Bob's Story

What a wild ride we have been on. Just to get everyone up to speed. We were traveling home from my sister Roxy's home in Seattle in Nov 2009 when Bob found a lump on his arm, down by his elbow. He thought it was a spider bite. When it didn't go away he went to the Dr's and was told it was a "Hematobia" and would just go away. Well it didn't and it kept growing. He went back to the Dr and was sent to an Orthopedic Dr who did an MRI and biopsy of the lump. That's where the journey began. He was referred to an Oncologist who told him he had Stage 4 Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma. He went thru chemo and did really well and was then told he was cancer free. That was about 6 months ago. Last week he had a follow-up Pet Scan and the cancer was back! This time the process includes getting Chemo every day for a week and then he will have 2 week off and then will start it back up again for a total of 9 weeks. We are seeing a transplant Dr today as they want to do a "Stem Cell transplant" on him. It's not good news or a path we wanted to take due to the risks involved but at this point we have no other way to go. Once he enters into the hospital they will try and harvest his own stem cells that can be put back after he is hit with mass doses of chemo again. After they feel they have killed off all of the cancer cells they will then transplant his stem cells back. We will know exactly what will happen with the transplant later today after meeting with the Dr. I'll keep you posted on what is going on.