My story is long. In June 2021, I had two lumps on my back. At first, my heart doctor (I have a defibrillator) thought it was muscles protecting my spine, but he referred me for a biopsy just to be sure. The biopsy showed I have large B-cell lymphoma (LBCL). Then I met with an oncologist, and we had a chemo plan, but because of my heart damage, I had to try a lighter version. It worked for a while, but after one of my PET scans, my cancer came back after being in remission. So, then I tried more infusions, but they didn’t work too well.
I was then referred to the University of Minnesota for possible CAR-T therapy. When I went there for the initial consultation, I was very sick, so I was given 15 tubes of blood and sent to the emergency room at the UofM. I had a serious infection. Anyway, after a few visits to their ER, I had my teeth pulled because they caused my infection. Then I was approved for CAR-T therapy. They took out my T-cells, which took 6.5 hours, and they were sent to a lab somewhere. After four weeks, they came back, and the cells were put back into me. I had to be monitored closely, and the room I was in at the hospital had its own air filtration system. I couldn’t be around dust, pet hair, etc. After one week in the hospital, I was discharged to Hope Lodge, which was close to the hospital because I lived 200 miles away, and I had to be within 30 miles of the hospital. After three weeks there, I was discharged to go home. After a PET scan showed the cancer was gone, I was doing okay. Two months later, the cancer returned, so I was put on oral chemo and an immunotherapy infusion. The chemo made me really sick; I almost died. After five months of oral chemo, I quit the chemo and just went on immunotherapy infusions every two weeks.
After some rough patches, I have now been in remission for over nine months, but I still do immunotherapy every other Wednesday with minimal side effects. In a nutshell, that is a condensed version of my life with lymphoma.
Dennis
large B-cell lymphoma (LBCL)
