Lobos and Lymph Nodes

Tuesday, June 26, 2012

After a terribly challenging night last night and most of today; caused by the steroids; with a little pocket of time around dinner that was much better.......Dillon got a big huge surprise today. 

The coach of the Lobos men's basketball team and 2 players came to visit Dillon today.  They told him that when he feels up to it they would love to have him in the locker room before a game to meet all the players and that they would set him up with some tickets next season. 

Kendall Williams and Demetrius Walker and Steve Alford (UNM Basketball Coach)

Dillon with his signed Lobo ball

Kendall Williams and Demetrius Walker and Steve Alford (UNM Basketball Coach)

The preliminary results of Dillon's second lymph node biopsy are in.  I felt like a different diagnosis would be good news.....well no such luck.  It looks like the second lymph node is very clearly T-cell lymphoblastic lymphoma.  The pathologists are doing some extra fancy testing to check for some genetic coding or some such thing to see if they can figure out why this lymphoma has not responded to the usual first cycle of treatment.

Soooooo....full steam ahead.  The first of two new chemos started today.  He will get it for 5 days with 3 days off and then 5 days of the next type of chemo (which is a 3-chemos cocktail  called I.C.E.).  Too bad we are talking about toxic, debilitating medications and not some lovely summertime drink (hehehe).

The mood swings, anxiety, anger, frustration, and general miserable state of emotions are rearing their ugly heads after 3 days on the new steroid.  He has 11 days to go before he gets a break from that.  They are going to be starting an antidepressant tonight to help keep Dillon from going down the slippery slope of depression.

I have my smoothie fixins ready to go (thank you Sandy, Anne, and Raya), a salad washer, a new fancy pants blender is on its way courtesy of a few friends pitching in, and my exercise clothes are washed and ready to go.  I am very excited to get my nutrition back on track after a week of crazy food intake, which includes eating at the oddest of hours (Dillon and I had a ball the other night at 1:30 a.m. eating a snack of popcorn, yogurt, and apples.....we laughed and laughed about what Sean and Luca would say if they walked in at that hour and saw us chatting up a storm and eating away)).  Exercise seems a little more challenging in the current setting....but I am getting pretty friendly with a couple of the nurses and I am gonna ask them to open the stairwell for me when Dillon is napping and I can climb 6 flights of stairs a few times a day to get my cardio working again.

The bone marrow transplant process is beginning.  There is a lot of paperwork, blood work, pre authorizations, and a bunch of other stuff to set up. They told me today that Dillon is on the fast track.....that is a good thing right (like at Disneyland the fast track means you get to skip the lines and get on the ride first :)  Oh, that's right, this is not an amusement park, this is a high-tech, scary hospital where they are desperately trying to save my boy's life.


So, we forge on, strong and determined.