ChemoMan
Senior User
Joined: 04 Jun 2008
Posts: 204
Location: South Australia
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 Posted: Thu Jun 05, 2008 2:05 pm Post subject: Hello from new member |
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Hi. my name is Art. I have just finished 6 cycles of R CHOP on a 21 day cycle treatment for NHL, DLBCL stage 2a.
My first indication something was wrong was in August last year when a few glands popped up under my arm. The Doc's said to wait for a month, and then when they did not go down, a needle biopsy was ordered. That came back inconclusive, so another biopsy was done and a few nodes removed. That also was inconclusive. By December of 07 the glands in my neck had started to swell and another gland was excised for testing. This came back positive for DLBCL. By this time the tumors under my arm were huge and my arm had started to swell due to lymphoedema .
I stated treatment in February and was surprised how easy it was. With in the first week my tumors had completely shrunk from the size of big walnuts to peas...in a week .... ! I could literally feel them melting away, it was very satisfying to say the least. Another good thing about R CHOP was it fixed up the rheumatoid Arthritis I had had for 10 years., so even though I had cancer and was undergoing chemo, I felt better than I had for over a decade. I was almost happy to have NHL. By the way, Rituxan is used to treat severe Rheumatoid arthritis and Rheumatologist's have been having great success with it. Also the massive doses of prednisolone ( the P in CHOP ) help as well. Alas the treatment got worse as far a side effects go , but all the side effects I suffered were much the same as I had been suffering from for 10 years with my Rheumatoid medication, so I was pretty used to it. The worst was cycle 4 were I spent 8 hours vomiting. A new anti emetic called aprepitant fixed that up for the remaining two cycles.
Anyway I had a set of scans done between cycles 3 and 4 and they were good. I have another set of scans to be done in July and that should tell us if I am definitely in remission. So far the Doc would only commit to "it's highly likely that you are in remission" but he did follow that up with " but we are very good at curing this now" not something you would have heard from a haematologist 30 years ago.
Anyway all is good. I am confident that even if the NHL comes back, myself and the medical team can beat this. I have a lot of confidence in the medicine. I have a wonderful partner who has been my rock through this, so like I said I am confident of a good outcome. I would consider another 15 years a very good outcome.
If you do have a diagnosis of cancer , please don't panic. Its not the end of the world, and its not a sentence, its only a word. And its not a monster, it is simply the normal process's of your body running amok.People will tell you to keep a positive attitude , but a google will show that this does not really help in how you respond, so there is hope for the people who cannot be positive. What is really important is that you do not lose your ability to laugh. Read as much as you can about your cancer and its treament and work out your questions before you go to your Doctor's and make sure that if you take complimentary medicine to always tell your doctors what you are taking before you start with them.
Cheers
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Age 52
Diffuse Large B cell Lymphoma
Stage 2a
Finished six cycles of R chop 21 26th May 2008
Officially in remission 9th July 2008
Remission confirmed 1st October 2008
http://cancerforums.net/viewtopic.php?t=9620 |
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