Chronicle of a Stem Cell Transplant (and on through to the other side)

Tuesday, August 18, 2009

And the winner is...


Nancy from Wisconsin!

Hi Nancy!

Thanks for letting me know you were my 20,000th visitor. You are now famous in this corner of the dubya dubya dubya!

Nancy and I have never actually met but we frequent the same online lymphoma message board. I don't know what it means in the big picture, but maybe you should go out and buy a lottery ticket! Thanks again to everyone for taking the time to visit my blog these past three years. They've been a bit of a doozy.

Far less exciting this week is the result of my CT scan (after four cycles of SGN-35) which is still showing a "mixed" picture. Based on the reduction of disease activity reported on my recent PET scan, we were a bit surprised that the CT didn't show significantly smaller areas of disease. However, stable or better is enough to keep me on the trial and as long as I don't have any major side effects, I'll take it.

I feel fortunate (relatively speaking) that, so far, the effects of the drug have been minimal. I know several people on the trial who are experiencing some difficult symptoms, particularly neuropathy (pain and/or numbness) in the extremities.

I did develop a hive-like rash sometime between cycles two and three, but, after a visit to the dermatologist, a course of antihistamines seems to be doing the trick. Still, it would have been nice not to have spent the summer looking like I have scabies.

Aside from that and the odd narcoleptic episode for about 36 hours after my infusion, I continue to feel great. Still haven't cracked 100 with the hemoglobin though. Ninety-six and holding last week, god damn it.