R day approaches

I have my "Re-staging" day coming up on September 29.  This is the 6 month milestone from when I started the treatments (5 days CDA-2 and 8 weeks Rituxamab).  I've had a 9 week and a 3 month check up already and so far there are no hairies in the blood.  This time they do a complete work up (MRI, blood work, BMB).  I don't look for forward to the BMB (Bone Marrow Biopsy) - it is not the most pleasant thing to experience.  However, my biggest worry - and it becomes more worrisome as the day approaches, is what they will find?  Will the bone marrow be clear, if not how much is left?  Will it have spread back into my blood?  Will I have to undergo more treatments, if so for how long?  As you can see, it drives one crazy to distraction.

C. and I will be traveling back to Bethesda at this time.  This time we will take some extra time and explore the sites.  The first time in March was basically her being stuck in a hotel room and me being stuck in the hospital at NIH.  The big storms had just passed a couple of weeks before, but it was still quite cold.  All in all, it was a very dreary experience.

A little late

I've had this blog for a while now and haven't known what to write.  In March of this year I had the unfortunate experience to be diagnosed with a type of leukemia (Hairy Cell, HCL).  My friend K. suggested that I should blog about my experiences as I went along.  It sounded like a good idea but I found I was too emotionally distraught to make it happen.

At some point however I starting sending email status and posting to Facebook to a group of family and friends.  My plan is to begin this blog now, stay tuned...