I'm Out - and without eyebrows

As expected - the MTX was in the right level and I got out of the hospital today and heading home.  Looked in the mirror and noticed my eyebrows are almost completely gone.  Oh well - knew it was going to happen. A lot of the body hair is falling off as well.  Such is the chemo life.

Feeling a little a tired as expected as well. But just so good to be home.  I have now spent 40 days and nights in the hospital.  And only have 16 days left in theory.  Two 6 day R-EPOCH and one last MTX.

My numbers bounced back up on everything except white blood cells - so was glad to get out and get a shot of zarxio today and get those boosted.

Schedule for the next week is blood test on Friday and go back in for R-EPOCH on Tue-Sun of next week. So a nice break. Well needed and deserved. Need to rest up.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

They call me Complete Remission

Image
Not even kidding.  Below are the scans. The one on the left is me riddled with cancer in February -the one on the right is  me today in comp lete remission. This doesn't mean I am cured - it just means that after two cycles of treatment we saw " a diminution of the seriousness or intensity of disease or pain; a temporary recovery."   So now we go for the cure. Note - there is nothing going on in the brain (joke intended), nothing going on in the spine and nothing going on in the lymph nodes.  Yes, we have no cancer.  Even the doc was a little surprised at how well my body responded to the treatment.  For all those who worked so hard to keep my spirits up - it worked. To the prayer warriors around the country who kept lifting us up in your prayers - it worked.  Team Saba has a huge victory today and we thank you all.  We are still going in for Chemo #3 but it got delayed since my body has not fully recovered from all the other crap t...
Read more

Careful what you wish for

Well I wanted to get started and I get my wish. Problem is I have double hit large B cell lymphoma. Cells are mutating making them grow faster and harder to kill. Luckily NIH found the R EPOCH therapy regimen and got similar outcomes to regular lymphoma. The bad news is you get each chemo session over 5 days in the hospital every 21 days. Plus they may add another drug in between. Aggressive cancer equals aggressive treatment. The double hit describes the two mutations that are happening. (and yes double secret probation immediately flashed into my mind). You don't find that until a few days after the biopsy so this was a late breaking update to my diagnosis.  Quite the gut punch - but we kind of knew things were growing pretty fast. Not totally unexpected So a really really rough road ahead. But these guys got it down and they love our chances of kicking this just as hard as it’s kicking me.  I cannot tell you how great our team at MD Anderson was today - our doctor is pr...
Read more

WE ARE DONE! NO MORE CHEMO!!!!!

Image
Ring the bell on the chemo - we are done!  On Sunday, based upon the issues with the methotrexate and my kidneys I emailed Dr. Fowler and asked - since I have been in remission since chemo #2 and I truly believe that no cancer cells could survive the onslaught at this point - do I need chemo #6 (actually chemo 11 at this point) or is the risk to the kidneys too much? He called me on the way to the airport and said that is a good question. He has had 7 patients who ended early and all are still in full remission.  So I asked the question - is there a compelling reason to do #6 - he said he would consult with the very doctors who developed R-EPOCH and ask.  Well apparently at dinner at the big cancer conference last night they discussed my case. Their answer on whether I needed chemo #6 based on all that has happened from those that know the treatment the best:  "absolutely not". So no more chemo. He called me from Switzerland as we were walking the pups on the w...
Read more