When I was diagnosed with T-cell lymphoma in May of 2011 I said that I had joined a club (the cancer club) that nobody wants to join but that has so many amazing and beautiful people in it. That is still how I feel. The cancer journey is a deepened experience of the broader reality that we truly share life together and together are on our journeys. I know we all have experienced this dance with cancer in one way or another and it is a bond of our relationship.
I am a person who is deeply aware of how fortunate, how blessed, I have been and remain. And it is from that knowledge and perspective that I now respond to the recurrence of the lymphoma. I am so fortunate that I have been well all along and basically that there have been no symptoms to signal this cancer. I take that as both blessing and hopeful indicator for the future.
My cancer is sufficiently rare that my amazing local doctors, both occurrences, have been kind and humble enough to refer me to Mayo to consort with world experts on this funky cancer. How amazingly lucky we are in Minnesota to have this great resource so readily available to us, ain't it!?
I received my diagnosis on May 4th and Dr Goueli outlined a process of treatment to begin virtually immediately. What could I say, eh?
So last week I had the first round of chemotherapy. Because of the toxicity of the specific treatment for my brand of cancer the patient is hospitalized for three or four days per round of treatment. Round one completed a week ago--with amazingly little in terms of adverse impact on the old bod.
Had consult at Mayo a few days ago and the plan is for me to complete round two of chemo here in Duluth next week and then proceed to Mayo for treatments preparatory to and including transplant of my own stem cells, fka as bone marrow.
Lots of close monitoring every step of the way but if all goes well we be done with this acute dance by the end of June and then we watch closely and be amazed yet again.
Thanks all for your kindness and care for me and my family We truly feel it and are blessed.
I will try to keep some updates here and, most importantly, I will try to behave myself, not because it is characteristic of who I am but because I owe it to my beloved ones.
Grace and peace my friends and many thanks for walking this journey with us!
CaringBridge is a nonprofit social network dedicated to helping family and friends communicate with and support loved ones during a health journey. Learn more about CaringBridge.
