Joan's First Appointment

Joan had her first Oncologist appointment today since her being diagnosed with Lymphoma. Despite the surroundings, today's visit was a really good one. Joan has been diagnosed with a type of Lymphoma called Follicular Lymphoma. That means that it is a very slow growing lymphoma, in fact, the Doctor believes that Joan has probably had it for a couple of years. The best news of the day was that Joan caught this so early because of her persistence, that we are not discussing chemotherapy, but discussing less dramatic treatments.

So here are the details. We now know what Joan has - but we still need to find out how extensive it is. Therefore we are scheduling two more tests: a PET Scan to determine the current speed of the cancer growth and a Bone Marrow Aspiration to determine the progress of the cancer. A PET Scan or Positron Emission Tomography (PET) is a powerful imaging technique a lot like an MRI. They will shoot some radioactive glucose into Joan's vein and then track it. Quickly growing cells (like Cancer) love to suck up glucose so it is easy to spot the fastest growing cells and see exactly how fast they are growing. The second test is a little more painful I am sure. A bone marrow aspiration is basically getting a huge needle pushed through your flesh and into the middle of your pelvis where the doctor can then remove a sample of Joan's bone marrow. That sample will offer the doctors a view of how much the cancer has impacted Joan's system. Both of those procedures are scheduled for next week.

A little more detail on follicular lymphoma if you are interested... Dr. Capone tells us that FL can wax and wane for a person's whole life. The cells can grow and even regress on their own. There is some evidence that this may have already occurred in Joan's body as three years ago she had some lymph nodes in her bikini area grow and then seemingly disappear. The Dr. says that is very typical of FL. The proper way to begin treatment is to step back and decide if it even needs treatment. Many patients that suffer from FL in actuality never suffer. The nodes may grow and shrink on their own and never require any treatment because they do not affect any other functions of the body. That is kind of what Joan and I are shooting for.

When Follicular Lymphoma does require treatment there are two very different treatments available. One new method is what the Doctor called smart bombs. These treatments are still undergoing medical trial but have shown incredibly promising results so far. They are generally a protein strand that only interacts with certain types of cells, like those cancer cells in lymph nodes. If these treatments are smart bombs, the other treatment is carpet bombing: Chemotherapy. Joan is not scheduled for either of these treatments until we receive the results of the two tests that she will be going through, but unfortunately Chemo is still a possibility for her. We will discuss that when and if it appears to be a possibility.

Doctors have been taught for years that Follicular Lymphoma has no cure. There is no treatment or medications that can remove these cells permanently from your body. That sucks, but as Dr. Capone also said today, Joan, while very likely to die with Fallicular Lymphoma, will almost certainly not die because of it.