He was diagnosed with Burkitt's lymphoma a couple of weeks ago and has been in hospital ever since. It's a bulky abdominal tumour, spleen and kidney involvement and extensive in his bone marrow. When he was first diagnosed we were told "prognosis is poor, probably a few months, get his affairs in order". He's had one cycle of intensive chemo (DAR EPOCH) and he's neutropenic so we're waiting for the blood results to recover to find out what the situation is. Apparently it's the fastest growing human cancer so as soon as he starts producing b cells again they are going to start the next chemo cycle.
He can't eat more than a couple of spoonfuls, he's lost huge amounts of weight and he's shaking and confused most of the time. He's convinced he's going to be out in a few days and varies between saying he's just pulled a muscle and talking about being resigned to death, having no regrets etc. His temperature spikes over 38 at least once a day but no infection is showing up in blood cultures. His mouth and throat are inflamed and he finds it hard to swallow and speak. He had tumour lysis syndrome with the chemo so he's being pumped full of fluids etc.
I'm confused about prognosis. Are we still looking at a few months or is there a chance the chemo will work and he'll recover? He's 75. The different doctors seem to say different things and I don't know what to think.One minute I'm grieving and the next I feel like I'm being silly because he might not die. My kids are in pieces, they adore him. I'm commuting between Exeter and Stoke on the train every few days.
Three weeks ago he was up a ladder cutting hedges, a month ago we were all in Ireland playing music and hill-walking. It's like a nightmare. I know there are other MNers going through similar, I just wanted to share and see if anyone can shed any light, or wants to do mutual hand-holding
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Life-limiting illness
Dad has stage IV lymphoma, three weeks ago he was OK and now he's unrecognisable. Anyone knowledgeable about cancer?
37 replies
Greensleeves · 13/10/2016 13:26
OP posts:
MrsDeVere ·
13/10/2016 19:17
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