Update and Today's Science Lesson: Flow Cytometry

Today's science lesson was inspired by a nice phone call I got from the lovely Valentine, Dr. Sedaghi's nurse. She called to tell me that after talking amongst themselves, the doctors and surgeons decided to go for another Fine Needle Aspiration (FNA) rather than an open biopsy under general anesthesia. I am fine with that because a) no anesthesia and b) everyone's 99.9% sure it's relapsed so why put me through an unnecessary surgery? oh and c) no new scar. I have plenty.

At this point, because of the strong evidence in the PET scans, if any Reed-Sternberg cells show up in the FNA samples, that's that. I will get a bone marrow biopsy to make sure there's no marrow involvement, then ICE salvage chemo followed by an autologous stem cell transplant. I have asked if we can start in July so I can have some time to get things settled at work and home, and so far they're on board.

Anyway, along with my FNA I will be getting "flow cytometry." Now, I have gone through a few interesting procedures, but hadn't heard of this one. Valentine assures me it's non-invasive, but I still felt the urge to google it. Turns out it's just some machine they are going to use to check out the cells, but it sounds pretty cool.

Here's the link:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flow_cytometry

Hope you enjoy!!

I will report back tomorrow. Saif is going with me for the FNA. It doesn't feel very good (but relatively speaking... it's a breeze), I just need a hand or two to squeeze and some loving attention! :)