First Doctors Visit

Hi all - we got to meet our oncologist today. His name is Dr. Arnel Pallera. He is a very nice man - probably in his mid-40's. He seemed very kind and gentle which made Elizabeth and I feel a nice level of comfort with him. On to the juicy details...

Dr. Pallera wants us to do an ECHO (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Echocardiography), a PET scan (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Positron_emission_tomography) and bone marrow biopsy (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bone_marrow_biopsy) later this week. The reason for the short turnaround is because he wants us to begin chemotherapy next week. We were a little surprised that he wanted to move so quickly, but we can't fault him for wanting to get rid of this "stuff" so soon. We are obviously happy about that. I believe that Dr. Pallera wants what's best for us so I believe that his approach is aggressive but correct. We will likely have more answers later this week as we do the final "staging" of the disease. Dr. Pallera believes that we are at least at Stage II. Not exactly what we wanted to hear but I think that I already knew this - strictly because I knew it wasn't just in one or two nodes.

I have been doing a bunch of reading (unfortunately not about LSU football or Saints football) and have come across a great blog about a young woman's experience with ABVD. ABVD stands for Adriamycin, Bleomycin, Vinblastine, and Dacarbazine. Yikes! These just SOUND toxic! However, this is the tried and true, gold-standard for treating Hodgkin's. It is what has been used for 40 years and nothing has garnered better outcomes. They've tried but ABVD is very successful. Jenny's blog is great...it really taught me a lot and will help us in knowing what to expect with chemo. If you want to read more about her experience, you can find her blog at http://hodgkindisease.wordpress.com/.

Dr. Pallera thinks that if the cancer remains classified as Stage II, then he would likely only need 3 cycles (4 weeks per cycle, treatments given every two weeks) of chemo and 4-6 weeks of localized radiation. The ABVD is given two drugs at a time with each treatment occurring every two weeks (so the AB on day 1 and the VD (not the STD!!!) on day 15). I've read that the treatments take a few hours and that she will be tired afterward! I suppose I'll play nice and let her rest for a couple of days after!!! Haha. We hope that the hair loss will be minimal but we are being proactive...wig shopping might be fun! I know this much - if she loses her hair then mine is coming off too. We are in this together! All in! Ok, just Beth and I are all in - I don't think we'll be ready to shave Anna or Lyla's head just yet! I just hope that Anna doesn't cut Lyla's hair one day...no sense in us shaving hers! Obviously, we want to keep the number of treatments to a small amount. The same holds true with radiation. Dr. Pallera told us that 15-20 years ago, it was standard to treat Hodgkin's lymphoma with radiation only. The success rate was great but the long-term side effects were more severe and that risk of secondary cancers went up. Chemotherapy with lesser, targeted radiation has the same success rate with much more effective long term outcomes. And our goal is not to be alive in 5 years...it's to be alive to see great-grandchildren! And we will. I know we will.

This weekend was a roller coaster - high, low, and everywhere in between. We were nervous and still are but we now have our map sketched out! After this week - it will become much more defined. We are thankful for the absolutely stunning display of support you all have given. It makes me smile big and wide to know how many people are out there pulling for her. I promise this to everyone that reads this blog and loves that precious angel - I am going to do everything in my power to make sure that by this time next year she is cancer-free and living a normal, healthy life. Hell, she is going to outlive me - mark my word! And I'm not going anywhere anytime soon!

Thanks again to everyone. I will let everyone know when the treatments will start. We'll know more late this week.

I'll leave with this:

The great Roman poet, Horace, once wrote, "Adversity has the effect of eliciting talents, which in prosperous times would have laid dormant."

I have no doubt in my mind that this great challenge will bring out the very best in Elizabeth for she has many talents that she doesn't realize. I, for one, can not wait to see how she amazes me next!

Until next time...au revior!

Scott