Chazzkin's Lymphoma

Hi all, Charles is definitely ready for this to be the last treatment. Just coming to the infusion center makes him feel gross. He has a little over 1 hour left for today's treatment. We were just discussing with the nurse that we don't feel like we can celebrate until after the PET in a few weeks, but he did have Oreos as a snack today. Below is a pic of the "red devil" of chemo.

Hi all, Charles had his blood work done and an appointment with the oncologist yesterday in preparation for today's treatment. Blood work looks ok, I guess. He has low hemoglobin and red blood cell counts. This explains his general lack of energy. Hard to function when your cells are not getting enough oxygen. On a good note, his white blood cells are within range, yay. His LDH is high and has been getting higher each treatment cycle since September. The oncologist doesn't really have an explanation for this. A quick google tells you that high LDH is an indicator of tissue damage in the body. They can do a further test to see if it is a specific tissue type, such as heart tissue, liver tissue, lung tissue, or lymphoma. We are not sure what to think about this, but it is concerning. The oncologist was going to schedule the final PET scan for 8 weeks from today, but after seeing the LDH is higher after this cycle, she suggested he have it done mid-November. Right now he's in ...

Hi all, Charles had treatment #5 yesterday. Blood counts were better than they were before the last treatment, but apparently still borderline. Over the last week or so he has been fighting a minor respiratory infection, so I was glad to see that his neutrophils were not too low for treatment. He will get a "shot" that stimulates the growth of neutrophils later today.  The other option was to wait a week for the chemo treatment to allow his body to fight the infection. Charles did not want to delay treatment and asked if there were other options. This shot will be administered by a device called Onpro, which was placed on his arm yesterday. Pretty cool technology that will deliver the medicine 27hrs after the chemo.  He had a little bit of nausea last night since he forgot to take the anti-nausea meds before he went to bed, but once he took it everything was fine. He is not looking forward to being on the Prednisone through Wednesday. Please keep him in your prayers. Tracy