I'm not an expert, but poking something called a "diffuse cell cancer" with a sharp stick doesn't seem like a good idea--even if the sharp stick is sterile and brandished by a Master Surgeon.
Concentrate, don't diffuse.
Hold your dominion.
Above I mentioned (I think
) that my landlady suggested she finish the process off with a cyberknife procedure in which lasers destroy the rest of the tumor after it's been reduced to a nugget. But, the family hasn't mentioned anything like that.
diffuse just refers to how the malignant cells cluster (or don't cluster) within the lymph node.
Quote:large cell lymphoma any of several types of lymphoma characterized by the formation of one or more types of malignant large lymphocytes, such as large cleaved or noncleaved follicular center cells, in a diffuse pattern.
There are different clustering patterns such as follicular (or nodular) as well as different cell sizes (large vs small), different cell involvement (B cell vs T cell vs any other kind of cell), different cell nucleus shapes (cleaved or lobed vs uncleaved).
THIS site has a pretty good dictionary of the different terms being thrown around.
Wow, maybe I should print that. It's good and pretty dense. Thanks again.
glad to help, k. Understanding the language can help make the discussions less scary.
An odd bit of news. Some chemical in the tobacco leaf is being used as a vaccination against a patients of lymphoma cancer cells...... (haven't read the whole article)
http://www.boston.com/news/health/articles/2008/07/21/technology_uses_tobacco_plants_to_fight_cancer/
http://www.crazysexycancer.com/
A friend of my cousin's is embarking an a 1000-crane project. She asked for help. My sister and I are happy to devote our slightly OCD hands to folding origami.
Your fellow kris got my attention with her film.
A week ago, I saw my cousin at a wedding. A couple days later she was checked into the hospital with a fever. Had a really bad infection. They treated her and she's gone home. She emailed to tell me that and that she's begun losing her hair. Happily, her white blood cell count came back up after the fever hit.
Sending lots of love and healing wishes to your baby cousin. Much love to you LilK x
Thanks, Izzie.
I've been keeping tabs on your travel thread. Unfortunately, I don't have anything to add! Will you be online while you are on the road?
I saw my cousin yesterday when she picked up her wig. She liked it and I think her standards have been adjusted because a) she is losing her hair, and b) she has received a few lesser quality wigs from former chemo patients.
She was in good spirits and more herself than when I saw her at the wedding two weekends ago. Her white blood cell count was above normal and she had a healthy appetite. She starts another week of chemo on Monday.
((((((((((((((((hugs to you and yours LilK))))))))))))))))))))))))
Oh Littlek, I just found this thread and would like to add my good wishes to you and your cousin, who sounds like a very brave little girl, especially considering her mother.
She is very lucky to have you and the rest of the family for support.
{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{ littlek and little cousin }}}}}}}}}}}}}}}
I bet she feels like a little girl these days, but the world sees her as a young woman.
Thanks to you both.
Good wishes to her, and to you.
Hey LilK
How are you? How's your wee cousin doing? Healing thoughts hun x
I'm ok. She should be finishing up another week of chemo this week. I don't know much more than that. She may be getting more spinal taps, but I think she won't be getting another cat scan to check for shrinkage until later.
Thanks for asking!
It's usually, they do chemo for a few go-'rounds, then the scan, then they adjust, increase, decrease or change things and start it up again. They generally try not to miss a session, so if she's on an every other week deal, say, weeks 1 and 3 of a month, week 1 she gets chemo, and right before that has the scan, then on week 3 she might get more or less drugs, or different ones, but on the same schedule.
She goes every third week. Then she gets a low WBC count at some point between. Well, so far that's happened, but she hasn't had enough cycles to call it a pattern.
