February 20:
Jennifer completed her six cycles of chemotherapy and now she can look forward to her hair beginning to grow back - cause for celebration in itself! After completing the chemotherapy, two scans were taken (a PT scan and a CT scan). They were both good news. One revealed a very small remnant of the tumor (doctor's tell us that it is common for scar tissue to remain and that this is likely what they see in Jennifer); and the other revealed that there was no active lymphoma in the tissue. Months of fervent prayers have thankfully been answered. Praise to God and thanks to the many friends and family who have so very consistently lifted Jennifer up in prayers.
Jennifer will begin radiation next Tuesday (Feb 24) and will go each week day for four weeks. Barring any complications (none are anticipated by the doctors at this point), Jennifer will complete radiation in a month and then not have to return to the doctors for another visit for 3 straight months! PLEASE continue to pray for Jennifer's complete restoration. She remains confident that her recovery has been far more attributable to prayers than anything else.
December 17:
Great news at the doctor today!!! In reviewing the CT scan today we now know that the tumor shrunk SIGNIFICANTLY - from around 5 x 11 cm down to about 2 x 3 cm last week. The plan is to continue the course of treatment (now down to 2 more cycles of chemo and then a month of radiation). They will need to repeat the scans and tests at the end to ensure that the treatment has completely ended the lymphoma symptoms and if so, they can just monitor her and she can return to her normal lifestyle.
She has lower white cell counts each cycle and so they have added a self-injected treatment for this current cycle she has just begun and the remaining two in order to stimulate her body's production of white blood cells.
Jennifer wants to thank everyone for their fervent and continued prayers. They have meant more to her than you would probably imagine. Praise God!
November 22:
First, an apology for the gap in updating this page. At least one update was lost between Flint's email and updating of this page, but this will hopefully fill in some of the gaps:
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Kaiser referred Jennifer to
the oncology department at Stanford. Stanford was able to ascertain that
Jennifer's lymphoma is stage 4. They were very clear and encouraging to
note that stage 4 for Jennifer's particular lymphoma (as diagnosed by Kaiser)
is not as catastrophic as if her cancer were breast or lung cancer.
Stanford would need an extensive evaluation in order to rule out Hodgkin's,
but cautiously indicated that they didn't think it would turn out to be
Hodgkin's. |
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Jennifer has completed two
cycles of chemo and will begin her third cycle next week. Her first
cycle was very manageable during the injections, however she got sick during
the portion of the cycle where her immune system was lowest. "After a
mad dash to ER where we spent the night while they checked every vital sign
she had and were convinced that the antibiotics were sufficient and that her
fever would remain below the critical level (100.5 - it's engrained in our
psyches now)" |
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Her second cycle during the
injections was much more traumatic than the first and she felt indescribably
wacked out by the drugs. However, after those first few days, she has
remained healthy and we've noted that her cough (the only real symptom she had
for her tumor) has virtually been eliminated. |
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Liz Bishop
(LizB@Heffgroup.com) from our church
has graciously sought donations to help defray the financial impact (and to
hopefully allow for uninsured tests/procedures - such as the extensive
evaluation by Stanford - otherwise unrealistic for the Christensens' budget).
For more information, please feel free to contact her. To make a
donation, direct your gift to: |
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Jennifer's mother Patricia has traveled multiple times from Southern California to be with Jen during the intense times of chemo. In order to be a more constant support to Jen, Patricia has changed jobs and will be working a new job in San Francisco. |
We thank you for your continued prayers and love.
October 16:
Our visit to the doctor today was unwelcome news. We were prepared for an update whether the diagnosis was Stage 2 or at worst case Stage 3. The bone marrow test was able to rule out lymphoma in the marrow which was very good. Two other things were actually worse though than if the marrow test would have been the problem.
Her LDH level is too high which despite the possibility of her being stage 2, reduces her survivability to 5 years at 70%. Further complicating the matter, the PET scan showed "cloudiness" on her lungs. This could be either inflammation caused by rubbing against the tumor on the lymph nodes, or it could be the lymphoma on the lungs themselves. This would then be classified as Stage 4 (because of the high LDH levels and involving multiple organs) and her survivability to 5 years drops to 50%. Further, her chance of recurrence (cancer coming back after chemo kills it this time) is greatly increased because of today's news as well.
We thank you for your continued prayers and love.
October 4:
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What we’ve learned |
What it means |
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Jennifer has been diagnosed with B cell lymphoma – most likely stage 2 |
The size of the mass and how it involves several lymph nodes makes it stage 2. Worse than stage 1 (which would be an isolated lymph node) but better than stage 3 (which would involve other regions of the body). The doctor is very optimistic that it is not stage 3 but will not know that for sure until the results of the bone marrow biopsy from yesterday and the full CT scan from this morning results are back. We will not likely know the results until Thursday, the 16th. The chemo treatment is the same for either stage and so it’s nice to put the whole stage 3 question on the shelf for another week – PLEASE PRAY FOR STAGE 2!
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The mass in her chest is 10 cm |
This is rather large and not good, however it is not overly alarming to the doctor
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Jen has many positive factors in her favor |
Because she is young, in good relative health she should reasonably tolerate the chemotherapy and radiation without over taxing her heart and other organs. The odds are at least 75% for survivability beyond 5 years – and those go up significantly when it’s verified to be stage 2 and stage 3 has been ruled out.
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Jennifer begins chemo next week |
The infusion dept will call her in the next day or two and schedule her first appointment. Chemo is performed in “cycles”. A cycle would be a complete round of drugs and recovery. Here is the outline of her cycles – Day 1 – Rituxin / Day 2 – off / Day 3 – A cocktail of four drugs known by the acronym of CHOP / Day 4 – 7 a steroid and then days 8 through 21 prescriptions to control / mitigate the body’s reaction to the chemo. That would be one complete cycle. Her chemo will most likely be from 6 – 8 cycles. Her hair will fall out – but grow back later and she must avoid infections AT ALL COSTS! If she has a fever over 100.5 for even an instant she must immediately go to the ER. So minimizing her exposure to infections of any kind will be paramount for the next six months.
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After chemo comes radiation |
We’re sketchy on the details at this point – still getting on board with chemo right now – but radiation is much shorter time frame – only about a month and it immediately follows the chemo
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We expect Jennifer to recover |
We are putting a calendar together to track all of the treatment items. We want to make sure #1 that we never over look anything in the process and ensure it happens on schedule. Also #2 we want to create a visual sense of accomplishment as Jennifer can scratch out each needle poke etc along the way. At the end of the calendar will be Jen’s “return to day to day living” day. We pray and expect to see that day!!!
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