This morning (Thursday) we had our meeting with Dr. Zelenetz, to assess the results of the first chemotherapy protocol and to go over the pending protocol.
The news was very good. I had an inkling that things were going well on Wednesday, when I picked up my CT films and the PET scan report at White Plains hospital. The PET scan report was short and after describing the various places in my body where there was no sign of enlarged nodes, it ended this way:
IMPRESSION No sign of malignancy Marked improvement from 7/29/05
After a brief talk and examination from a resident (Dr. Shah) Dr. Zelenetz came in and said something like “things are going very well.” The CT and PET scans were very good. I’d had a good response to RCHOP and that meant we would only need to do two ICE chemo sessions, rather than three. Zelenetz said that in about one-third to one-half of patients, the response to RCHOP is good enough to only require two ICE, rather then the originally planned three sessions and I was in that group.
So I said, “well if there’s no sign of malignancy, what if I just said, Dr., It’s been nice meeting you and I hope we meet again sometime socially…” And he said, “That’s a good question. What if we stopped now? What if we just did six RCHOP sessions? (Note: I think CHOP for six sessions is an old protocol.) Then you could expect to have 15 to 18 months symptom-free and, in a large group, the average life expectancy would be about three years.” I said, “OK no need for further explanation!”
He then answered a variety of questions we had, like should I get a flu shot (no), what about my sinus infections (the lowered cell levels due to the chemo could be contributing factor), itchy eyes (ditto), minor rashes (ditto again). And we discussed the stem cell protocol that will follow ICE.
So the near term schedule now is to get Rituxin tomorrow at the Sleepy Hollow office (this will kill my Friday morning) and then be admitted to Memorial around mid-day Saturday, and stay until the late afternoon Monday, for the ICE therapy. It is done over the three days and cannot be done on an outpatient basis. And it is actually RICE not ICE (Rituxin + ICE = RICE).
The therapy will be repeated in three weeks, the weekend after Thanksgiving.
Then it will be on to the big therapy the Autologenous (sp?) stem cell transplant.
Tomorrow I will post a bit more, including a picture of me with my new hairline (this is nothing to hold your breath for!)
