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| Doing Alright |
The morning started slow, as in the travel time to Dr. Seifter's office. A snow dusting overnight had the usual effect of transforming a select few Maryland drivers into complete morons thus slowing the rest of us to a crawl. A 35-minute trip turned into a 90-minute trip through west Baltimore (think The Wire). We were only a half hour late thankfully.
I remembered to ask Dr. Seifter my questions that I had been forgetting to ask. Primarily I was interested in what happens after #12? It's pretty straightforward. I will get another PET/CT a month or two afterwards to verify that I am still clear. Then I will continue to go in for check-ups every 3 months for the first year, every 4 months for the second year, and then every 6 months for the third year of being cancer free. This will be accompanied by one or more PET/CTs throughout. Typically the doctor will also order an additional blood test for erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR). This is sometimes elevated in Hodgkin's Lymphoma patients however I have not followed a typical path through HL when it comes to blood markers or any other symptom. We'll se how that test goes.
I remembered to ask Dr. Seifter my questions that I had been forgetting to ask. Primarily I was interested in what happens after #12? It's pretty straightforward. I will get another PET/CT a month or two afterwards to verify that I am still clear. Then I will continue to go in for check-ups every 3 months for the first year, every 4 months for the second year, and then every 6 months for the third year of being cancer free. This will be accompanied by one or more PET/CTs throughout. Typically the doctor will also order an additional blood test for erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR). This is sometimes elevated in Hodgkin's Lymphoma patients however I have not followed a typical path through HL when it comes to blood markers or any other symptom. We'll se how that test goes.
It was then off to chemo. Anna and Dawn were working today and it got pretty busy. It was the first time I've seen every chair full. There were three new faces and couple familiar faces. A blood test is always first and my CBC continues to look good. WBC was at 1600 (up 100 from two weeks ago), GRAN was up as was RBC which is almost back in the normal range. After that everything went as smooth as possible.
The only unusual event today was when one of the new patients, a thin but fit-looking man in his late 60s, got an awful case of the shakes. His shakes were much more violent and painful looking than I remember all too well from chemo #6. Fortunately Dr. Seifter was able to work with Anna and Dawn and the patient was almost back to normal in 30 minutes after some additional meds.
We were finished by 1:30 and headed home. A solid nap in mid-afternoon, some snacks, and homemade, fresh blueberry pancakes with maple syrup for dinner all sealed the deal for another good start to a round of chemo.
Much Love and Go Ravens!
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