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Mum is Cancer free!!

The big news this week is that my mother is free of cancer… well it’s no longer detectable from the CT and PET scans she had in the last week or so.  So that’s is the best news we could have expected! 

She was diagnosed with Non Hodgkin's Lymphoma (NHL) Stage 4 in early April.  She was booked into doing Chemotherapy (R-CHOP14) from May 19 for a series of 6 treatments (each 2 weeks apart).  The diagnosis was made after a PET Scan was performed where a number of areas were detected to have fast growing cells (which is what a cancer does).  The latest scans were done on Tuesday and the result was provided to us by Wednesday by Dr Penny and Dr Ho.

At RPA for the PET Scans they had provided us a CD Rom of results.  The CD was labelled as ours to keep (and hang onto).  We did have a look at it but weren’t able to make head nor tail of it.  In the end when Dr Ho asked for it we gave it to her… unfortunately I hadn’t taken a copy of it.  At least we managed to get a copy of the PET Scan and CT Scan results which gave my mother the all clear!

Mum’s blood test showed she had a low blood count so we went in on Saturday for a blood transfusion.  It was done at ACU (or the Ambulatory Care Unit).  I thought it was a strange name as it sound like it’s someone who can’t walk but apparently it’s a unit for people who CAN walk.  Anyway it was at that department where my mother sat for 6 hours ‘receiving’ blood.  I now feel I need to go to the blood bank and do some donations to at least top up what my mother took out of the system!

So one more chemo was done on Thursday… and then only one more to go so my mother can start fully recovering from the surgery and cancer.  The end of the final cycle is August 11.  I think that’s a day worth celebrating!

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