Diagnosis Information

Dotti has Follicular Lymphoma. Wow. That feels so heavy to say/write.

You can read about it here if you would like. She is stage 3 - but that sounds worse than it is with this type of cancer.

They found it during her annual mammogram (LADIES - let this be a reminder to you if you are late or need to schedule yours!!!!!).

The whole thing took about 6 months to get diagnosed, and she had to do a lot of her own care in the beginning for follow-ups and then finally a PET scan. With the PET scan, they saw that there was cancer in all of her lymph nodes, and she then saw a doctor who was quite sure of what it was and that she could treat Dottie, and she would beat this thing.

So - after the PET scan came the biopsy - and the confirmation of what type we are looking at. When they did the biopsy, they also put in a port at that time - the doctor was so sure of what she was looking at in the PET scan.

It turns out that with this type of cancer, it is not something that you cure, but rather live with. So - that's the road we will follow!

She has to have aggressive Chemo and then immunotherapy for her first treatment, and then lighter treatments after that, as needed, based on what they learn from blood tests. The chemo and immunotherapy can continue for up to 3 years, and will probably be monthly - but a lot is determined along the way.

If you have questions - please feel free to ask here! Maybe someone else has the same question.

***(This pic was from last Halloween, when Dottie, Jane and I all showed up as spider ladies, without knowing what each other was doing!)

Thanks for following along!