Managing Follicular Lymphoma with Oral Therapies

There are times when I realize I haven't thought about the blog much for a few days, and then I look at the last thing I posted, and realize it's been almost a week since I wrote something. This is one of those days.

I went back to work last week. As in, face-to-face, in a room with other people, not working from home. It's been almost 18 months since that happened. And I have to tell you, it's strange. I stopped at the coffee shop, and the same woman who was there all those months ago is back. I used to stop and chat with her for a few minutes, and I always asked about her grand daughter. (Grandparents like to brag about their grandkids.) This child was the smartest child in the world (at least according to her grandmother). She was 2 years old and already knew a bunch of words in Italian. 

As we talked the other day, the woman was describing how smart the kid was, and I thought, "Wow -- that's unbelievable. No 2 year old can really do that!"

And then I remembered that the child isn't 2 years old anymore, she's 4. In some ways, being back at work felt like it was yesterday, but then I realize that so much has passed me by. It's a world that's very familiar, but so much has changed.

While I like being back at work, there is also the challenge of trying to do my job while not being anxious about everything, given that we are still very much in a pandemic. And my own immune status is very much unknown. My blood count numbers are good, but I still don't know how my body would react to getting sick. Everyone where I work has to be vaccinated, or gets tested once each week, and everyone is required to wear a mask inside. So that eases my anxiety a little bit, anyway. 

But I'm still anxious, and still adjusting to the "old new world" I find myself living in. 

All of this is, of course, my way of saying I haven't had a lot of time to write in the last week.

But I do have something interesting to share.

It's a video, about 5 minutes long, called "Jonathan W. Friedberg, MD, on Managing Indolent NHL With Oral Therapies," from the ASCO Post. 

Dr. Friedberg works at the University of Rochester Medical Center, and the video comes from his presentation at the 2021 Pan Pacific Lymphoma Conference. In it, he talks about why he uses Lenalidomide + Rituxan (also known as R-Squared) for Follicular Lymphoma when it has returned after treatment, rather than when someone is first diagnosed.

It's an interesting, short video, and I'm sorry there is no transcript for anyone who needs a translation. 

Hoping things settle down soon.