My very first blog post - The saga part I

Well, this is my first blog post ever. I hope this page will be a good way to keep family and friends informed of my ongoing battle with follicular lymphoma.

I was diagnosed with stage 4 Non-Hodgkin's Follicular Lymphoma in December 2005. I was 27 years old, fresh out of law school and working as an attorney for a law firm in Irvine. As with many types of cancers, there are the good and the bad parts of the diagnosis. The good parts about Follicular Lymphoma ("FL") are that it is highly treatable and the prognosis is good and getting better every year. The bad part is that, despite modern medicine, the disease remains incurable. This means that the disease can go into remission, but eventually it will come back.

Regarding my treatment, I took 6 rounds of a fairly intense chemo regimen along with Rituxan (R-CHOP), and after only five months of treatment I was declared to be in remission! I had achieved the glorious and wonderful state of REMISSION! :) :) :)

Post chemo brought with it a rough adjustment back to "normal" life. I had lost any semblance of what it was to be normal. But slowly, and after I had a chance to emotionally put my life back together, I began this wondrous, yet arduous, journey into what happens when you survive cancer. For one thing, I really started to look at the lessons that having cancer taught me. During my 4 years of remission, I grew into the person I am today. I learned at an early age many life lessons that most people don't realize until much later in life. For example, I learned that on my death bed I won't wish that I spent more time at the office. I learned how important it is to be true to yourself even if others don't agree with your decisions. And, I learned that life is a gift and that it is meant to be lived in the present. I had almost learned how to be "normal" again, meaning I was getting used to not being sick and beginning to think of myself as almost healthy.

That's when I discovered a new lump under my left jawbone, near my chin. The doctors hoped the lump was just a swollen salivary gland, but the pet and ct scans revealed that the lymphoma was back in 2 spots: (1) one spot under my left jawbone, and (2) one spot on the right side of my neck. Unfortuantely, this all just happened in February 2010. As you can probably tell, my new year didn't get off to such a good start, but I quickly began a Rituxan treatment program. Rituxan is a monoclonal antibody, that attacks and kills the specific cells in my body that cause FL. We believed the Rituxan was working as you could no longer feel the lump under my left jawbone after just a few treatments.

It takes 3-4 months for the Rituxan to have full efficacy in mybody. As a result, I just had a pet and ct scan performed. Unfortunately, the scans results showed that I now have a few affected nodes on the right side of my neck. So just two days ago, on Wed. 7/14/10, I found out that I am not in remission as we hoped and that I have new active lymphoma on the right side of my neck. My oncologist advised that one of the affected lymph nodes should be removed and biopsied to determine whether my FL has transformed into a more aggressive, fast growing type of lymphoma. The type of lymphoma I was originally diagnosed with (FL) is a less aggressive, slow growing type of lymphoma.

I have a consultation scheduled with a surgeon this coming Monday, July 19th. I will then schedule my biopsy and should have results about 10 days after that.

I am very much hoping that my lymphoma has not transformed and am eager to learn what my treatment options will be. The statistics still look good and I am hoping I will be in another remission again soon.

I will do my best to keep this blog updated with my ongoing battle. I have my armor on and am ready to fight. (Maybe, I am a Trojan on the inside)