Treatment Plans

The last few days I've been feeling pretty awful. My fevers have been high again and I've been taking Tylenol/Advil every 4-6 hours. At night I'm usually up battling chills from the fevers, drenching night sweats, or bone pain. Monday night I woke up with extreme pain in my left shoulder. The pain gradually got better throughout the day on Tuesday, but I started developing pain all throughout my joints/bones. It's hard to tell if the pain has gotten any better since it's been masked with all the Tylenol/Advil I've been taking. The most difficult part has been going to work with few hours of sleep and feeling so miserable.

All these symptoms made me more anxious to get the PET/CT done right away so I could start some type of treatment. I was able to get my appointment with my oncologist moved to next Monday to get the results, however yesterday I was feeling so awful that I decided to call my NP to give her an update. I was surprised to hear her say that she would call my doctor immediately and that the best thing was probably for me to start treatment as soon as possible due to all the symptoms I have been having. This made me wonder if they knew something about my PET/CT results. She promised to call me back later that afternoon, but unfortunately I missed her call.

This morning I had an e-mail from my oncologist when I got to work. She said that she had talked to my NP and therefore had the reading of my PET/CT results expedited. The scan showed that my disease is only PET active in the new lung mass that was biopsied. I talked to my NP later in the day and she read the preliminary radiology report to me. They concluded that my liver mass was no longer visible on the CT, the mediastinal mass didn't light up on the PET, there was a small growth on one area of my chest (which didn't light up on the PET), but it's an area that was directly hit with radiation so they're thinking it's scar tissue, and the only area of activity was the new lung nodule.

Because the nodule in my lung is Hodgkin's just like what was found in my liver, my oncologist (along with some guidance from other Lymphoma experts) decided that it was best that I go back on velban (vinblastine). This is the chemo that I had prior to having my latest radiation treatment. The mass in my liver responded very well to this drug and so they hope that it will be the same case for my lung. The reason I had been taken off of that drug is because my mediastinal mass had started growing again. Now that that seems to be under control, I can go back on it again. I will start my first treatment tomorrow (they don't want to wait a day longer) and will be receiving it every other week. Because this drug really affected my white blood count last time, I will be getting Neupogen shots on a daily basis for 7 days after treatment. That will definitely be a challenge since my dad is only here every two weeks and he's my "shot giver." Chris isn't looking forward to taking on the new role.