Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma Diagnosis
After the results came back from the lab, I was given a non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma diagnosis by my oncologist (Stage 3 E to be more specific). If you want to read the last post, where I talk about my left orchiectomy surgery, click here. Now that I was given a diagnosis, my oncologist was ready to put together a plan of action for treatment.
He assured me that, a non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma diagnosis was much better than an Hodgkin’s Lymphoma (also known as Hodgkin’s disease) diagnosis. With his experience, he’s seen a 50% remission rate in patients with NHL. Compare this to testicular cancer, which was one possibility, where his experience was a lower rate of remission.
We discussed what the treatment would be. First, they would install a port-a-cathe in my chest, to administer chemotherapy. The reason they use a port-a-cath when treating someone with a non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma diagnosis (and many other cancers) is because the chemo drugs could actually eat away at the skin. The port-a-cath allows the drugs to go directly into the blood stream, so they can go to work, killing the cancer cells.
He prescribed the RCHOP therapy, which Is the standard chemo treatment for someone with a “non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma diagnosis”. I would also be receiving what is called intrathecal chemotherapy, which is injected into the spinal fluid. I’ll talk about the details of the RCHOP therapy and intrathecal chemo in future posts.
So, now that I was given a non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma diagnosis, they were ready to install the port-a-cathe. That will be the subject of my next blog post, where I’ll talk about the procedure and what was involved. This was the beginning of a long and rough road to recovery. I’ve been fortunate enough to work with, in my opinion, the best doctors, nurses and medical staff during my non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma diagnosis.