Thanks so much for the texts, calls, emails & prayers! The meeting at Johns Hopkins was incredibly useful today. The doctor spent a lot of time with us and he started by explaining a bit more about this curious disease Andrew has. Blood cells are the fastest dividing cells in our bodies and there are literally billions of them. Because they are duplicating themselves constantly, and because this is no simple process, it is not uncommon for the cells to be mutated over time. As the doctor said, "For those of us in the lab, it isn't a question of why they [the cells] make mistakes, but why they ever get it right!" (Sounds like an Intelligent Design argument to us...) He basically went on to say there is so much the experts do not know about this disease. And while one can see the tumor and how it reacts to the treatment AJ is undergoing, AJ's tumor is only the tip of the iceberg and there may be no definititive way to ever know if all of the lymphoma cells are eradicated from AJ's body. A sobering thought.
However, he agreed with Andrew's course of treatment (ya-hoo!) and stressed the importance of being willing to change (i.e. ramp up) treatment in February if the tumor isn't responding to the R-EPOCH. He's given us some things to mull over and we'll need prayers for discernment and wisdom, as well as for clear conversations with our Virgina Oncologist in order to be ready to make decisions to change course if need be. (Of course we are hopeful it won't come to this.)
Meanwhile, Andrew is extra achy tonight (still feeling the Neulasta shot)! This is a bummer as he hopes to play tennis tomorrow, not to mention get a good night's sleep tonight. Sorry for the intensely medically minded post tonight.
PS. I got in a swim today... Thanks!
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