This is a short update for those you wondering about the outcome of the CT and PET scans I had yesterday, at almost the halfway point of the chemotherapy treatment. I had an appointment with the oncologist, Dr. Bael, this afternoon. He showed me the images from before treatment started and from yesterday. There is no visible cancer left in any of the lymph nodes! That is what they expect to see at this point if the treatment is working well.
There is some scar tissue visible in the lymph nodes that were the most enlarged, which is expected. These scans don’t show the other places that had or have lymphoma, which are in my colon and bone marrow. Those will get checked at the end of the treatment, but Dr. Bael was quite confident that if it looks good in the lymph nodes it should be good in those other places too.
Wonderful news Saskya!!
This is THE BEST news! The dread and horribleness of chemotherapy makes you sort of forget that it can actually work. Very good news indeed!
Good news!
Great!
Thanks for that positive new, Saskya. Happy to hear it.
Great news ! So glad for you.
Wahoooo!!!!
Fantastic news!!
This is spectacular news. Geoff and I are just thrilled to hear this.
That’s amazing news, Saskya 🙂
Such good news Saskya.
Such great news, Saskya! Thanks for sharing this.
One has about 10 trillion, that’s ten thousand million, cells in one’s body. Say 1% of them are cancer. For the chemotherapy to be fully successful it has to get rid of every single cancer cell. Every one. Each chemo session gets rid of some fraction of the cells. There are 6 chemo sessions. To get from one trillion cells down to below one cell, each session has to get rid of at least 99% of the cancer cells. That is, after three sessions, the number of cells should be cut down by a factor of a million or more. That would be down to less than a milligram (a four thousandth of a teaspoon). Thus, if the treatment is to be successful, it should appear, physically, as cured at this ‘halfway’ point. Now, Saskya has 3 more sessions to cut the cancer cell population down by more than another factor of a million or more (1% of 1% of 1%), and get that 1 milligram made up of a million remaining cancer cells down to less than 1. That is, down to zero cancer cells. Right now, the cancer is effectively apparently gone, only a milligram or less left. With luck, after the next three sessions it will be actually gone, with not one bad cell left.
That’s wonderful news! Looks like we have the same oncologist, Dr. Bael. He has always been great about sharing information and providing encouragement. Hoping you are enjoying the warm weather.
Does everyone love Dr. Bael?
Thanks Saskya for the update, so glad to hear it. And thanks Andy for the math! Sending love and best wishes your way and hope to see you again soon.
Hooray! Amazing what they can do in a couple of weeks!! Happy for all of you!
Well… nine weeks, but yes it is amazing that they can get at the cancer like that, without killing all the normal cells!
Dear Saskya, very promising! Thank you for sharing. Are you now having a break in treatment or another part of it?
Greetings from cold and rainy Finland. I suppose your insects are having quet times…
Hi Eeva, nice to hear from you.
yes I have been seeing it is cool there now, but nice and green!
The chemotherapy treatments will continue. This was a check at the planned half way point.
Saskya! Wonderful news.
Fantastic news, Saskya! So happy to hear, and Andy’s
mathematical explanation was very informative.
How fantastic Saskya!! I am so glad to be receiving these news, it is a big relief, congratulations for sticking it out through those chemio sessions… Horray!! Sending you lots and lots of love from Brazil!
Remarkable. Does it make you feel differently about all the unpleasantness of the chemo and the dreaded steroids?
Wonderful indeed! This treatment is amazing, how it hunts for those cells and keeps killing them even though their population keeps on reducing by orders of magnitude. Andy, you have got the unit conversion wrong in the first sentence. 10 trillion is 10,000 billion, not 10,000 million; just a minor correction that is off by a factor of 1000!
maybe this is a geographical phenomenon and Andy may be right? A million is the same number on both sides of the Atlantic but I remember that Brits and Americans don’t use billions and trillions for the same numbers.
My mistake. I meant 10 million million or 10 thousand billion, I don’t remember which.
Yayyyy!!!! What fantastic news!
Great that the news is so positive, Saskya! Even when it isn’t I have learned not to lose hope. My good friend Carrie was diagnosed with glioblastoma at the age of about 23 and given a maximum of 3 months to live. I took her back to a place she wanted to revisit and then heard nothing for a few months and expected bad news. Instead I found an unsigned note on my office door in her handwriting: “How do you catch a man? Wear a red dress. Dye your hair blonde. Act stupid.” DEFINITELY from Carrie, who, as an undergrad in my Animal Behavior class had answered a question about mating of mountain sheep with “Wham! Bam!! Thank you, Ram!!” She lived another 20 years.
Yes! Remember to carry on! There are so many unexpected things happening now that I sometimes forget to do it.
I haven’t been thinking about the cancer in a dark hopeless way, which isn’t because I am a glass half full optimistic person, or becuase I am realistic about interpreting statistics. I think it is because I STILL don’t believe I have lymphoma.
I-m sure the small clay pots will do good in your hips! Smooth walking!
This was a reply to the latest report, take a walk or two, slowly feeling in your body!
This is wonderful news! Good kind of exponential decay.