I was Chris' wife/caregiver & this is the medical blog I wrote during his treatment. Short history: dx in July 2010, no initial bone marrow involvement, did 5 rounds hyper-cvad protocol. Found out he is in relapse/refractory status with involvement in his chest, spleen, inguinal & throat lymph nodes, bone marrow, spine & brain in January 2011 when we went to MD Anderson for treatment. The two different rounds of chemo Chris got at MDA could not put him in remission; he died of leukemia/lymphoma on March 18th, 2011, an astonishing and horrific 8 months after his diagnosis.
There is a donation page for organizations here: http://chriscranecancer.blogspot.com

Monday, December 20, 2010

PET scan tomorrow, maybe round 5 Wednesday, mass in throat has come back

First here are Chris' counts from today:

He is going in tomorrow morning for a PET scan.  He may be going in Wednesday morning for round 5, we won't know until tomorrow afternoon or Wednesday morning for sure.

Last week Chris felt the growth in his throat coming back.  This is the original cancerous mass that was biopsied to diagnosis his disease.  After his first round of chemo it went away.  Chris had different scans done about 2 months ago when he was in the hospital for extended neutropenia and they didn't detect any significant amount of the original mass.
It has started to grow back aggressively and it is painful, makes swallowing difficult, and has started to effect the way his voice sounds at times.
Because of this his Dr. is having the nurse contact MD Anderson (the cancer hospital in Houston) for a consultation.  Because of the holiday we probably won't hear anything from them for 2 weeks or so.  The nurse is going to send Chris' medical info to them and they will contact us to let us know if we need to travel to Houston for a consultation.
MD Anderson is a highly respected cancer treatment center.  click here for more information about them

It is rather scary and serious that his mass is coming back.  I am glad that his Dr. is reaching out to MD Anderson to make sure that there isn't any additional treatment besides what he is already getting.  For now we can just continue on the current course and he will go in for his next round of chemo as soon as possible.
I'm sure many of you have lots of questions, I sure do; but now there really aren't many answers.
Posted by at

1 comment:

  1. 3keys4luckDecember 20, 2010 at 1:07 PM

    I hope he gets to start his next round. Keeping my fingers crossed for good news from houston <3

    ReplyDelete

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)