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The official bad news
Jul. 14th, 2013 11:05 pmThis is the brief version, mostly just to get the word out. I know people have been wondering. We received the results from the biopsy several days ago, but I've held off posting anything publicly about it until we contacted family members to give them the news.
Rob has cancer.
Official diagnosis: follicular lymphoma, a variety of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, or cancer of the lymph glands. The oncologist characterized it as a low-grade, slow-growing cancer. In all probability, he's had it for awhile.
The good news is that it is responsive to treatment and they can generally get the patients into remission.
The bad news is that you can't get rid of it; the oncologist said it 'always' comes back.
Surgery isn't practical when you're talking about the lymph system (the lymph system is all connected, and if you miss one cell, you might as well not have bothered), and the cancerous nodes they've found (so far) are in his abdomen, and they aren't going to be irradiating his gut. That leaves chemo.
The next stage is to determine how wide-spread the cancer is. Rob will be undergoing more tests on Wednesday (various scans, a baseline echo cardiogram, and a bone marrow test to see if it's reached his bone marrow yet). Then we will meet with the oncologist again on the 26th. Prognosis, of course, depends upon which stage he's in. This cancer has a wide range of outcomes. Some people never need to be treated; they are simply monitored. Once you get into remission, some people come out of it again in six months, and some stay in remission for years.
Rob is having symptoms, however, so the oncologist recommends starting treatment. The tentative plan for now is 6-8 rounds of chemotherapy, with three weeks between rounds. If he can tolerate the chemo enough to be able to go straight through, it will take about four months.
He will lose his hair.
Rob's holding up pretty well at the news. I was holding up okay until yesterday, and I've had some rocky moments since. We've told the girls, who also took it well--they're still processing it. We've talked things over with Fiona, and we have jointly decided that she will go ahead with her semester abroad at the University of Lancaster.
People have asked how they can help. We don't quite have enough information yet about what we're facing, so I'm not sure for now, but I will not hesitate to ask for support once we figure out what, if anything, our friends and family can do for us.
(For now, if you don't mind an entirely frivolous suggestion, fanfiction suggestions are most welcome. Well written completed works, fluffy and funny are a bonus. I like Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings and Jane Austen. Thanks.)
Rob has cancer.
Official diagnosis: follicular lymphoma, a variety of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, or cancer of the lymph glands. The oncologist characterized it as a low-grade, slow-growing cancer. In all probability, he's had it for awhile.
The good news is that it is responsive to treatment and they can generally get the patients into remission.
The bad news is that you can't get rid of it; the oncologist said it 'always' comes back.
Surgery isn't practical when you're talking about the lymph system (the lymph system is all connected, and if you miss one cell, you might as well not have bothered), and the cancerous nodes they've found (so far) are in his abdomen, and they aren't going to be irradiating his gut. That leaves chemo.
The next stage is to determine how wide-spread the cancer is. Rob will be undergoing more tests on Wednesday (various scans, a baseline echo cardiogram, and a bone marrow test to see if it's reached his bone marrow yet). Then we will meet with the oncologist again on the 26th. Prognosis, of course, depends upon which stage he's in. This cancer has a wide range of outcomes. Some people never need to be treated; they are simply monitored. Once you get into remission, some people come out of it again in six months, and some stay in remission for years.
Rob is having symptoms, however, so the oncologist recommends starting treatment. The tentative plan for now is 6-8 rounds of chemotherapy, with three weeks between rounds. If he can tolerate the chemo enough to be able to go straight through, it will take about four months.
He will lose his hair.
Rob's holding up pretty well at the news. I was holding up okay until yesterday, and I've had some rocky moments since. We've told the girls, who also took it well--they're still processing it. We've talked things over with Fiona, and we have jointly decided that she will go ahead with her semester abroad at the University of Lancaster.
People have asked how they can help. We don't quite have enough information yet about what we're facing, so I'm not sure for now, but I will not hesitate to ask for support once we figure out what, if anything, our friends and family can do for us.
(For now, if you don't mind an entirely frivolous suggestion, fanfiction suggestions are most welcome. Well written completed works, fluffy and funny are a bonus. I like Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings and Jane Austen. Thanks.)