First follow up.

Holly and I went to the "facility" today at lunch to get her bloodwork checked.  While we were waiting in the lobby, we talked with 3 other individuals that were going through their treatments for leukemia.  One lady was returning from her 5th remission.  In other words, she went through the chemo process 5 other times that they thought they had it beat.  It really emphasizes how truly lucky we are that Holly's cancer is one of the milder forms and is so treatable.

We picked up about 10 cherry pies from McDonalds for the nursing staff, and they were very grateful.  It was nice to do for them, because they have all been so nice and supportive.  I think we'll do that every time.  Its only $5, but well worth the smiles we get.

After Holly gave some more blood, the nurse came by and went over Holly's levels.  Overall, she was very pleased.  She was able to tell that Holly had been drinking all the water she was supposed to as her kidney levels were very good, which is what they want to see.  The kidney is really stressed during chemo between the pills and the dead cancer cell that are being purged, so its good to keep water running through it constantly.

The worst of the nausea should be past for this round, and the hair should start falling out after this week.  Oh boy.

I fly out to Baltimore tomorrow, but will be returning Friday night and will be with her during our next Monday visit.  I'll see if I can get K or V to post H's progress next week.

Oh, we have had several friends bring over food, and it's greatly appreciated.  We have food coming out of our ears, and are very grateful for all the support you guys have for Holly.

Day 3 after Chemo (Friday)

Others have found that the 3rd day is typically the worst, so we held our breath today, but so far so good.  Her energy level is at a 4/10, and stomach is still 7/10.  She goes into her cleaning mode which is normal activity for her but has to stop every once in awhile and let her stomach settle.

I know what you're thinking, I should tell her not to move around, but the doctors want her to be active, so, she gets to be active.  I had to make her stop working on her PC around 6:30 pm last night to rest a bit.  She takes her job very seriously.

She was actually feeling well enough to ride with me for some errands and enjoyed the sunlight, even though it was 15 degrees outside.

I downloaded the "bald app" on my phone and showed her what she would look like.  Wasn't my most shining moment.  She offered to download the "dead" app and show me what I would look like if I posted the picture here.

Day 2 after Chemo (Thursday)

Holly slept in a bit this morning (which is good) and got up around 9'sh.  No bad events last night, she took a nausea pill before going to bed "just in case".  Her energy level is a 3 out of 10, and healthwise she fells she's a 7 out of 10 which is overall positive.  The dreaded effects haven't surfaced yet.  She's at her desk working as I speak.  Sorry, no pics.  She's getting tired of me pointing the back of my phone at her.

UV Sanitation Installed in HVAC.

On other news, I forgot to mention that KLM Mechanical was able to clean our ducts last week with an expedited schedule as well as install a UV "virus zapper" in our HVAC system.  Special thanks to KLM and my friend and the father of our son-in-law Scott, Tony for helping getting the process expedited.  Their crew even shoveled the driveway and sidewalk in case Holly had to go out.   I was out of town and was unable to do any shoveling nor was Holly after recovering from her port insertion procedure.

Also a big thank you to my father's company, ECI-IMS in Chattanooga that gave us a high tech bacteria and virus removal device that will also assist with keeping the air clean, as well as eliminating odors.  Odors aren't an issue, but I've seen this device before really clean up other buildings that smelled really bad.

Back to normal... for now.

For those wondering how Holly is doing, she was a little nauseous yesterday, took some meds.  Doing okay today.  She's getting onto her normal activities, working at her desk.  She complained yesterday that bread smelled like fish, and the newly washed sheets smelled like roasted turkey.  Just a sign of things to come I suppose.   I'm hoping I smell like rainbows or unicorns to her, but given my history, it won't be a pleasant scent.

Thank You!

Me watching Man of Steel while I get my cancer Kryptonite!

I just wanted you all to know how much I appreciate your love, support and prayers.  I can't thank you enough.  I've just ended the second day of my first chemo session and I feel great!  As I told Julia, the worse is behind me now that I'm in treatment, every day that goes by now means less cancer, and that is a great day!  I'm not going to enjoy losing my hair, but my brother-in-law Jim told me how he looked at it when he went through chemo - every hair lost means another cancer cell gone, what a great way of looking at it. So the next

And Treatment has Started

Many may view this as a horrible event to have to go through, but given all the possibilities and results so far, I was very happy that we were able to get Holly started on her treatment.  You can't fix it until you start working on it, and that is what we started today.

