Tuesday, September 4, 2012

still in the game

So today's appointment was a mixed bag.  Dr. Z showed us side by side views of Andrew's most recent PET scan and the PET from early July.  The cancer has had been significantly reduced -- actually we were kind of shocked to see how much cancer was still present in July, as we had never seen that particular scan.  There really has been a huge improvement between then and now, so that's great news -- however, there is still cancer present which is certainly not ideal.  Things seem to be heading in the right direction, but it's being very stubborn, and rather than do a 3rd round of ICE, Dr. Z seems to be leaning towards giving Andrew a round of chemo called IVAC.  The IVAC contains some drugs that Andrew's lymphoma hasn't seen yet, and has "a reasonable chance" of getting rid of the remaining disease.  Dr. Z did say that he wants to discuss the options with his colleagues at tumor board before making a final decision to continue with ICE or move directly to IVAC.  Andrew's blood counts are still recovering from the last round, so he'll be getting a transfusion of red cells tomorrow at Benedictine, with chemo to begin next Monday.  It's obvious Dr. Z wants to move quickly back into chemo before the cancer has any further opportunity to grow.  The IVAC would be a 5 day course in the hospital, followed by another PET scan 2 weeks later.

So that's the situation.  We're certainly hopeful that the next round will knock out the little bits that are left and get Andrew into remission and on to the transplant.

xo
L

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