After going away, the cancer returned in Graham's neck after the second R-CHOP treatment. We had been told that he would need five or six treatments, so we thought this was normal, that it just took several treatments to beat it down totally. When we went in for the regular checkup appointment before the next round of chemo, the doctor and nurse were very agitated and saddened to see the new growth and asked why we hadn't called them about it. They would have apparently sent him for the next round of chemo sooner.
But hey, we didn't know. They told us to call immediately if he had a fever, but not if a tumor regrew. Tumors we were used to. We were just warned about the prospect of infection, not regrowth.
Lesson for doctors: what's obvious to you isn't obvious to the patient who has never been through cancer treatment before! In all of the papers given to us about "when to call the doctor between treatments," new tumor growth is never mentioned.
Apparently the way successful treatment happens is that after the very first treatment, the cancer goes away and stays away. The remaining treatments are just to go after any microscopic spots that may remain, but it's just for good measure. 70% of non-Hodgkins patients usually go into long remissions after getting R-CHOP. Graham unfortunately isn't one of them.
Anyhow, Graham will need a more rigorous kind of chemo now called ESHAP, along with rituxan.
The doctor told him he needs to stop working for six months, because he'll have to go into the hospital for 5-6 days at a time to get the chemo, and then spend 7-10 days recovering from each round.
Needless to say, we're feeling low.
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