At the Oncologist office again today. Basically needed to review the results of the bloodwork, etc and to go over any last minute questions before Amanda's first Chemo treatment on Thursday.
Doctor confirmed that Amanda has "Hodgkins Lymphoma, Nodular Sclerosis type, Stage II-B, unfavorable" The unfavorable was due to an ESR of 91 (normal is under 10 and they don't like the rate to be > 30 with "B" symptoms). Still no results from the bone marrow biopsy (kinda frustrating!). We are hoping that it is negative as a positive result would will jump the staging up to stage IV-B and the five year survival rate would have significantly reduced from the 85-90% that her current diagnosis carries with it.
Long story short, looks like that Amanda is going to see about 5-6 months of treatment with 4 cycles of ABVD Chemotherapy and possible radiation therapy after that. The oncologist was hoping to avoid the radiation when we visited last week, but with the "B" symptoms and the unfavorable status there is a strong chance Amanda will have to endure that therapy as well once the Chemo is done. Chemo treatments are scheduled for every 15 days for the next 4 months at a minimum and this may be extended to 6 months. Gonna be a tough road for our girl, but she is as strong as there is and we have no doubt that she will pull through this. Tricky thing with this regiment is that your counts start to bottom out around day 7 and only begin to improve around day 14. Problem is that she gets her next treatment then. Patients on the regime really never have a chance to recover from the previous treatment. We are warned that Amanda most likely will have to delay treatment a couple of times as her counts will be too low. God obviously has something special in mind for our girl, and this is a part of her life journey that is needed in order to fulfill her purpose.
Oh...interesting side bar...the pain that Amanda has had consistently since her Excisional Biopsy on her right side has magically left ever since she got those antibiotics in the ER on Thursday...hmmm, perhaps the ER staff knew what they were talking about. Maybe there was another reason her WBC were at 14,000 and 18,000?
Next stop was Chemo-school. Probably one of the most interesting experiences we have had yet. My wife, myself and Amanda sat in the back of a SMALL room (only row with 3 seats...plus had a nice counter behind me I could put my Tim Hortons on - sorry, gotta be Canadian to get that one!). There were about 8 other new patients there (no-one under the age of 40). After the session, the RN doing the session asked "for the family in the back to stay"...she was SOOOO amazing. Sat down and had a one-on-one talk with Amanda, She must have spent 45 minutes with us basically giving Amanda all of the little hints and really tailoring information to her age.
I thing that is one of the hardest things that she is having to deal with. There are not patients around that she can identify with in terms of age. It is one thing that has us questioning the wisdom of not getting her treatment done through the Stollery Childrens Hospital, but the nurse assured Amanda that she would be coddled and mother by every nurse there - they were all moms, and they would take care of her - it was a special moment that I think I will always remember and be thankful for.
Oh...Happy Birthday to my Wife!!!
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