Well, Tuesday we went out to Stanford and got a second opinion from a world renowned hematologist. Essentially his reccomendations were:
- Get a bone marrow biopsy before starting chemo
- Use RICE over RCHOP, 4 cycles
- Do the bone marrow transplant now rather than later
Actually he explained that it was a stem cell transplant really, so they never actually harvest anything from the bone marrow. Anyway the Stanford oncologist who is much more of an academic still hasn’t gotten ahold of my oncologist in Sacramento, but here’s the regimen I’m looking at starting next week:
- Tuesday the 12th — all day outpatient getting rituxin
- Wed – Friday — in the hospital getting the rest of ICE
That’s all I know at this point since they’re still trying to finalize things. I won’t get a bone marrow biopsy before, but it really doesn’t make any logical difference since they’ll still have to do the chemo. This does mean I’m missing a lot of work starting very soon.
At least the waiting is pretty much over. And hey, hospitals may be more fun than I think