All systems GO for high dose chemo and stem cell transplant

We met with Dr. Zelenetz (the lymphoma guru) this morning. The tests I’d taken in the prior eight days – PET and CT scans, echocardiogram, lung function, bone marrow – are all good. So it looks like start date for the high dose chemo and stem cell transplant will be the first week af January.

We will see Dr. Kewalramani (Dr. K) on Dec. 29th for the final dates and more on the game plan. Dr. K will be managing my case for the next three months, as he is the transplant specialist.

I asked Dr. Zelenetz a question I’d been wondering about since one of our last meetings, when he said that the chemo I’ve taken had destroyed 99.99% of the cancer cells, and now the high dose chemo was needed to destroy the "tough" and "hardy" buggers. My question was "If the high dose chemo is going to destroy the toughest cancer cells, why didn’t we just go straight to that protocol, since it would also kill the weaker CA cell?" His answer was "Because of the high volume of cells, you need the earlier protocols. Otherwise there’d be too many CA cells." Made sense.

My hemaglobin is still low at 8. So they will be giving me the Darby injection every two weeks (next one, next Thursday) to boost my red blood cell count. Of course this is the reason for the fatigue and poor cardio performance in the gym. And it is standard with this chemotherapy. I suppose it’s also the reason I look so pale. Having almost no eyebrows or eyelashes doesn’t help either.

And the tweaked up back (scroll down and see yesterday’s post) is better. I will go to the gym tomorrow to ride the bike and do some stretching. Hopefully it will be almost gone by the end of the weekend. No back spasms, so that’s good.