Is this correct?

Hey Cath!

1st Grandchild!!  OMG, how exciting is that!  This will be one Christmas you'll hold in your heart forever!

Sorry, I have been so selfish, I did not realize that you are a Patient!!  I have heard so many people being told they have a certain amount of time and they put their cancers into remission!!!  Glad your okay!  Makes every day a gift!  Thats how I think anyways.  Everyday we have with my dad is such a precious gift --- one does not realize it until your faced with such difficult situations. 

I am off to Mexico for two weeks, leaving on the 27th.  We had it booked since last Feb.  I have two daugters and a husband that are coming along. 

Sounds like we both are going to have a great holiday season this year!

I'll talk with you when I get back and let you know how things are going.

 

Ho Ho Ho Merry Christmas!

Hi Cath!

I am back.  Wanted to find out how your christmas was?  My father on Jan 17/08 got his diagnosis.  Stage 4b grade 3 follicular lymphoma, intermediate stage (aggressive), we just finished our first treatment of R-CHOP on Jan 23/08.  Now we know...and can start the research.  Listen, if you run into anyone on this site that has been diagnosed with follicular lymphoma, I have found an excellent site, just on follicular lymphoma.  It is www.lymphomasurival.com .  It is too good of a site for anyone diagnosed with disease to not see.

 Hope all is well with you sweetie, I've been thinking of you.

 

Hi Patient's Daughter!  You must have had a great holiday for your message sounds so 'chirpy' and happy!!  I have gone to the website and it really is very good - Robert Miller sounds very clever and he certainly gives a great positive approach to lymphoma!  I am looking forward to receiving his free article on survival -- that will determine whether or not I go the full way and pay the $35 to be a member of the site.   I have a young friend with Hodgkins lymphoma and I have yet to learn the differences between this and the NON Hod. type -- or any other type for that matter, and then the difference between these and what I have, multiple myeloma.  All I'm really sure of is that they are all blood cancers, however where I've always been told that mine is 'terminal' the prognosis according to Robert Miller seems to be more of a 'chronic' illness and that people live for many years after it is diagnosed.  I do hope for your sake, that this is true!  Especially as they have been able to start treatment so quickly. 

As for me...well Christmas was fantastic and proved to me that life is certainly worth fighting for, even in those bleak moments when one has been vomiting for 72 hours and wonders if all this is really worth it.... the answer is YES it is worth fighting for and hanging in there through all the pain and bad stuff!!  There IS light at the end of the tunnel, no matter how bad the journey can get, so keep on keeping on and make sure that you enjoy every good moment to its fullest -- the condition is so fragile that it can change in an instant!!  I'm gradually learning how to 'pace' myself because I'm learning - the hard way - that if I don't rest for at least 6-8 hours a day then I'll become ill very quickly and that the medicines are now taking longer and longer to do their stuff until one day when the medicines won't work at all.    Thats the fact, so I've just got to learn about 'pace'!! 

My best wishes to you on this learning journey -- I'm sure that before too long, you will know more about follicular lymphoma than the majority of doctors in the world.  In fact when I was first diagnosed my doctor said as I left his office "I'm sure that you will know more about myeloma than most doctors by the time you come back" -- and two weeks later I did!!  He had never seen a case before he met me, and now we work together -- fortunately with the support of a fantastic oncologist -- to keep me functioning!!  Take good care and please keep in touch!! Cath

Hi again -- this is a PS to my last note -- I've just read throught the entire message line and noticed that you mentioned that your dad was suffering from 'night sweats'.  Does this sweating only happen at night?  I'm only asking because I'm finding that many people with myeloma seem to suffer from profuse 'hot flush' symptoms -- day and night and that these sweats seem to also be affected by the weather, more profuse in summer than winter.  I'm just curious.  Thanks, Cath

Cath!  I know Robert is moving his daughter this weekend, but I have the free article.  Is there anyway I can forward it to you?  Let me know, its a very powerful site. 

I'm hanging in there, Hope for me started on this site.  Natural stragedy's as well as medical treatments - its more of an integrated approach.  Makes so much sense.  One article he has in there is Optimizing Chemotherapy.  I am slowing getting my father on this program.  Everything has been researched, lots of things are in trials, on medline, etc.  Things are explained in "LAY" terms not medical.  It is Positive and upbeat!!

Monthly newsletters, phone numbers for advice, Articles up-to-date!

I am making the best of everyday.  One day at a time!  I wonder all the time how we are going to get through this.

Cath, maybe this site can help you too!  Even his breakfast was designed for maximum absorption of the nutrients into the lymph system. That alone can only be helpful information for you.  

Cath!  His "sweats" were only at night.  They were soaking sweats!  But none during the day.  I have also heard patients with myeloma have it both during the day and night.  Do you suffer from this? 

 

Yes, these hot flushes are a real bother!  On really hot days people just think that I'm over heated, and on cold ones they think that I've been caught out in the rain -- but I know in both instances that this is not the case!  I actually operate with three dry wash cloths - one in the car, one in my purse, and one on my bed/chair -- and by the end of the day all three are soaked and need to be replaced!  Who'd believe it??!  Anyhow, I guess that if this is the worst of the problems then I really wouldn't have much to complain about -ha- not that I believe in complaining!!  

Thanks for offering to send the article, but I've requested it through the site and I gather that Robert will send it when he returns.  Many thanks, Cath

Hey Cath!  Those sweats do not sound fun!  Does your treatments help with this side effect?  Anyways, let me know what you think of Robert's site when you get your free article.  If I were you, I would give him a call, the number is on his site and just ask him if thinks this site would be helpful with your myeloma.  I look forward to hearing how you make out.

 

As you know PD, I do appreciate Robert's work and am grateful that you are now able to reach me by email.  I just thought I'd finish off this message chain so that people would not think that it just ended, with me never responding to you!  Glad that we're on line -- the MM family through Cancercompass is a really wonderful group of people!!  Thanks for all your work, Cath