Treatment Plan, Postponed Round 4

On Wed, Feb 13, 2013 at 4:32 PM, Mindy Reimer <mindyjreim@gmail.com> wrote:

Dear Family and Friends,

Happy Valentines Eve!

We want to express our love and appreciation for each of you.  We are so grateful for the love, prayers, service and concern you have continued to show our family during this
time. We feel peace and strength through answered prayers and support that sustains us during the ups of downs of this experience.  We are just so grateful to all of you!

Round 3 of chemotherapy went well.  It was a little harder on Brad’s body this time, due to the addition of Etoposide, but still manageable.  We met with Dr. Danko each week during this past three week period between chemo treatments.  The first week Brad’s white blood count had dropped significantly (which is a normal side-effect of chemotherapy) so he was
put on antibiotics and stayed away from crowds.  We were grateful that his counts were back up the second week.  During this visit with Dr. Danko, he shared with us the plan that he had decided upon after speaking with his colleague about Brad’s transformed lymphoma. 

The plan is to finish with Round 4 of RCHOP plus Etoposide.   Three weeks following Round 4, Brad will have a PET scan.  If the PET scan is completely clean, Brad has had a Complete Response (cancer not found), which will be followed with four more rounds (two more than originally planned) of RCHOP plus Etoposide, another PET scan, and maintenance therapy for 2 years (because of the Follicular - low-grade - component).   If the PET scan is not clean, meaning cancer is still found, Brad will have four more rounds of RCHOP plus Etoposide, another PET scan, and most likely a bone marrow transplant.   Then we will go from there.   So this next PET scan will give us an idea of what we will be dealing with. 

This last week Brad has been able to work a bit and has had a few really good days.  

Round 4 was scheduled for tomorrow (we were totally excited about spending the whole Valentine’s day together in the Chemotherapy suite :), but Brad had a tooth bothering him yesterday, so we saw his dentist  this morning and he will be having two teeth pulled tomorrow instead.  (Brad would much rather have Chemo!)  So, Round 4 has been rescheduled for next Wednesday.  The PET scan will be around 3 weeks after round 4, so we will be hearing results about a month from now.  We look forward to those results and more practice in waiting on the Lord.

So, on we go.  Again, we just really appreciate you all.  We hope you are doing well.  Enjoy your Valentine’s Day with your families tomorrow!

Love,

Brad and Mindy