I'm back from my overnight at Hotel Hope, where I received a "conditioning regimen" of Cytoxan. I'm not suffering any side effects from the chemo, but I'm still groggy from the Benadryl and Atavan. As the anesthesiologist told me last week, "You're a cheap date."
Tomorrow I start a week-long round of daily self-injections of Neupogen, a drug designed to make the stem cells flee from the bone marrow to the circulatory blood. With just three doctor's visits, daily Heperan flushes and three-times-a-week bandage changes for my Hickman catheter, it will be a relatively "easy" week.
And then on August 6 we'll be ready to start harvesting stem cells. This will be like having a part-time job, albeit a very cushy one. I report for duty at 8:00 am and will sit in an easy chair for 4.5 hours. The machines will do all the work of collecting blood, sorting out the stem cells and then returning the blood to me, sans stem cells.
I'll be perfectly content sipping cranberry juice with one of those little bendy straws, munching graham crackers, chatting and reading books and magazines. God only knows how many days this can go on. Some people are able to produce enough stem cells in as few as three days, others can take up to ten days and some are never able to produce enough. Time will tell which category I fall into.
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March 2008 - Sometimes I feel like a wig.
Sometimes I don't.
Up a tree and feeling on top of the world
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Links
- About Stem Cell Transplants
- Asians for Miracle Marrow Match (A3M)
- City of Hope
- City of Hope: Donating Blood or Platelets
- Daily Survival Guide for Serious Illness (Gilda's Club and the Tom McDermitt Fund)
- Histopathology of MCL
- Leukemia & Lymphoma Society
- Lymphoma Information Network
- Lymphoma Research Foundation
- Mantle Cell Lymphoma Consortium
- National Cancer Institute
- Your Brain After Chemo
What does a writer do when she finds out she has stage 4 Mantle Cell Lymphoma? She blogs. Because, as everyone knows, cancer sucks, but blogging rocks.
On January 26, 2007, I was diagnosed with Stage 4 Mantle Cell Lymphoma (blastic variety), a rare, aggressive and treatment-resistant form of non-Hodgkins Lymphoma.
My team at the City of Hope decided to bring out the big guns - six rounds of Hyper CVAD followed by an autologous stem cell transplant. I bounced back after each round of chemo, but my blood counts didn't.
After four rounds we called chemo quits and started collecting stem cells for the auto stem cell transplant. The harvesting took three tries, two drugs and eight weeks, but I finally eked out the minimum two million stem cells.
After megadoses of chemo, I received my stem cells on November 14 and 15, 2007. I bounced back almost immediately. Best of all, I achieved complete remission from the Mantle Cell Lymphoma.
In January 2008, I was hospitalized for 11 days for chemo-induced pneumonia. I bounced back.
In the summer of 2008, my eosinophils (a component of the white blood cells) rose to dangerous levels and infiltrated my lungs and GI tract. My weight dropped to 105 pounds, and I was incapacitated for nearly three months. Once again, I bounced back.
I continue to make monthly visits to the City of Hope for blood tests and check ups, quarterly visits for maintenance Rituxan and semi-annual visits for scans.
I'm still in remission and have more energy than ever. And about that perfect purse? I keep looking.
Here are a few other things keeping me busy:
My food blog, Open Mouth, Insert Fork
My consulting business, A New Leaf Communications
The Orange Cat, a site for family fun in the San Gabriel Valley
A3M - Asians for Miracle Marrow Matches
YWCA Pasadena-Foothill Valley
IWOSC - Independent Writers of Southern California
On January 26, 2007, I was diagnosed with Stage 4 Mantle Cell Lymphoma (blastic variety), a rare, aggressive and treatment-resistant form of non-Hodgkins Lymphoma.
My team at the City of Hope decided to bring out the big guns - six rounds of Hyper CVAD followed by an autologous stem cell transplant. I bounced back after each round of chemo, but my blood counts didn't.
After four rounds we called chemo quits and started collecting stem cells for the auto stem cell transplant. The harvesting took three tries, two drugs and eight weeks, but I finally eked out the minimum two million stem cells.
After megadoses of chemo, I received my stem cells on November 14 and 15, 2007. I bounced back almost immediately. Best of all, I achieved complete remission from the Mantle Cell Lymphoma.
In January 2008, I was hospitalized for 11 days for chemo-induced pneumonia. I bounced back.
