Angie's Stem Cell Transplant 2006: Visit from Jeannie

About Me

Location: Nova Scotia, Canada

In Sept./05 I was diagnosed with Primary Mediastinal Large Diffuse B Cell Non Hodgkins Lymphoma. The tumour in my chest measured 10cm x 10.6cm x5cm. After I completed 6 rounds of CHOP-R chemotherapy, a CT Scan in Jan.06 showed that my tumour had decreased by well over half the original size. A Gallium Scan showed negative for cancer cells in my mass. We decided to do 2 more treatments to be sure we killed any remaining cancer. We now had to decide if I should proceed with radiation. Did the risks of radiation outweigh the benefits? My hematologist and radiation oncologist had excellent arguments for both sides of the coin. The decision was to be mine. They set up appointments for me to see doctors in Toronto and Vancouver for 2nd opinions. In Vancouver I had a PET/CT Scan (a superior machine to a Gallium Scan) to see if my tumour was active. On March 17th this scan revealed that my tumour WAS still active and had INCREASED in size from an early scan. This meant that I had Relapsed or Refractory NHL....my best chance for cure was a Stem Cell Transplant. In my blog, I will describe what I am going through before, during and after my transplant.

Friday, June 02, 2006

Visit from Jeannie

Sue, Jeannie & I on the Back Deck

Jeannie & I in the morning room after breakfast.

It was a such pleasure to see our friend Jeannie visiting all the way from North Carolina!! (She is cheering for the Edmonton Oilers in their series against the Carolina Hurricanes.....so she is OK!) She & her husband Roger used to live in Nova Scotia and we used to do some hiking & kayaking with them. We met Jeannie when she decided to change her career from nursing to become an upholsterer!! She came into our foam & upholstery business one fateful day roughly 10 years ago asking a bunch of questions about our products & it eventually evolved into a friendship.

Anyway, we had a great visit & got caught up on each others lives. Hopefully, they decide to move back to Nova Scotia some day.....I know that Jeannie misses living here!

3 Comments:

jeannie said...: I guess this means that I should tell Dave I was in Halifax--just in case he reads your blog!!

I hope the VON visits go OK---

Jeannie; 7:56 pm
Anonymous said...: Hi Angie. Hope you're feeling OK. You haven't added anything in a while. Have you had any hospital stays lately? Landscaping must be going slow with this ----- weather. Hard to cheer up with the weather too. Keep your head up. Always thinking about you. Love Sandy; 2:35 pm
Anonymous said...: Hi Angie

Sue just sent me your blog. It's very informative and you've done a great job on it. You and Sue are always in my and Colleen's thoughts and prayers.

I said to Sue that when Colleen gets back from Afghanistan she wants us all to go bowling again. She really enjoyed that.

You've both been doing great. Take care of yourself and one another.

Coleen P.; 6:03 am