KevinM
New User
Joined: 18 May 2006
Posts: 1
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 Posted: Thu May 18, 2006 3:20 am Post subject: Lymphoma is back? |
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Hello. I'm writing for my wife. As a very brief backgound: She is a 33 year old female diagnosed with diffuse large b-cell lymphoma, stage 4 in July of 2005. Since diagnosis she has had several rounds of chemotherapy and radiation. She has also received an autologous stem cell transplant and a mini-allogeneic. She also received a dose of Zevalin prior to the mini-allo transplant.
It has been a long, extremely stressfull journey. Two weeks ago she had developed some symptoms of headaches, low-grade fever, mild coughing, and itching skin. The docs took some blood cultures, throat swaps, etc. The doctors dismissed her symptoms as GVHD or medication complications and told us to continue as normal after making some drug changes. This past week, since her symptoms did not resolve despite medication changes, I became angry and pushed hard for further testing suspecting something was wrong.
Consequently the doctors performed a brain MRI, a bone marrow aspiration, a chest CT and abdominal CT. The brain MRI and bone marrow aspiration came back negative.
The chest CT and abdominal CT showed 2 new spots of possible infection or new lymphoma. The first was a spot the doctors described as being behind the heart. Is there even a lymph node there?
The second was that she had an enlarged spleen, with spots over her spleen. Consequently the doctors are going to schedule a PET scan to figure out what is going on. They also ran some different blood tests to check for infection.
I'm wondering if anyone else has come across a similar situation. Where do we go from here?
My wife is distraught, and she is talking about her death. I'm devestated, and have mixed feelings ranging from anger to depression. I want to lash out, at doctors or God or anything I can lash out on. She was doing so well up until two weeks ago. I can't imagine life without her, and it seems I will have to. We have worked so hard, bought our first home, and were just starting to live the life of our dreams before she was diagnosed. I feel like I'm carrying a bowling ball in my chest. I just want to grow old with her. Is that too much to ask? I'm sorry, I'm so screwed up right now I can't think straight. |
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garyba
Regular
Joined: 10 May 2006
Posts: 14
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| Posted: Thu May 18, 2006 8:00 pm Post subject: Re: Lymphoma is back? |
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| Take a deep breath, and try to calm down, even if "its" back, that doesn't mean death. Many new drugs are coming out, with great results. Take each day as it comes,enjoy each other, and live life. |
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