| [Thursday, May 10, 2007] Hi Everyone, I promised another update as soon as we knew
anything more – so here it is. This first part is kind of
technical so if you are interested in that – read on. If not
just skip to the next paragraph Dr. Lill explained to us that the imaging results looked better. The mass has shrunk in size quite a bit – it’s less than half the size it was when first diagnosed. Her heart looks good too, they are able to see all four chambers now and it doesn’t appear there are any more active cancer cells in the heart – whew! The bottom lobe of her lung has now expanded but the top one is still collapsed – and he thinks that’s why she still has a cough. There is some indication of metabolic activity in parts of the mass, which could either be more live cancer cells – or – inflammation from her own immune system fighting the cancer. There is no way of knowing which it is, except for surgery, which has great risks. His recommendation is for her to finish her last dose of chemo in two weeks then have a meeting with a radiation oncologist. Radiation has many risks of its own, but her body can’t handle any more chemo. So to ensure the cancer is all gone – it’s about the only option at this point. Radiation is done every day – Monday thru Friday for 30-40 days for about 20 minutes sessions. (She was very happy she at least gets weekends off!) If Steve and I can work it out financially, since
all my sick, vacation and Paid Family Leave have been used up, I
am considering taking an extra 2 weeks to a month off and finding
a place to stay up there during that time to help drive her back
and forth to her radiation treatments. She has been told by others
that it shouldn’t be a problem for her to drive herself, although,
that just seems crazy to me. If that’s the case I guess it’s
good because that would mean the treatments are easy enough she
can do that. I’m also trying to help her develop a really
good nutritional plan to feed her body in the most optimum way.
I can’t help but think that what she puts into her body right
now are the building blocks for the new “good” cell
generation and her diet needs to be exceptional. Dr. Lill somewhat
agreed with me when I mentioned that in our meeting. She looked
at me and said “I wish you were just 5 minutes way mom, so
you could help me with this nutrition stuff and help me with shopping.”
My heart about broke Her spirits are up – as usual. She is forever
making us laugh at her silly little ways like trying to drink from
a bottle without tipping her head back (she use to do that when
she was little?). She’s not crazy about the idea of radiation
– but she’s also not crazy about the possible outcome
without it. She is ecstatic because the important part of the bathroom
is finished so she doesn’t have to make long treks in the
middle of the night to the other end of the house. I haven’t
seen her that excited about anything in awhile Other than the above, all I can say is, THANK YOU from the bottom of my heart for your beautiful emails, cards, phone calls and support during this time. Events like these do bring out the best in people and I feel very blessed to have felt the hearts of so many of you during the past few months. With tremendous Love and Gratitude ~ Sheri Sheri P.S. I’ve attached a picture of when she first started losing
her hair. It shows her sense of humor. The 2nd picture however,
if you look closely, shows that this isn’t as easy for her
as she would like us all to think. I cry every time I see this picture.  The Inevitable Arrives  Reality Sets In |
.
We met with Dr. Lill after Shelsi’s 7the round of Chemo on
Wednesday to get his impressions of what the last imaging results
all mean. He first explained to us in depth what Primary mediastinal
Large b-cell non Hodgkin’s Lymphoma is. It’s a fairly
new sub type of Diffuse Large B-Cell lymphoma and no in-depth study
has ever been done on it in particular. In some respects it’s
very much like Diffuse Large b-cell non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma,
but in other respects it’s more like Hodgkin’s Disease.
So if you add the newness of this type of lymphoma (Primary Mediastinal)
to the fact that there has never been another patient in recorded
medical history where a Lymphoma mass in the chest cavity has actually
penetrated the heart wall like Shel’s did, then there is no
cut and dried protocol for treating Shelsi.