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Here are summary of the first two drip sessions... They collapse the intervening week into two snapshots... More daily detail appears in the daily posts...

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Here is a chronicle of the first two sessions in what I call the Drip Room--9 people in recliners with drips attached... So far so good--as the following describes... I still intend to get back to dancing... Looking like it will be in February... 

Drip Room #1 (1/9/2018)

Yesterday went really smoothly... It was a pain in the butt to sit for 4 to 5 hours but the infusions produced no issues... I came away feeling energetic and pumped to be doing the treatment versus all of the probing and upfront analytical work that we had done... I was given a dose of rituximab (Rituxan) which is an immunotherapy material that turns looking for and destroying damaged cells into a PacMan game... It is selective regarding which cells it marks as targets thus not causing damage to other cells... Even today, I couldn't tell that I had  been given anything... I got a little more tired than normal after lunch--but a couple of hours nap rebalanced everything...I was also given an iron infusion since my blood work indicated that I was slightly anemic...

Will do three more sessions over the next three weeks... and then will plan out any next steps... If the lump reduces 50% in size with the initial 4 sessions, the probability of complete remission is very high... Based on some clinical studies, this magnitude of reduction is highly possible...

Thanx to a friend's suggestion about contacting a social worker to get resource information... The guy who spoke with me pulled together the kind of support resources that I was trying to find... He also took me through the many resources that are available in the medical complex where the doctors and labs are located... The facility is only a couple of miles from my house... And there are many Starbucks in the area...

Tomorrow I'll hit the punching bags and see if the treatment has any effect on my RSB activities... I'll be glad when I can get back to dancing--I had to sidetrack that part of my program to deal with my introduction to the mysteries of NHL and its associated intrusions...

The grandson is going through his "before bedtime" laps around house--while practicing his vocalizations which are growing in volume with each passing day... He's going to be a loud one--in fact he already is...

Drip Room #2 (1/16/2018)

Drip #1 officially ended and Drip # 2 started today... The period of Drip #1 is in my recently acquired medical terminology, unremarkable--nothing happened (that's good news)... Nothing happened except that I bumped into my oncologist while they were seating me for the second drip and he noticed that the mass was reduced--almost to the point of disappearance! He was surprised... The medical assistant said she's seen it happen... If this continues the possible outcome is for the mass to completely disappear during the treatments... Some of the trials allude to such a possibility... and underpins an outcome where remission doesn't take place...

So I had another uneventful stay in the recliner for about 5 hours... Received a bag of the immunological potion... and a smaller bag of iron booster... They also gave me some Tylenol, some steroid, and a dose of benadryl at the start of the session... These items help the potion work better in various ways--and not trigger some of the possible side effects...

Today was an interesting group day in the Drip Room... There were nine patients and several caregivers... There were newbies like myself--and some who have been dealing with much bigger issues for a much longer time... There was one man who has been battling the illness for 25 years--remarkable spirit who has been there, done it all, and survived... There was another man who has a wild collection of cancer variations... He discovered, to everyone's sadness, that his federal forms for reimbursement had not been filed--and that it will take a while for them to be filed, processed and for him to collect and funding... He was quite upset and angry--and the turmoil between him and staff tsunami-d throughout the facility... Each person/family/caregivers have a riveting story of how they came to be in that room today--and then the next group of 9 take over the afternoon...

I did 5 of the boxing sessions (RSB) over the past week... and carefully watched my nutrition... and slept a fair amount...

So I begin week two of the adventure--and look for the story of the disappearing mass to continue...