We have a diagnosis...

Sunday, May 20, 2012

Today Dillon did much better than yesterday physically and emotionally.  He had a few visitors...which he loves.  A change of scenery, as far as who is in the room, is a big mood lifter for him.

 Big D's 'other grandparents' came down.  Sean's folks are here from Colorado for a few days, which gives Dillon much love and needed distraction, as well as a break for my parents on the front of taking care of Mr. Luca (who by the way is being the best brother ever...as usual.  He is appropriately concerned and worried but still mischievous and happy and busy as we all know him to be).

Dillon finally ate last night...half a hamburger and a handful of fries, followed by 2 or 3 cups of water, which is more than he has eaten in days.  YEAH DILLON!!!!!!

Okay, enough chit chat.....I know you are all holding your breath for the name of this thing in our boy's chest.

T-CELL LYMPHOBLASTIC LYMPHOMA

One of DIllon's first questions when he came out of surgery was...."Can I see the lymph nodes?" The surgeon told him that it was not possible to see the actual lymph nodes but that he could try to get photos of the slides from the lab where the biopsy analysis was taking place.  Dillon was satisfied with that and wanted you all to see what the monster growing in his neck looks like under a microscope.

I even knew how to spell if from my previous 11 years of medical transcribing.  It seems I have been preparing for all of this medical jargon since my baby boy was in my belly.

A word of advice/caution....IF you choose to go on the internet to look for more information on the monster growing in D's body...you MUST look for pediatric or childhood.  The treatments, outcomes, prognosis, EVERYTHING is different between kids and adults.  So don't go reading all the adult stuff and freak yourself out !!! :)

Some details...we caught this relatively early.  YEAH DILLON for telling us about the strange feeling in your neck!!  They did find some of the lymphoma in his bone marrow.  Yes yes that is bad...but it could be worse.  He had 1.5% of his bone marrow cells show up as lymphoma.  The doctor said some kids with other cancers some in with 80% or even 100% of the bone marrow being cancer cells...so 1.5% is obviously better than that...however not as good as 0%..OBVIOUSLY.  The other thing is that there were NO cells in his CSF (cerebral spinal fluid with is the fluid that surrounds the brain and spinal cord).  So that too is a positive thing!!!

The mass behind in BIG D's chest is approximately 1.2 x 2.5 inches...which in the doctor's words is SUBSTANTIAL.  Sounds pretty small to me (wink wink).  Haven't we all heard of people with grapefruit-sized masses???

Okay, now the treatment.  We start today (May 20).  It is a 29 day treatment cycle.  He will be getting a whole list of various chemotherapy drugs along with some other things to counteract the toxicity and side effects of the chemo drugs.   The treatments are approximately once a week with some other stuff sprinkled in between and much lab work and other testing to make sure all of his levels (white blood cell count, platelets, red blood cell count, electrolytes, blood sugars, etc) are within normal limits.  If they are not,  there are treatments to augment the fallout from the tumor breaking down in his body and the chemo killing off good cells, as well as bad.

Yes he will be bald.
Yes he will be nauseous.
Yes he will be weak.
Yes he will lose weight.

NO WE ARE NOT GONNA LET THIS THING BEAT US!!!!!!