The first round is a two day cycle, with today being the first part of the "R-CHOP".  Today Holly got several bags of the "R" part, which is called rituximab.  It is not the stuff that causes hair loss, that's the CHOP part of the process.  We get that tomorrow, along with another dose if the rituximab.  The Rituximab is essentially an antibody that targets non-hodgkins lymphoma cells, so it is attacking the cancer as I am writing this post.

And the Verdict Is.....

I heard from Holly about an hour ago.  She had just had a port put in her chest which will act as a location to insert the chemicals during her Chemo sessions.  Afterwards she spoke with the doctor on the results.

Here is what we know at this point:

• Her bone marrow is clear; no leukemia thank God.
• She has masses on her neck, chest and in her abdomen.
• The masses are limited to her lymph nodes throughout parts of her body.
• This is considered stage 3 Lymphoma, and is still very treatable.

FIRST Oncology Appointment

More Paperwork!

So, Mom told me to "Make it upbeat!" I think she's crazy...but I'll try. ;) But really, our day started off kind of funny. After going the wrong way into the cancer center drop-off circle (but in my defense, it wasn't marked well!) and getting a tongue lashing from the parking attendant for going into said exit, we made it safely (is that considered safely?)! We got into the center, took the elevator to the second floor after hearing a nurse mumble something about "if it weren't for the time clock, I wouldn't get any exercise...", and got her registered. Poor Mom. I really hated seeing her sit there giving insurance information and her license for something like this. She should only be "carded" because she looks so young. I didn't get paid to say that. ;) On a side note, apparently The Jackson 5 is the band to listen to when you need to lighten the mood in

Appointment with Oncologist set.

We have an appointment with Dr. Herzig at the Brown Cancer center on Tuesday the 14th at 8am.  The initial date was going to be the 24th, but we were able to get in there sooner.  We don't expect to get a lot of news during this meeting, as we expect there to be many more tests to see what treatment is necessary.

Insight from my brother

My brother went through lymphoma about 8 years ago and shared with me his experience.  He allowed me to share his email:

Mine was large b-cell non-hodgkins lymphoma on the thyroid Stage 1  I had 3 rounds of chemo followed by 4 weeks of radiation (which was no worse than getting an x-ray).  Even though my tumor went from close to my heart into my neck, I was still given a greater than 90% chance of cure. (3 continuous years of remission).
Lymphoma is one of the few cancers that we are able to cure.  All the doctors will tell you the most important thing is a positive attitude.  So don't read the internet.  That will really terrorize you because they talk worst case so much.  So swallow any pride and take any and all help people offer.  If they say "What can I do?" ask them to help with a meal or two when you are too busy helping her to cook.  Assign them something when they ask.
If she get the similar treatment that I did. you will need little things that will make a difference later.

Pathology Results Complete

We are still waiting on a meeting/review with an Oncologist (should call sometime soon) but we did hear that the pathology came in and it was what was initially guessed at which is "Diffused Large Cell B Cell Lymphoma."

We still need to meet with an oncologist to see what is next.  We hope to do that this week.  We need an oncologist to fully interpret the results and determine the next steps.

Monday update

Not a whole lot to report.  We met with the surgeon as a follow-up on Friday as Holly was concerned about the swelling around the incision.  The surgeon, Dr Flynn said it was normal and looked to be healing nicely.

We did get a copy of the preliminary pathology which is not final by any stretch of the imagination, but the preliminary "quick" diagnosis is that the cells look to be large B type lymphoma cells.  If you have a medical background don't judge me on my misuse of the words, I don't have the paper in front of me.

The good news in this is that my brother had that type cell and was able to be cured with three 3 week sessions of chemo and radiation.  The bad news is that we still don't know if it is localized to the lymph nodes or if it originated from someplace else in her system.

While in the waiting room, I reached out to an oncologist that Kristin found.  We hope to hear back from them for an appointment sometime this week and hope to get the full pathology of the removed lymph node by Tuesday (hopefully).

The incision

Here's a picture of the incision.  I think it will heal nicely.  The stitches are underneath, and the skin was essentially "glued".

Ouch!

Welcome to Holly's Update Blog

Hi everybody.  This is my first post for a blog I set up to provide updates on Holly's progress.  As many of you know, Holly had one of her swollen lymph nodes removed surgically to perform a pathology on it.  There was concern that a needle aspiration style biopsy might miss some potentially problem cells, so this was considered to be the best approach.