't happen now.

Next Wednesday I will be back at Stanford to meet with my oncologist and check my blood counts. If all goes well we will go ahead with chemo and re-evaluate with a CT scan after a few doses. We had postponed our Tahoe trip for this weekend so hopefully we will be able to go this time.

Friday, April 22, 2005

Tahoe will have to wait

Our weekend trip to Tahoe has been postponed until next weekend for the time being. I ended up spending the day at Stanford unexpectedly. Yesterday I was experiencing some sharp like pains on my left side near my rib cage and I figured I had sat/laid down wrong and had pulled a muscle. I was sure it would get better overnight and I would wake up fine in the morning, of course that ended up not being the case. I woke up this morning with the pain intensified when I took a deep breath and followed with some "rattling" feeling in my lung. The doctor on-call at Stanford decided that I should come in to get a chest x-ray and some lab work done to rule out anything serious. They thought the "rattling" might be fluid in my lung, which is generally a first sign of pneumonia. Both my chest x-ray and blood counts were fine, however the doctor was still concerned that it could be a blood clot in my lung so he felt it was best to do a chest CT. The CT of my chest showed nothing wrong on the left lung and six hours after we had gotten there I was finally discharged. By that time we felt it was too late to make the trip up to Tahoe and the weather had completely changed so we decided to cancel our trip. I also wouldn't have been able to ski with the pain on my side (which they believe is muscular) so I didn't see a point in going up there considering the weather and gas prices. Hopefully we can still make it up there sometime before the end of the ski season.

Wednesday, April 20, 2005

Erika's Treatment Update -- Week 44

I met with my BMT doctor this afternoon. I figured we would talk more about my biopsy results and discuss treatment options, however he didn't know anything about my results and hadn't talked to my oncologist. So as of today I still don't have anymore information regarding what will be done. I'm scheduled to meet with my oncologist next Wednesday 4/27 for chemo so hopefully I will know more then.

Since my red count is back to normal and I've been feeling pretty well the last few days, Chris and I decided to go up to Tahoe this weekend. I'm not sure how much skiing we will be able to get in due to the spring weather conditions, but I'm just happy to be going up there for the weekend :)

Thursday, April 14, 2005

Liver Biopsy Results

I got a call from my oncologist this afternoon with the preliminary results of my liver biopsy. The pathologist has diagnosed my mass as Hodgkin's disease. For those of you who aren't very familiar with the terminology, Hodgkin's is also a lymphoma, however not the kind that I've had in the past. It's actually a completely different disease. My oncologist is pretty shocked with the news and has no further news at this moment. She's waiting to get the final written report so she can meet with some lymphoma specialists and my BMT doctor to determine what my options are in terms of treatment. They are also wondering if the main mass in my chest is actually Hodgkin's disease and not Non-Hodgkin's. I never had biopsies done after my relapses so it could be possible that I've had a different disease all along. Fortunately the treatments for both diseases are similar although not identical. I should get more information next Wednesday when I meet with my BMT doctor and meanwhile if anything changes my oncologist has promised to call me.

Wednesday, April 13, 2005

Erika's Treatment Update -- Week 43

Today I went in for my 13th chemo treatment. I had my usual blood tests first (which were fine), met with my oncologist, and then had chemo. Everything went smoothly and so far I haven't had the usual high fevers. I was supposed to get the results of my liver biopsy today, however the pathologists have not come up with a diagnosis. It appears that whatever I have is not very obvious and they're deciding between four things: non-Hodgkins lymphoma, graft vs host disease, infection, or Hodgkin's. Because of the extreme difference between all four of these things my doctor thinks there's a chance that they might come up with an unconfirmed diagnoses and we might never know what it is. In that case we would just monitor the mass closely and see what happens. I'm not sure I like that approach very much so I hope they can figure something out. My doctor is supposed to call me as soon as they get the final results and I will make sure to post them as soon as I know.

Sunday, April 10, 2005

Liver Biopsy Update

Okay so I spoke to soon (or should have knocked on wood) when I said I was feeling back to normal Friday night after coming back from our second trip to the hospital. I ended up waking up around 1:30am with a fever of around 103F. After a sleepless night of ice packs and Tylenol every four hours we finally got the fever under control. Saturday I mostly stayed in bed resting, taking several naps, and continuing with the Tylenol regimen. Today was my first fever free day and I finally had enough energy to get out for a little while and enjoy the nice weather.

Friday, April 08, 2005

Liver Biopsy

Today was the big biopsy day, something I was very anxious about and not at all looking forward to. I'm so glad that it's all done with and now I just have to wait for results (I should get them next Wednesday when I see my oncologist). Here is recap of what the week has been like and today's procedure...

Wednesday I went in for my 13th round of chemo. I got my blood drawn (counts looked great), got my pre-meds, and then my nurse decided to call my doctor to see if I needed to get another shot of Procrit. Well when she called she happened to mention that I was scheduled to have my liver biopsy on Friday and immediately my doctor said I wouldn't be able to have chemo. I guess it would be too risky to have the biopsy so close to treatment, especially when this chemo affects your liver. So after a few hours of waiting I ended up going home dissapointed. My chemo was rescheduled for this coming Wednesday 4/13.

By 6:30am today I was at Stanford awaiting my liver biopsy. Again they took blood counts, had the doctor doing the procedure come in to tell me the risks, and then finally I went into the procedure room around 9:30am. I was told I was not going to get any type of sedation or anesthesia so of course I was hysterical and crying the whole way as I was being wheeled in. Luckily once we got to the CT room the nurse working there recognized me from all the previous times I've had CT's done there and told me she would give me a little something (a generic form of morphine) so that made me feel a little better. The procedure itself lasted about 45 minutes with the needle being in me for about 30 minutes. I was awake and aware of everything that was happening (even with the narcotics) which was not very pleasant. Because of the location of the mass they went in right in the middle of my chest and had to go through bone and I could hear/feel the crackling everytime they pushed the needle deeper. I also saw the mass on the monitor that they had and watched as the needle went in and got the samples. They took about five fluid samples and six cuts (they actually cut little microscopic pieces of liver). I can't say the procedure was as painful as the bone marrow biopsies I've had in the past, but it was definitely uncomfortable and traumatizing. After the procedure I was in recovery for about four hours and then I was discharged. Just when Chris and I were getting home I started to have really severe rigors and then I spiked a fever of close to 104F. Just after two hours of being home I had to go back to the hospital and we were sure I was going to be admitted, but somehow the doctor on-call didn't think it was necessary as long as my fever was being controlled with Tylenol. Tonight I feel pretty good, I wouldn't even know I had anything done if it wasn't for the bandage in the middle of my chest. Now of course it's just the anticipation of getting the results on Wednesday, that's definitely never easy.

So no skiing again this weekend, hopefully we will get to go back up before all the ski resorts close down for the season.