Meeting with Dr. Kubba

We met with Dr. Kubba to talk one more time before my surgery. He said my blood work looks excellent and was not able to find any abnormal nodes upon palpation. That's all good... He previously has told me that it's not really significant that I feel WELL or that my blood work is normal but the further away we get from the scan the more significant he seems to think it is because I would probably be experiencing some "B" symptoms by now. (night sweats, fevers, weight loss - I wish, etc.). I have to admit, I'm encouraged. I keep reminding myself that most hodgkin's patients are actually cured with the first line chemo. I SO want to be one of them. We also discussed what will happen if my biopsy is unfavorable. Just as I have read - what they call "salvage" chemotherapy (that just sounds awful, doesn't it?) to get me back into remission will come first and is preparation for the transplant. I would then be given other strong chemo agents to stimulate the release of stem cells in my marrow to be released into my peripheral blood. Those stem cells will be harvested and stored. Then follows the fun, high-dose chemo and total body irradiation to kill any lingering cancerous cells and to destroy my marrow. After this, my previously harvested stem cells would be returned to me by IV. With any luck the new stem cells would engraft in my bones and begin production of WBCs, RBCs and platelets beginning 10 - 21 days after the transplant. This I would like to avoid. Still no crias. Just in case you don't know me and have just happened to stumble upon my blog you should know, my husband (Brad) and I raise alpacas. We currently own about 30 of them and we are expecting approx. 9 crias between now and the end of May.