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.
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.
posted by Erika @ 3:37 PM
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