My adored little sister has been receiving treatment for a Lymphoblastic Lymphoma, a very aggressive type of cancer that in a very few months evolved to an over 1’x 8”x 6” size tumor in the middle of her chest.
The diagnosis was made in December, by our cousin (a darn fine oncologic surgeon) right at the door of her house, when we all traveled 8 hours to be able to spend Christmas with her, in Dec 23/06. She traveled to Houston first days of Jan/07 and was blessed with not having to wait too much to start her treatment. She found a very fine, compassionate and brilliant oncologist, who started a treatment as aggressive as the tumor: eight cycles of chemotherapy (regular terms would be six) with six different antitumoral drugs (regular schemes give four).
After third cycle she was in total remission, but her bone marrow did not take it well. It took longer and longer to recover after each new chemo cycle. A month ago, after 6th cycle, her blood counts were life threatening: anemia was so intense she could hardly breath; a compensatory tachycardia took place and the beats of her heart, doubled in number, were perceived at her neck. Her platelets were so low that any little effort (walking even) provoked small bleedings. Her defenses went down to zero and developed a severe infection from a normally harmless bacteriae present in our bodies. We almost lost her to this. She was hospitalized for several days. The bone marrow was exhausted and not recovering. The doctor decided that the risks of continuing with the two more cycles of chemo were way higher than the possible benefits, and decided to stop there. She was scheduled ford new Positrons Emission Tomography, new complete blood test looking for tumoral cells in peripheral blood, and new bone marrow biopsy for a “rearrangement”. The dreadly "bone marrow transplantation" phrase started being mentioned often. I was ready to donate would that need rise.
We were given the results today: there is no evidence of Lymphoma whatsoever. She is in complete remission. Her blood tests are back to normal. She was scheduled for a one month daily sessions of radiotherapy starting this coming Monday, to finish her treatment. She looked adorable with the scarves covering her bald head, but I have never seen her more beautiful than today, when she flashed Me the hint of her hair that has started growing after one month without the venoms.
We got out of the hospital at 2 pm, and walked around the malls laughing and joking and embracing each other. We had hot dogs and icecream for lunch, just like when we were little girls, she and I, celebrating her life under the sultry embreace of the sun in this texan summer
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