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Research in numbers – Lymphoma

Tuesday November 25th, 2014. This starts the 6th day of my 5 day Chemotherapy run. Read more on the delay of game in yesterdays fun filled post “The Big Spill
It is cold this morning and I’m finding it very easy to find negativity in this huge revolving cancer door. Each time I hear a cough or see someone wipe their nose I cringe on the inside. I try to pour myself a fresh cup of water and I get this:Dirty water from the tap
After staring at my Styrofoam cup of mineral water I was jolted into happiness by the bald lady wishing everyone a good-morning and calling everyone beautiful. I’m not sure if they hand out camper of the day here at MD Anderson, but if they do this lady has it in the bad and its not even 8a.m. So shifting gears and trying to be positive I pour out the mineral water and continue my quest for numbers when it comes to the drugs I’m taking. I have completed all but my last drug for this weeks run of chemotherapy. Today all I get is Cyclophosphamide. One hour of Cyclophosphamide is what is between me and being done with round 4 of chemotherapy. The quest for numbers is what determines if I’m back for rounds 5 and 6.

So here are some of the things I’m collecting. No pen and paper today so the rest of this blog post will be my note pad:
Chemotherapy is not just a single drug. For most cancer treatments there is only one type of chemotherapy given. My doctor chose a chemotherapy cocktail to given to a small population of cancer people.

This year I’m one in 70,800 people diagnosed with Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma.

We take this and then knock it down to 1 out of every 3 have Diffuse Large B Cell Lymphoma. That puts me into one out of 23,600 this year.
Depending on how test results come back doctors prescribe 3 main protocols:
CHOP
R-CHOP
EPOCH+R

CHOP is the old school protocol. R-Chop has been used for 20 years. EPOCH+R is the new kid on the block.  The EPOCH+R is an aggressive protocol that I had to test into. My age, heath status, & electrocardiogram were all factors on what cocktail was hoked up to my IV. So I’m looking and looking for numbers of patients who fit my demographic and my drug class. I really don’t know how many of the 23,600 folks are fit enough to take the high dose super regiment of chemotherapy. I found out my dosage is 2x the normal dosing from what they ran in drug trials. This makes it hard to make a judgement on long term side effects. There are not enough years and enough data at my toxic concentrations to make a great decision now.

I challenge anyone reading this to help in finding any information in the positive or negative on long term effects of EPOCH+R.

Comment below or send email directly to derrick@bigboxpro.com. I have 15 days to make a decision on what to do about chemotherapy.

I'm Derrick Perrin and I support this message! Thanks for reading and comment or post if you have time.