What doesn't kill you makes you stronger...

Friday 1st February 2013

I was all prepared to go in and have Round 4 day 1 of my chemo, we arrived at 11am for my appointment. Sat down in the chemo chair and the nurse started changing my PICC line dressing over. It got to about 11:30 and i said to her "I have an appointment with my doctor at 1pm, chemo wont be finished by then so i am not going to make it" she looked at me and said i wasn't having chemo that day only a dressing change. She went to the reception and checked with the ladies there and came back and told me that No, i was only having the dressing change as my doctor wanted to talk to me before i had anymore chemo. We had to hang around until 1pm to go and see my doctor.

We ended up having to wait until 1:30 as he was running late. I was prepared for bad news as at my last meeting he had explained that there would be a possibility of me going onto the escalated BEACOPP chemotherapy which is mixture of IV chemo and tablet chemo and also a possibility of having another biopsy, but he wanted to put my case to the Lymphoma Board to see what they suggested. So hearing the news that they had all decided it was best to do another biopsy didn't shock me. The reason that they want to do another one is because in my initial biopsy back in October 2012 my results came back saying that i could have either Hodgkin's Lymphoma or Grey Zone lymphoma. Grey Zone actually mimics a lot of the characteristics of Hodgkins, but since i had more characteristics for Hodgkin's this was the diagnosis they gave me. Apparently the doctors actually argued over which diagnosis to give me. There are about 40 different types of Lymphoma, and Grey Zone is actually quite rare. My doctor is almost certain that my diagnosis will come back saying that it is still Hodgkin's. This time he suspects that they will take out the whole lymph node instead of just a sample, and they will be able to cut along the same scar from my previous one. 

If it comes back as Hodgkins, then i go on the escalated BEACOPP, i asked him if the side effects where worse then the current one i am on ABVD, he said on paper yes they are but clinically he didn't think they where. The BEACOPP has tablets that i will need to take, he knows that i struggle with taking tablets so looked into see if there was a liquid version of the tablet and unfortunately there isn't, so this is going to be interesting. 
If it comes back that it is Grey Zone Lymphoma, i think he said that the chemo for that was called RCHOP. He said this used to be an inpatient chemo but he thinks it has changed to a outpatient one now. 

He couldn't tell me when my surgery would be, but said that he has stressed to the surgeons that he wants it done ASAP. I have a meeting with the surgeon and anaesthetist on Tuesday 5th at 10:30am, so i presume that i will find out then when my surgery will be in. So for now my chemo has been stopped and i will find out in the next few weeks what new one i will be on.