I think I have one of the best oncology teams ever. The oncology team out of the Ottawa Hospital General Campus is incredibly responsive and has worked hard to get me the best information possible in a timely manner. My oncology team let me know the results of last week's PET scan. The aggressive B-cell lymphoma is still present; however one of the large nodes has resolved itself and the other two large nodes have shrunk significantly. This is good news and means I am eligible to have a stem cell transplant. There remains a possibility that the last round of chemotherapy before the transplant could knock my cancer into remission. This would be the best possible news as the success rates for the transplant are higher if I am in remission. We also met with the transplant team. The focus of the two meetings was to get the lay of the land and to prepare for how to keep me safe as I recover. I have two children, ages 10 and 13. They both attend school and have regular sports activities. One suggestion was to pull my children out of school for a month and have them stay at my mother's place. And while my mother was prepared to do this, I did not feel it was right for our family. Taking my two boys out of school for a month was not something I was willing to do. Kids need their school, social life, and activities to maintain their mental health and well-being. If Covid lockdown taught us anything, it was this. So here is the plan that we believe best matches our family’s needs. Our children will stay in our family home and my husband will be their caregiver and continue to work and bring in an income. I will be moving out. I have been truly blessed with good friends and family members who have pitched in and solved the biggest issues which were where would I live and who will care for me. A friend lives in an apartment that has some seniors who will be traveling for a few months this winter. One of the seniors has kindly agreed to let me stay in her place. The apartment is minutes from my house, which will facilitate visiting my kids outdoors. It is also a short distance from the hospital and will help keep the driving time to a minimum. The second issue will be who will care for me 24/7. I have two caretakers who will be sharing the load to cover the day and night shifts and deal with the daily transportation to and from the hospital. I need to report daily to the hospital for 30 days, and this includes weekends, so transportation is a big issue. This journey will not be an easy one and the recovery to get my immune system back to where it was is expected to take a year. Our tentative date for harvesting cells is the first full week of February. Dates may fluctuate based on my blood work from the most recent round of chemotherapy. But as I’ve said before, “WE got this!” I truly believe it takes a village to raise a child and it will take a village to battle my cancer. Please send all the strength, love, energy, and courage you can to help us get through this next part of the battle.
Hi Chandra, my name is Jim and we share a mutual friend Chris Lunardi. I too have Lymphoma Diffuse Large B Cell, I made it 17 months before my reoccurrence.
I've already started my chemotherapy for this round, Stem Cell Transplant is a go, unsure of exact time frame, probably late April. I go for the PET scan first week of April, they may or may not do more chemo, depending on the PET results. My big problem is that I live alone, I'm definitely going to have a chat with the social worker, luckily I'm 15 minutes away from the hospital.
If you ever want to talk with someone else who might understand what you are going through, ask…
Now that's a plan! You really do have the best team, it's even expanded to include kindly seniors!
You've got quite the team supporting you. It's because you are so worth fighting for!