In the summer of 2008, my eosinophils (a component of the white blood cells) rose to dangerous levels and infiltrated my lungs and GI tract. My weight dropped to 105 pounds, and I was incapacitated for nearly three months. Once again, I bounced back.
I continue to make monthly visits to the City of Hope for blood tests and check ups, quarterly visits for maintenance Rituxan and semi-annual visits for scans.
I'm still in remission and have more energy than ever. And about that perfect purse? I keep looking.
Here are a few other things keeping me busy:
My food blog, Open Mouth, Insert Fork
My consulting business, A New Leaf Communications
The Orange Cat, a site for family fun in the San Gabriel Valley
A3M - Asians for Miracle Marrow Matches
YWCA Pasadena-Foothill Valley
IWOSC - Independent Writers of Southern California
March 2008 - Sometimes I feel like a wig.
Sometimes I don't.
January 2009
Up a tree and feeling on top of the world
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2007
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July
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- Whatever happened to Joel?
- Funny Lady Returns to the Ice House in Pasadena
- Next Steps
- What I DIDN'T Do on Vacation
- If it looks like a duck . . . .
- Is it Wednesday yet?
- I thought she'd never leave!
- Vacation from Blogging?
- We're All Connected
- Cancer Banter on Vacation
- GREAT News!
- Talk About a Cliff Hanger
- Pretty in Polka Dots
- A Night at Hotel Hope
- Petty Woman
- "Pole Dancing" Recap
- What a Difference a Doc Makes
- Reminder: "Pole Dancing" at Dutton's, Sunday, 2-4 pm
- What Grows Around, Comes Around
- Day of Rest
- I'm a rarer bird than I thought.
- What is Surrender?
- Diary of a Bald Housewife
- Now You See It, Now You Don't
- Surrender?
- Temperature's Risin' (And so are the blood counts)
- Pole Dancing in Public: Dutton's Bookstore, July 15
- Play to Win
- Happy Hour at City of Hope
- Keep Kicking
- Personal Best, Personal Worst
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July
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Cancer Banter
I can't die. I still have to find the perfect purse.
8 comments:
Hey, your laptop plays DVDs, right? Maybe catch up on some movies.
Here's hoping your harvest season is a short one. Wouldn't three uber-productive days be the bee's knees?
In any case, I am so with you on the bendy straws. They make any beverage festive!
Do you remember the summmer you got the big black eye? What about the time the coal truck slammed on it's brakes to avoid hitting you?
Glad you're safely home. Love ya!
p.s. Maude and Big Will plan to be here next Friday. Awesome.
Picture me in a red and white cheerleading outfit with pom-poms and all: Give me a stem! Give me a cell! You can do it! Go get well!
Paula: Good idea about the DVDs. I'm taking recommendations for must-see DVDs.
Robert: I DO remember the black eye and our subsequent "I'd rather fight than switch" photo shoot. (I wonder what ever happened to those pictures.) I don't remember the coal truck incident, but it certainly sounds like it's in the realm of possibility given the number of coal trucks in Sardis and my usual state of oblivion.
Dani: Thanks for the cheering section!
Also I'd suggest the entire Harry Potter series (I am sadly enough only halfway through book 6)
Lisa C.
DVDs you might like:
RESCUE ME, a cable show about NYC firefighters now on DVD. Start with the pilot.
MI-5, an addictive BBC series
A SIMPLE TWIST OF FATE, Steve Martin in a dramatic role in a great story.
COLD COMFORT FARM, really odd and funny
SHAWN OF THE DEAD comedy-horror, really funny
THE BOURNE IDENTITY and its sequel
CASINO ROYALE, with hottie Daniel Craig
LAYER CAKE, ditto
INVINCIBLE, based on a true story
KINKY BOOTS, British
FINDING NEVERLAND
THE MATADOR, Pierce Brosnan doing scruffy
THE 4400 (a series)
MRS. HENDERSON PRESENTS
HOWL'S MOVING CASTLE
STAGE BEAUTY
THE RED VIOLIN
THE STATION AGENT
THE ZERO EFFECT
PUSHING TIN
That's all that come to mind right now.
Red Violin.......2 thumbs up.
How about reading books with Tuscany in the title. I have several on my bookshelf that I reach for when suburbia gets too much for me. I also recommend books about expatriats living in Paris and can send you some for getting your imagination into a different local when your body needs to stay put in the U.S.A. I can send you down a few from my collection, just let me know.
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