In Remission - no more nasty chemo!!

Yes, it's true! Much to my surprise - in fact I was quite taken aback when my doctor told me that I was in remission and he wasn't going to give me any more chemo! I had seriously been expecting to be told I'd be back in hospital the following Monday! But no, I'm finished with the chemo and am now on the upward slope of getting my strength back and planning to go back to work next January!

I'm still having the monoclonal antibody treatment (called Mabthera here in Oz. Rituxin in the USA) every 4 weeks until February. I have that as a day patient at the hospital - 'administered' the same way as the chemo, ie. through the portacath. But that's all. No more anti-fungal medication (?!), no more spending weeks in hospital ... ! To be honest it still seems really odd! Everyone that I tell is utterly thrilled and excited, and I'm still wondering about it all ...

I guess part of that is because he did say that since my white blood cells had still not recovered sufficiently, he actually couldn't give me any more chemo, even if he'd wanted to! So I guess it's lucky I am in remission!! And to date he/they haven't been able to do the stem cell collection. Don't know if they will in the future, or if it's just something that won't be possible.

I do have heaps of questions now, but at the time I was just so dumbstruck (I'm writing them down to ask the doctor next time I see him)! He kept saying to me: "this is good news Susie!!" Anyway, they'll do a whole heap more tests (bone marrow biopsy, CT and PET scans) in February, and hopefully (as I fully expect!) I'll be clear then too ...

So ... more news later but it was way past time to write here again). (Don't get me started on the computer problems I've been having!!)

:)

Still at home ... it's been a while!

Haven't written for ages so I'm pulling myself together and putting a few things down!

I did get out of hospital that Friday - without having the stem cell collection in the end. My white blood cells and stem cells were not recovering fast enough and it was going to go into the following week ... the head sister on the ward basically told my doctor I'd go mad if I wasn't discharged, so I was!! Good to see the people right on the ground still have that power - or in this case that I have a doctor who is happy to accept their recommendations!!

So anyway, I came home and my friend Wendy was here for 2 weeks with me which was lovely. We had such a lovely time together, as she said, it's all very well to have long distance friendships, but you really need to spend time together sometimes! She's on her way back home now - left on Monday for the UK and back to Portugal in another couple of days.

When I first came home I was really tired and lacking in energy - much more than in previous times. But I have slowly gathered strength again and now - just over 3 weeks after I left hospital, I'm feeling pretty good. I've been having blood tests regularly - so far my wbc are still low but I think recovering now. I've had another bone marrow biopsy to see what was happening, and the good news is that the lymphoma has not returned!

But I'm on a 'wait and see' policy about when I go back to the hospital / resume chemo etc. The doctor said he may end up changing my treatment around a bit ... I really hate this open-ended aspect - I want to see an end date!! But I have to a) know that 'this too will pass' (always easier to quote that to others than to apply it to oneself!!), and b) trust the doctor. Which I do ... I'm seeing him in a few days and we'll be able to talk about all of this, and hopefully get some sort of plan again!!

Next week I'm going down to NSW to stay at my mother's for a few days, which will be nice.

The other thing that is affecting my life at the moment is - car problems! I have spent so much on my car this year - it's had two major things wrong with it and was off the road for over a month. I live 15 minutes drive out of town, so this meant I had to hire a car for all that time ... And now, another similar problem!! It's in the garage now and hopefully they will fix it next week so when I come back from down south I'll be able to pick it up again ... Grrrrrrr!!!!