Our Seattle Visit

Hello to All,

We made the trip up and back to Seattle in a day. We missed the snow in the pass, but did go through some heavy rain showers. Seattle was overcast when we got there, the sun was shining when we left at 4:00. We picked Chris up at his work and he joined us. Always nice to have an extra pair of ears.

March 21. 2011, we met with Dr. Pagel and Dr. Zimmerman at (SCCA) in Seattle for a second opinion. They agreed with Dr. Patel to start with a mild form of chemo -Bendamustine /w Rituxan once a month for 3 months - then have a bone marrow biopsy done to see if it is working - if it looks good continue for another 3 months. Then in the 4th or 6th month after I go in to remission harvest the stem cells for a stem cell transplant later (or bone marrow transplant, we discovered they're the same thing). They seem to think this will be easier on my body than the 8 months of aggressive chemo (which I was delighted to hear and I will be able to keep my hair for a little longer) with having the same results.

As for using my stem cells verses others - they seem to think there would be more of a chance for rejection and infection using someone else's. So, I would like to thank all those brave souls for offering, but I will try my own and see how they work.

My next thing to do is get the port put in and start chemo. Two months for those B-cells to multiply is too long - we have to start eliminating them. My mission now is to get into remission so we can do the stem cell transplant which would be about a 2 month stay in Seattle.

Thanks for all your prayers, cards, notes, calls, e-mails and thoughts of encouragement it keeps us going! We feel so blessed with the support from family and friends.


Love to all,

Paula