The plot thickens

Jimmy's report: excellent. Still in complete remission, and he's doing great, thank heavens.

Ellen's: The good news is that what I have is CURABLE, but the diagnosis is more complicated than originally thought. They think the large b cell lymphoma is a transformed tumor that started out as something else, like follicular lymphoma, and there's also a genetic component involved. I don't really understand it yet BUT

I have to stay up here at Emory to be treated. We'll go home tomorrow to get everything together, come back to Atlanta on Sunday, and I'll check into the hospital on Monday. The treatment is a lot tougher and more aggressive than the original R CHOP therapy prescribed, and in a 21 day cycle, I'll spend 5 days in the hospital being closely monitored and the rest of the time in the apartment, going back and forth to Emory for tests. We leased an apartment this afternoon at Post Briarcliff. The number of cycles I have to take depends on my response, but it will probably be around six months.

We'll wait a little while until we get settled in, but Dr. Lonial said we can have Andy up here with us in the apartment.