Round Two: New Attitude, New Hairstyle

 As I near the start of my second round of r-chop, it's hard to believe that round one was less than three weeks ago. On the day before my first infusion, I had to page my oncologist for some stronger narcotic painkillers. The walk from the waiting room to the exam room on that Tuesday was more a shuffle than a walk. And I had no idea when I would start to feel better. After a long fe weeks, it felt like I was at the bottom of a very steep hill, with little energy and no view of the crest. 

Today, I went out for my second run of the week. Granted, it's about two minutes off my normal pace and less than half the distance, but I'll take it. I worked the full week, at full strength; went out to dinner for Matt's 21st birthday (outside, of course); and, I've got a new haircut to boot, as my hair started to clump out last Wednesday, as somewhat expected. I'm on no meds to speak of and looking forward to getting round two in the books.

Less than three weeks. 

It's good to keep that in mind as I head into subsequent treatments, be it r-chop or whatever comes ahead. That may be an autologous stem cell transplant (some good background info on transplants here) if the r-chop achieves full remission; or it may be Car-T cell Therapy if we only see partial remission. Car-T is a relatively new and exciting treatment option (more on that here.) 

Time will tell which option is the path forward. We'll do scans after round three. Until then, there's nothing to do but wait and see... and remember that a lot can happen in a few weeks.