Post 6 - The Results

12/17/08

The wife and I met with Dr. Dan. Here are the results:

Stage 4b (the next stage is stage 5 -- don't make any long term plans - terminal). Now there is a HUGE LEAP from 4b to 5, but the cancer is pretty far along.

Grade 3a. The most aggressive grade (I believe I remember this part correctly) is grade 3b.

To be honest, I kinda zoned out after the stage 4b/grade 3a part of Dr. Dan's speech. I think I caught most of it, but I know I had to ask him to repeat somethings.

The cancer has reached and is in my bone marrow, but it is not in any of my organs yet. This is good news, as that would add some level of complications to things.

yada... yada... blah... blah...

The end result of all the discussions is that the cancer is pretty far along and also pretty aggressive. The MUGA scan shows that my heart is in great shape, and so we collectively opt for the more aggressive of the two chemo treatments known as R-CHOP.

I'll have 6 total treatments with 3 weeks between treatments, starting sometime near the end of December/beginning of January time frame. They'll tell me when I start my treatments when I come for my "Chemo Orientation" class on 12/23/08.