Oncologist Appointment

I had a 6 month oncologist appointment today. Everything looks good.

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A quick comment before I get to the details of the appointment. 

When I came out the office, I had a text waiting from my wife. I responded, and also let her know that everything looked good on the cancer front. My kids were 6, 8, and 10 when I was diagnosed. They're 24, 26, and 28 now. But even when they were small, my wife and I made it a point to be completely honest with them. We knew that if we hid anything from them, even small kids were going to figure out something was wrong, and probably imagine the something even worse than the truth. So the Full Transparency Policy has staid in effect. I text them after each appointment.

But then as I was walking to my car, I thought I should tell my kids the good news, too. I started to text them, and stopped myself. What I started to say was "I had an oncologist appointment this morning. Everything looks fine."

But here's the thing -- they didn't know I had an appointment. So even the small shock they might in that little space between "I had an oncologist appointment" and "Everything is fine" was something I wanted to avoid.

So I flipped it and reversed it, as Missy Elliott would say. "Everything was fine at my oncologist appointment this morning." Start with the good news. Don't leave them guessing.

And yes, I know I don't start with the god news when I write to you all, like I did with this post. But I know you're living with this every day. You can handle it.

I'm always fascinated by the ways we use language to talk about cancer. Maybe I was overthinking that text to my kids. But I know how much impact words can have sometimes. 

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Back to the appointment.

As usual, my 6 month appointment involved blood work, a physical exam, and my own reporting on how I was feeling.

I'm feeling fine, at least as far as cancer goes. No new swollen nodes, which the doctor confirmed with his exam, and no B symptoms. My bloodwork is normal.

We always have a good chat about what's going on in our lives, since there aren't too many health concerns to get into. We talked about travel, and our separate experiences in Philadelphia and Syracuse (my wife and I visited both places this summer). The doctor recommended a good Barbecue place in Syracuse -- we somehow always end up talking about smoked meat.

As far as my cancer goes, he said it was "remarkable" that I have gone 15 years with just the Rituxan. He thinks there is a chance that I won't ever need treatment again. (That's a wonderful thought, and while I try to live my life as if that was the case, I also refuse to believe that it's true.) Interestingly, he said that if I had signs of lymphoma again, he would want to basically start from scratch -- doing a biopsy and everything else at diagnosis to know for sure if it was Follicular Lymphoma. That makes sense, and it's what I assumed would happen. But this is the first time he's kind of suggested that it might not be FL, if I do get another diagnosis.

As always, I asked if there was anything new and exciting with treatments. He is still very excited about bispecifics. He said they working very well for a lot of patients, though there are still concerns about side effects. When a patient is treated with bispecifics at the cancer center that I go to, they are admitted to the hospital, in case there are any problems. He thinks newer generations of bispecifics will be safer, with fewer severe side effects. This will make them more widely available, with treatment in a doctor's office and not in a hospital. Very interesting.

So that's my update. I'm still healthy, as far as Lymphoma goes. My wife ad kids have been informed. Traffic and the parking garage at the cancer center are still awful. My doctor is great but sometimes forgets to put in the blood work order. Overall, everything looks good.

We're in the summer doldrums when it comes to Lymphoma research. All the good stuff was presented at ASCO in June. I'll keep looking for good things to share. If I can't find anything soon, I may have to start sharing pictures of my dog instead.

Stay well.