Monday was a busy morning for restaging at NIH:
1) 17 vials of blood at 7 am
2) 45 minutes in the MRI hotdog chamber at 8 am (sounded like I was surrounded by a swarm of helicopters)
3) Ultrasound at 9 am.
4) Bone Marrow Biopsy at 10 am.
5) EKG at 11
6) Back to work at 1
I should get my FACS results for the bone marrow aspirate and peripheral blood in a couple days. The good news is that ultrasound of my spleen shows that it now measures 10 cm. That's down from 13.4 cm at diagnosis, and means the overall volume at diagnosis was 2.4 times what it is now -- comparitively large although a spleen size of 13.4 cm isn't abnormal for a tall man. This bodes well for having delivered a fairly strong punch to the hairies.
The bone marrow biopsy was the most pain-free so far, but mine was still done by hand -- not the new bone marrow drill that gets the job done in just 10 seconds. NIH started using the drill recently, but they didn't have any bits left from the initial order, so I'll have to wait until next August (biopsy #7) to see if the drill is as fast and painless as claimed.
My CBC results were very good. The WBC is back up to 3.74, platelets are up to 139 and ANC is at 2.5. There is no sign of any fat in my liver and my AST and ALT are still great at 20 and 30, respectively.
We're assuming the FACS will be positive, so I'm scheduled for a clinic appointment next Wednesday and will start my second round of Rituxan on the 28th -- 8 cycles over 8 weeks. When I'm done this round, I'll have received 16 cycles of Rituxan over the course of 16 months.
I'll post my FACS results as soon as they come in.
1) 17 vials of blood at 7 am
2) 45 minutes in the MRI hotdog chamber at 8 am (sounded like I was surrounded by a swarm of helicopters)
3) Ultrasound at 9 am.
4) Bone Marrow Biopsy at 10 am.
5) EKG at 11
6) Back to work at 1
I should get my FACS results for the bone marrow aspirate and peripheral blood in a couple days. The good news is that ultrasound of my spleen shows that it now measures 10 cm. That's down from 13.4 cm at diagnosis, and means the overall volume at diagnosis was 2.4 times what it is now -- comparitively large although a spleen size of 13.4 cm isn't abnormal for a tall man. This bodes well for having delivered a fairly strong punch to the hairies.
The bone marrow biopsy was the most pain-free so far, but mine was still done by hand -- not the new bone marrow drill that gets the job done in just 10 seconds. NIH started using the drill recently, but they didn't have any bits left from the initial order, so I'll have to wait until next August (biopsy #7) to see if the drill is as fast and painless as claimed.
My CBC results were very good. The WBC is back up to 3.74, platelets are up to 139 and ANC is at 2.5. There is no sign of any fat in my liver and my AST and ALT are still great at 20 and 30, respectively.
We're assuming the FACS will be positive, so I'm scheduled for a clinic appointment next Wednesday and will start my second round of Rituxan on the 28th -- 8 cycles over 8 weeks. When I'm done this round, I'll have received 16 cycles of Rituxan over the course of 16 months.
I'll post my FACS results as soon as they come in.
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