Every year my daughters ask me what I want for Christmas and every year I answer “Peace on earth”. If you think about it if you have your health, happiness and if you are surrounded by your friends, family and loved ones… what else do you need as you celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ.
This week I find out how I am doing with the health part.
12/12/11 – I went for my scans today. There has been a change how the barium sulfate contrast is given to us before a scan. For my past scans I would start drinking it the night before and finish it about 90 prior to the scan. Now we have to get to the Radiology office 2 hours before the scan and drink all the contrast there. It is certainly not as convenient but I am sure there was a good reason for this change.
12/16/11 – I met with Dr. Goy today and he gave me the excellent news that my scans were all clear. Now that is certainly a fantastic early Christmas present. I am now looking forward to a great Christmas with my friends, family and loved ones. I wonder if I will also get the “Peace on Earth” I asked for?
As many of us are shopping and rushing about to get ready for the Holiday we often lose sight of the real meaning of Christmas. Here is a link to a song on YouTube that reminds us what Christmas is all about: http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=OExXItDyWEY&vq=medium
I continue to be on a checkup schedule of every 6 months. My next scan is scheduled for June 11th and my follow-up appointment with Dr. Goy is on June 15th.
My next posting will be in June after I get my scan results.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to All
6 comments:
CONGRATULATIONS!
What Great news! It is fantastic to read about your news. It does make it a Merry Christmas and Good News for the New Year.
I posted about my wife having been diagnosed with Mantle Cell in 2011. She had her stem cell transplant on September 14th and her scans on November 16th indicated she was Lymphoma-free.
Let's continue to give thanks to Our Lord for all this news.
Charlie in Concord, NC
Hey Charile,
AMEN to continuing to give thanks to Our Lord.
This is fantastic news about your wife. God is GREAT!
Rich
Rich,
I've just read your blog from day 1 to date - good effort. I'm recently diagnosed with MCL (aged 52) and am currently undergoing treatment - cycle 2 sch A finishing today. I have a couple of questions which i hope you won't mind answering.
1. Do you have a maintenance regime or since you are in remission, do you just continue effectively drug free?
2. I haven't seen any mention of you receivng a stem cell transplant. Some of the readings I have seen state that this transplant works better if actioned earlier. I just wondered what the thought process was in your situation.
3. Are you now essentially back to full health, work and living life to the full. Any changes you have made to lifestyle, nutrition etc. that you have deemed necesaary / of benefit.
Thanks again for a great blog. I'm following your blog & my blog can be accessed from there if of interest.
Alan (Hairy Mel)
Hi Alan,
My thoughts and prayers are with you as you go through your treatments. I am very confident that you will be as good a new before you know it.
Of course, I do not mind answering your questions.
1. Your Question: Do you have a maintenance regime or since you are in remission, do you just continue effectively drug free?
Answer: I actually am not on any type of maintenance regime. The only thing that I must do is to get rechecked on a periodic basis. At first it was every three months but now I get my blood checked and have a CT scan once every 6 months.
2. Your Question: I haven't seen any mention of you receiving a stem cell transplant. Some of the readings I have seen state that this transplant works better if actioned earlier. I just wondered what the thought process was in your situation.
Answer: My treatment did not include a stem cell transplant. The study that I participate in does not require it. The study I am in is called: Phase I study bortezomib (VELCADE) plus rituximab-hyperCVAD alternating with bortezomib plus rituximab-high dose methotrexate/cytarabine in patients with untreated aggressive mantle cell lymphoma. This study is a joint venture with John Theurer Cancer Center at Hackensack (NJ) University Medical Center and MD Anderson in Houston, Texas. The study included 18 patients. The last update I received was that 17 out of 18 are still in remission. As far as which treatment is most effective, I am probably not the best one to ask. I’ll leave that to the medical experts.
3. Your Question: Are you now essentially back to full health, work and living life to the full. Any changes you have made to lifestyle, nutrition etc. that you have deemed necessary / of benefit.
Answer: Now that I am a few years removed from by treatments I have to say that the impact on my life was that I lost about a year but gained a whole lot of perspective. My life is pretty much back to normal with very little change. Although I should look to have better nutrition and exercise more (as everyone should) I must admit that I do not. I do lead a very active life between work, family, community service etc… and I never feel that my past medical challenges ever slow me down. The one thing that has had a little bit of an impact on me is that my immune system isn’t back to 100% of what it used to be and I do tend to get more upper respiratory infections than I ever had in the past. Now don’t get me wrong, it’s not real bad, I just have to take precautions when I do things like traveling on an airplane. I usually try things like taking Airborne. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t.
I truly hope this was helpful. I know that you will be back doing all the things you love soon.
Thanks,
Rich
Hello,
I have a question about your blog, could you email me?
David
Hi David, or anyone else who would like to email me versus communicating via this BLOG. Please feel free to email me at: RichFranco317@gmail.com
Thanks,
Rich
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