NON HODGKIN’S LYMPHOMA UPDATE

My oldest friend (who I’ve known for nearly 50 years) has finally finished her cancer treatment, so I wanted to give you a Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma update.  I wrote about her journey back in August, when she’d recently had her diagnosis https://familyaffairsandothermatters.com/non-hodgkins-lymphoma/ and now she’s completed all her treatment and her hair is already growing back!

I watched her manage her treatment and her life in awe.  She was always upbeat and positive and made the most of an incredibly difficult situation and now she’s finished all her chemo and her radiotherapy and can go away on holiday and get on with living her life to the full!

This is a summary of her journey, via numerous hospital visits.  The radiotherapy treatment occured daily over 3 weeks:-

She was diagnosed with:-

Stage IIA DLBCL with bulky abdominal disease

(DLBCL = Diffuse large B cell lymphoma is a type of non-Hodgkin lymphoma) 

Treatment:-

R CHOP x 6 (22/7-04/11/22)

Radiotherapy 30Gy (24/11-16/12/22)

Results:-

16^th Nov 2022 post chemo PET scan result:-

There are no concerning metabolically active or CT significant pulmonary lesions.

The scan findings are in keeping with a complete metabolic response.

Monitoring:-

Three Month Post Treatment CT scan on 20th March followed by consultation and 2 further CT scans

+ 6 months in Sep 2023 and

+ 12 months in Sep 2024

(no further PET scans, probably because they don’t want to subject her to more radiation unnecessarily)

No further monitoring 2 years post treatment and then pronounced “in remission”  although she prefers the word “cured!” which she genuinely believes she already is and it’s all such good news.

We celebrated last Thursday at Ham Yard Hotel where she treated me and another friend of hers to the Relax and Recharge spa treatment and lunch, which was a wonderful way to finish her journey together and I’m so thrilled for her.  Will be interesting to see if she decides to keep her hair in a glorious pixie crop or grow it out again:-

I feel it’s only fair, given we’re discussing hair to upload the photo of me with a hairbrush stuck in my hair. I’d borrowed her friend’s brush to dry my fringe after the oily (but lovely) head massage during the spa treatment and it literally took half an hour to untangle it!  Not a good look!

Conference

She’s now booked herself in to attend the Lymphoma Action National Conference 2023  just for her own interest on the 13th May and she might volunteer to be a buddy for any newly diagnosed person, which I think is a totally brilliant idea as she can offer such positive support.

They are expecting an audience of around 200 (plusstaff/speakers) and welcome people with any type of lymphoma at any stage of their journey. The audience will typically include individuals:

• newly diagnosed
• on active monitoring (watch and wait)
• currently in treatment
• recently finished treatment
• many years beyond treatment
• their family friends and carers

1. You’ll have lots of opportunities to meet and share experiences with others with lymphoma.
2. Medical professionals will talk about lymphoma diagnosis, treatment and management, and you can ask them your questions.
3. You can also ask us any questions, and find out the many ways we can support you.

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