Good news from the latest CT scan--the biggest tumor went from 4 cm to 2 cm and the oncologist feels that it will be completely gone after the last chemo treatment.
CT scans are wondrous things but the radiologist makes or breaks the quality of the results. Like the original radiologist that characterized the mass as "extensive"--kind of like saying that Nevada is a "large" state. Our oncologist ended up sitting beside a radiologist and looking at the scan to see exactly what he was treating. It's not like we rejoiced knowing that the lymphoma was 4 by 8 cm or about the size of two golf balls but it was a whole lot better to know what "extensive" meant.
And don't get us started about the shock of learning that there were other small tumors that the earlier radiology reports didn't mention. Happily, those lymph nodes look completely normal now. You would have thought that a previous radiologist might have noted them though. We're just happy that whoever did the latest comparison was competent and thorough.
The last chemo had some new side effects that we were hoping to avoid--a bit of peripheral neuropathy, or tingling, first in his feet and later in his fingers. It was mild and pretty much disappeared over the intervening weeks but we'll be watching out for it after this round. We did add some vitamin B-6 tablets to the dinner menu in hope of preserving those nerve endings. And if the neuropathy appears again, the last chemo might be RCP instead of RCVP to eliminate the nerve-destroying culprit. Good thing we're close to the end so that the vincristine won't have many more chances to cause problems.
So...two more chemo sessions to go and the oncologist is very happy about the results to date. We're keeping our fingers crossed that it continues to go smoothly and that the lymphoma continues to shrink into microscopic insignificance. It'll still be there, growing every so slowly, but hopefully causing no symptoms for a looooong time to come.
CT scans are wondrous things but the radiologist makes or breaks the quality of the results. Like the original radiologist that characterized the mass as "extensive"--kind of like saying that Nevada is a "large" state. Our oncologist ended up sitting beside a radiologist and looking at the scan to see exactly what he was treating. It's not like we rejoiced knowing that the lymphoma was 4 by 8 cm or about the size of two golf balls but it was a whole lot better to know what "extensive" meant.
And don't get us started about the shock of learning that there were other small tumors that the earlier radiology reports didn't mention. Happily, those lymph nodes look completely normal now. You would have thought that a previous radiologist might have noted them though. We're just happy that whoever did the latest comparison was competent and thorough.
The last chemo had some new side effects that we were hoping to avoid--a bit of peripheral neuropathy, or tingling, first in his feet and later in his fingers. It was mild and pretty much disappeared over the intervening weeks but we'll be watching out for it after this round. We did add some vitamin B-6 tablets to the dinner menu in hope of preserving those nerve endings. And if the neuropathy appears again, the last chemo might be RCP instead of RCVP to eliminate the nerve-destroying culprit. Good thing we're close to the end so that the vincristine won't have many more chances to cause problems.
So...two more chemo sessions to go and the oncologist is very happy about the results to date. We're keeping our fingers crossed that it continues to go smoothly and that the lymphoma continues to shrink into microscopic insignificance. It'll still be there, growing every so slowly, but hopefully causing no symptoms for a looooong time to come.
