Tuesday, January 8, 2013
Great news! Donny's test results were extremely good and he can remain on his current treatment for the next 4 months! Thank GOD!
Tuesday was a looooong day. We were at Northwestern from 8am until after 6pm. Partially due to my doctors appointment in the morning with the Allergy Specialist. And partially due to the fact that they took forever to call Donny back to treatment. The lady who scheduled Donny's appointments told us the only time Dr. P. could see us was at 12:45, but then she didn't schedule the treatment until 2:45pm. I was not a happy camper, but how could I be upset after the great news we received during our appointment with Dr. P.?
We met with Dr. P. to go over the test results at 12:45pm. I was extremely anxious because my understanding of what needed to happen was that the PET scan needed to be clean - meaning there is no longer cancerous activity. But when Dr. P.'s research assistant, Emily, called me on Monday, she read me some preliminary results that stated there was "mild residual activity". So I thought there was still cancerous activity and that Donny might need to be moved up to the BEACOPP chemo. However, the results also said DRAMATIC IMPROVEMENT, so how could he get moved up if there had been great improvement? I was confused.
Dr. P. wasted no time in telling us that all the scans looked great, the scans show dramatic improvement and that Donny will remain on the ADBV. Needless to say, Donny, his parents and I were extremely relieved. This is the news we have been waiting for since October 19 when Donny had his biopsy done. We all took a deep breath and I held back my tears. As I've said in previous posts, I had a good feeling about these test results, but the anxiety of waiting for them was intense. There's nothing like hearing the words from the doctor himself, "you're test results look great." Phew!
But then came the blow. Donny has a spot on his colon. The original scan in October showed the spot as well, but Dr. P. said not to worry about it then because it could be due to the cancer. However, since the spot has not gone away, Donny now has to go to a Gastroenterologist for a consultation. Although Dr. P. said it's probably nothing, Donny's grandfather had colon cancer, so he insisted we go see a doctor this month.
After we met with Dr. P. we waited for another couple of hours to be called back for treatment. Every time Donny walked away Mr. G. told me how concerned he was about the colon issue. I felt bad, but I told him to stop because I was anxious enough about it and I couldn't take hearing the 'what ifs'. I can't function if I think of the 'what ifs'. Thankfully he did after I reassured him that I would set up the Gastroenterologist appointment right away. Today I called Dr. P.'s office to get the referral and will set up the appointment this afternoon when I hear back from them.
Overall treatment went well. Our regular nurse, Cheryl, was back and she so eagerly went into full, awful, gory details about what BEACOPP is like: blood transfusions every week, people falling over for no reason, looking and feeling like hell the entire time, the list went on. I was very glad she never shared those details previous to us finding out the test results. I don't think I would have been able to keep my composure quite like I did. I would have been a mess.
God has answered our prayers and Donny has shown incredible progress from the treatment. And, believe it or not, although it's very thin, he still has a full head of hair! Thank you all for your continued love and support. It has truly gotten us through these tough times. It's so comforting to be able to celebrate this with all of you, so thank you again and again.
5 treatments down, 7 to go. Only 4 more months until this process is over :)
No comments:
Post a Comment