Richter's Syndrome

Hey friends, I've been sort of sick lately. The oncologist suspects the CLL has transformed into a very nasty beasty called Richter's Syndrome, an aggressive form of an acute lymphoma. I'm having a lymph node biopsy Tuesday morning to find out for sure. It'll take a couple of days to get the pathology report back, and if it is RS, I'll start chemotherapy right away. If it's not RS, I still need to start some kind of treatment, maybe Revlimid. RS has a very poor prognosis, but I know one person who survived it for several years. For many though, it's a matter of months.

So here we go. I have been so so blessed in dealing with CLL so far. Misdiagnosed with mononucleosis in 2005; officially diagnosed with CLL in 2006; treated with 6 rounds of PCR (Pentostatin, Cytoxan, and Rituxan) in 2007; and feeling completely fine and healthy up until about 6 months ago. Maybe R-CHOP will kick this thing, and maybe it won't. My CLL guru, Terry Hamblin, didn't have the answers for it yet either, but he recommended HDMP, which I doubt our local guy will go for because, admittedly, there's no conclusive proof of its efficacy. So I'll use what's available here, and hope for the best. I trust that my Father in heaven knows what the best is, and I cheerfully submit to His will. Love to all of you.

Big P.S. I can cheerfully submit today because I'm not experiencing debilitating side effects from treatment right now. Give me a few of those and my cheerfulness will likely vanish. Also, I can cheerfully submit because I am a 60-year-old grandmother. Were I watching a younger person cope with a tough dx, you can bet all signs of cheerfulness would be absent.