Ultrasound

I had the ultrasound on my neck. The jelly was cold, and despite the technician's best efforts, she got it all over my shirt, and I had to go home and change afterwards. Lame.

Good News

I met with Dr. Weeks to discuss the results of the bone marrow biopsy. Everything looked great. i.e. the cancer cells still were not in my bone marrow. That means that I will likely be able to have an "Autologous" Stem Cell Transplant. I will be able to use my own cells for the transplant rather than depending on finding a donor. That type of transplant has a lower risk of side effects (Like some kinds of transplant rejections. A lot of those lead to - gulp! - death).

Dr. Weeks referred us to the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance to meet with their specialists to get a second opinion and basically discuss my options. I started talking with some of their Patient Care Coordinators, and scheduled an appointment for April 4 to meet with a doctor there.

In the meantime they wanted me to have a biopsy on some of the lymph nodes such that they can get a better idea what they are dealing with. The scan in February indicated that their may be some cancerous nodes in my neck, and they wanted those biopsied. However, it is unclear if those nodes were big enough to get a good sample. I scheduled to have an ultrasound on my neck on March 19 to see if the lymph nodes would be big enough to biopsy. If they're not, then I would have to have another biopsy on the mass in my chest.

Out of the Playoffs

We played our league semifinal game and lost 5-3. Losing sucks.

Bone Marrow Biopsy II

I had my bone marrow biopsy at 7:30 in the morning. It went completely as expected - I was drugged up, so I skipped work, and was a little sore. My hockey team happened to have our first playoff game at 9:00 that night. I asked Dr. Weeks if I could injure myself any more by playing. He said no, and as long as I could withstand the pain, I could play.

That night, I downed a couple of Percoset and headed off to the rink to play. I was a little sore during the pregame skate, but once the game started and I got some adrenaline going, I was fine. I had an assist and was a +3 as we won 7-5 to advance to the next round.

Uh Oh...

So, not much had happened for the last few months. I had a PET Scan in November, and it indicated that something might be happening in the left mediastinum (the area in my chest where I had the mass before), but it was too small to tell what was going on, and Dr. Weeks recommended I wait for a couple of months and have another scan.

On February 14, I went in for another PET Scan, and made an appointment for March 6 to discuss the results. Well, on February 20, Dr. Weeks' nurse Scott called me saying that the doctor wanted to see me ASAP. Needless to say, I believed that was not a good thing. I made an appointment to see him the next day.

My mom and I went to the appointment today expecting bad news, and unfortunately that is what we got. The mass in my chest had grown back, suggesting a recurrence of the Hodgkin's Lymphoma. Dr. Weeks was not only concerned with the fact that it looks like the cancer cells came back, but with how quickly and aggressively it seemed to happen. He proposed that I would likely need a Stem Cell Transplant to fight them off this time, as it seems like the chemotherapy treatments would not be effective in completely eliminating the disease.

My mom and I spent about an hour with him, going over the basics - What is a Stem Cell Transplant? Why would I need one? Where would this take place? Long-Term Prognosis? I won't go over everything we talked about, but I have found that the Wikipedia page for Stem Cell Transplants (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stem_cell_transplantation) is pretty thorough and clear, and is actually a pretty good source of info.

Anyway, we made plans to have another bone marrow biopsy the next week to determine if the cancer cells had spread to my bone marrow. That was set for next Wednesday, February 27. After the results of that, we can start to set up sort of a gameplan.

Checkup

Met with the doctor today for a checkup. It was nice walking into the Cancer Center, then walking out feeling great instead of like crap following a treatment. Everything went pretty normal. All of my blood work was great, and the exam showed no problems. I got a flu shot while I was there. I've got an appointment on November 28th for my next checkup. Between now and then I have to have another PET Scan to make sure everything is still good. Otherwise, the doctor's visit went well, and everything is looking great.

Getting Back to Normal

Even though I wouldn't have had a treatment last week, knowing that I am done has been such a sweet feeling. I feel like I am starting to get my life back, and knowing that I can start getting out and doing more things is so great.

I went down to the Bay Area this past weekend to visit Drew and Meals and Adam. We went to the Red Wings/Sharks game on Thursday (Wings won 4-2!), and played golf on Saturday - I played the best round of my life! Okay, so I still shot a 103, but I hit some of the best shots I've ever hit. We spent Sunday lounging around and watching football - my Lions beat Tampa to improve to 4-2 - and playing Guitar Hero. We finished up the weekend by watching Game 7 of the Red Sox/Indians series. It was a great trip.

I return to work tomorrow, and have lab work and a doctor's appointment scheduled for Thursday. I'm not sure what Dr. Weeks is going to tell me, but I'm just excited that I am going to walk out of there feeling great instead of feeling like crap...