Saturday, October 3, 2009

October 3, 2009

As anyone can see by the date, I have, again, been missing log entries. Lots has happened in the last two weeks, most of it bad. Procrastination has always been a problem for me, and it is even worse when you have to write about things you'd rather not talk about.

Lynn got out of the hospital last week. The Lasik worked well, and they were able to get the swelling in her ankles under control, once it was administered intravenously. She got a new doctor (sorry, can't recall his name) for her heart condition, and she really likes him. He was very positive about trying to get the heart failure situation resolved, and had some ideas on how they could get her heart healing again. The main problem, he thought, was that she went off one of the meds too soon, and she need to go on it again. It had taken her blood pressure way down, and that was why she went off it.

One thing that was also done was a cat scan while she was there to check out the condition of the heart and to see what else might be going on. Unfortunately, they did not like what they saw...it looked like the lymphoma might be making a come back. At first, the idea was to take a biopsy of some of the lymph nodes, and see what came back. However, instead, they drained fluid that was building up around her lungs, about a pint, and then set up a pet scan for last Monday. The pet scan involves injecting radioactive dye into the blood stream, and then doing a cat scan. Cancer cells react differently and show up on the scan.

Since the pet scan was going to be done out-patient, Lynn got to go home early. And, the pet scan was done Monday, the 28th. Her oncologist set up a follow-up for the following Thursday, October 1st. Well, Dr. Blair had bad news for us. Her lymphoma is definitely back. Large B cell type II. It is similar to the one she had when she had cancer when she was carrying Mac, but not exactly the same. And, it is far more progressed than before. She was stage I when she had it when she was pregnant. This time, it is stage 4.

Last time she was treated with a chemotherapy mixture called "CHOP". This time, that is not an option. CHOP is too hard on the heart. This time, they will use one called "RICE" - it is easier on the heart and is still very effective. Unfortunately, there will still be a very delicate balancing act between what strength of mixture will kill the cancer, and what will adversely affect her heart. She must be int he hospital this time for at least the first batch of chemotherapy. She heads in sometime on Monday, and will be at least until Thursday. More later - Gary and Sharon are here along with Kelly.