My First Visit with Dr. Oken

This morning Brian and I met with Dr. Oken and his nurse. I have to admit that I was not a very pleasant person to be around-major case of the grouchies- but Dr. Oken and his nurse managed to calm me down. He asked all kinds of questions about my health history and the health history of my siblings and parents. Then we talked about our grandchildren- he is going to be grandpa for the second time soon and is very excited about it.
Dr. Oken has worked in oncology for 33 years and is very capable of handling the task at hand. He is a prominent physician and has worked at the Mayo Clinic and many other major cancer research facilities.
The news is that I am in stage 4 as the lymphoma has spread to my bones. He said however that it is existing collaterally with my good bone marrow and that I have more bone marrow than most people my age. SO although it has spread my good bone marrow is still doing a good job fighting infections. I do not show any signs of having cancer any other place except in my abdominal lymph nodes and they have grown into a mass 16cm x 22cm. So I have been given the grade 1a, which means that I have a slow growing cancer. It apparently has taken years to get this big. He tried to explain the genetics of it all so I could try to explain it to my daughter who is working on her PhD in Plant Genetics but the closest I came to understanding any of it was that there is a protein CD- 20 which is attached to the outside of a cell(?) that they use as a target for chemotherapy. Anyway the chemo will target that protein and wipe out the cell. The prognosis for recovery from this is good to intermediate. I will be on chemotherapy for 6 months and then on a two year follow-up with another drug.
I have to go in weekly to have my blood checked to make sure that my white blood cells are not bottoming out. They will wait for my body to recover before they give me the next round of chemo. In February I will go back in for another CT scan to see how the tumor is responding to treatment. They seemed pretty optimistic about every thing but I still dread the thought of all those drugs being pumped into me. He said that when we talk about survival of this type of cancer we talk in multiple decades and not years. Before I can start the chemo I have to go and get a regular flu shot and also the H1N1 shot. These two illnesses could be life threatening to me once my immune system becomes weak from the chemo. That is one thing that really scares me because I have always and still am pretty strong and able to fight off illness and now that is going to be compromised. I pray that when the chemotherapy is all done that I will regain all my natural strength and be as healthy or maybe healthier than I've ever been.