Hi,
I am writing from Greece, so forgive my poor English. I decide to write my story as I read your posts for a long time and I found them very supportive.
Early June 2019, my brother had a tonsillectomy. He is 39 years old. Some days later his biopsy show Diffuse Large B-Cell Lymphoma. It was a very socking period, he is a healthy guy, eating healthy food, working many hours per day, non-smoker.
He had 6 rChop rounds or chemotherapy and except a serious infection on August which kept him for three weeks in hospital with high fever everything went according to doctor's plan.
His last round was completed in October and early in December he had his first pet scan after the end of treatment. Result was DS2 - doctor said complete remission.
I forgot to state that the lymphoma was staged IA.
During all these months, I read and read statistics and analysis and some times I feel very anxious about the future. I don't know if this is a good practice but I have to say that I am very worried - sometimes more than normal.
Before some days he had a flue infection and in a blood test his White blood cells were very low - around 2,23 (normal is 4,00 to 10,00). I wonder if this is normal three months after ending the chemotherapy. Is it due to the flue infection? Or is something going wrong?
His next pet scan is end of February.
Hi Dasli73 and another welcome to Community.
Great to hear that your brother is in remission.
Chemos like R-CHOP are very effective at dealing with Lymphoma providing long term remission and even cure.......... but chemo like this is as equally effective at knocking the bodies immune system crazy.
I am now over 4 years past my last chemo and for the past three winters I have have been 5 times back in hospital (31 days) with Chest Infections, Lung Fungal Infections, the RSV Virus, Pneumonia, Septics and A Fib
The body takes time to recover and heal.
You may want to have a look at this great paper as it highlights the milestones of recover post treatments.
