My best friend was diagnosed with Diffuse Large B Cell NHL after a
terrifying few days of biopsies (huge mass in chest cavity) and intensive care at Cedars Sinai inLos Angeles. He also had Vena Cava Syndrome (mass was cutting off his vena cava nerve which then made his neck, head and arm swell). The mass was also pushing on his aorta and causing his standing still pulse rate to be 129. All very scary. It took a while to get an exact diagnosis because the oncologist (who is wonderful) and the pathology dept. were on different sides of what kind of HL it would be. The oncologist said he expected Hodgkins because of all the
symptoms (severe itching, nights sweats, etc.). The pathology dept
was telling him that it's leaning toward Non Hodgkins. After a few
days (and getting another opinion from UCLA) they came back with NHL.
But, it turns out that there is a new category called "grey zone".
From what we can gather, my friends has cells that belong in both
Hodgkins and Non Hodgkins categories. He's sort of in the middle, the
"grey zone". The doc said they're constantly coming up with new
treatments and diagnosis because of all the new studies being done. I
was just wondering if anyone else has ever dealt with the "grey zone".
My friends doc is very hopeful about his recovery. He's got him on
CHOP-R every three weeks (5 days of prednazone after treatment) with 8 treatments planned. He said if it's not all gone at that point they would radiate. My hope is that since he's between HD and NHL that it gives him a better prognosis.
If anyone can give us advice or first hand experiences with this
please let us know.
Thank you so much. This is a wonderful message board and my hopes and prayers are with everyone going through this rough time in their lives.
Jim