Nothin' Doing

Mmm. Broccoli.

After a morning of de-stressing with acupuncture and massage, I showed up at the oncologist’s office in a rather jovial mood.  As usual, they whisked me right into an exam room, this time bypassing the lab, and the doctor arrived almost immediately.

He went over what the gastro doctor had said, adding detail.   My original diagnosis had been somewhat large and in multiple sites in my stomach.  What the recent endoscopy found was a small region that still carries lymphoma cells.  It’s such a small region that the PET scan didn’t detect it.   Nevertheless, there is something there, and there are several possible paths forward.

The oncologist affirmed that he originally had said it would take six months for the lymphoma to reduce to “undetectable” amounts. (They don’t say “cancer free” anymore because we all have cancer cells in us.  It’s just that we usually have very few, and our immune system takes care of them.)   So one possible path is to do – pretty much nothing - just monitor my blood levels and repeat the biopsies in three months.   What I have is an indolent, slow-growing condition. So, even if the remaining lymphoma has resisted radiation and is growing again, that growth is likely to be minimal, and the treatment in three months is the same thing he would do now. 

That treatment, the aggressive approach now, would be to do more radiation and/or use the drug retuxan, a non-chemotherapy anti-cancer agent that has been around for a long time, something he had mentioned earlier in my diagnosis.  

He left it to me to decide, although he said he would opt for the wait-and-see approach with one added element.  Even though I tested negative for the H pylori bacteria, which is usually associated with my condition, he thinks there is the possibility of a false negative.  So he would put me on a two-week course of a special antibiotic, which might hasten the shrinkage of the lymphoma.  I agreed to this course of action in which, as he explained, we are now waiting for my immune system to do its job.

So I’ll go back to weekly acupuncture and look into any other immune system boosting foods and activities.  Debby and I left the doctor and headed to Newsroom Café for a ginger-wheatgrass-spirulina-bee pollen- mango - and banana shake. Mmmm.  If you’ve got diet/activity suggestions or want to join me for a green drink or some exercise, I’d love to have the company.

A little something more

 

These are pictures from the inside of my stomach.  Fun?

It's been an anxious month of waiting (nothing new) as I planned and then had an endoscopy and colonoscopy to confirm results from the PET scans. The scans had seen nothing in my stomach or in my small intestine and shown some mysterious "activity" in my lower bowel.

The visual inspection of my stomach and colon was good.  While I still have evidence of a hernia and did show a little scarring consistent with radiation therapy, there was nothing else of note visually.  The procedure itself was uneventful. 

I received the pathology report this morning. Everything in my colon was negative, but in my stomach they did find a small piece of MALT lymphoma remaining.  It's unclear what the next course of action will be.   Originally, I was told they wanted to wait six months before doing the follow-up endoscopy because it just takes that long for the radiation to work fully.  They did the endoscopy after three months because of the mysterious "activity" in my bowel.   So the course of action may well be to do nothing and repeat the biopsies in six months.   Alternatively, there is an antibiotic treatment that may be indicated.  There may be a small dose chemotherapy agent indicated.  They may want to do more radiation -- or some combination of these.

I got this information from the gastro doctor who did the biopsies.  He had limited information and referred me back to the oncologist, whom I will see Wednesday afternoon.  So more information should be forthcoming then.  In any case, the mass is a slow growing (or slow-shrinking) issue, and there are still many tools available.  So, while disappointed in the moment, I remain confident of a full recovery.

I confess to being perhaps overly optimistic and to backsliding on my diet and self-care in recent weeks.  So it's time to get back on the horse of aggressively healthful nutrition, more regular exercise, and more spiritual focus on my own healing.  I invite participation from friends and family on all three counts.  Thanks.