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Another anniversary, come and gone

I just realized my 7th anniversary of being diagnosed with Mantle Cell Lymphoma, has come and gone with barely a notice. And with the exception of the very recent passing of Dan Seals, of England Dan and John Ford Cooley fame, I might not even have thought of it at all.

Dan Seals was only 61 years old (a mere 4-1/2 months older than me), and he died of Mantle Cell Lymphoma, after receiving a [reportedly] experimental stem cell transplant, at the NIH in Bethesda, MD. He was diagnosed in August 2007.

It's just serves as a stark reminder of how cruel life can be sometimes, and how fortunate I have been these past 7 years.
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Alan P, MD said…
I'm sure you're glad I was right, but when you were first diagnosed and told me you thought you had about a year, I told you that was B.S. That you'd be around for a long time.

I'm telling you that again. You're not going anywhere.

I say that partially because I believe there are probably 10 undiagnosed cases for every diagnosed case of MCL walking around who don't know it and are diagnosed in the terminal stages, so the statistics look like the prognosis is grim.

Had you not been having routine checkups you would probably still not know that you had it. Wouldn't surprise me if the real average lifespan of an MCL patient is more than 20 years.

I suspect you won't agree, but those are my thoughts.
8:59 AM
Marc said…
I now believe there is a lot of truth to that statement. I'll even bet it goes for a lot of other cancers as well, not just lymphomas.

But I always knew you were smarter than me! :)
9:16 AM
Alan P, MD said…
Not smarter, but more experienced reading the medical literature (I was known during my GI fellowship for being the best at tearing apart articles and studies that were published in the New England Journal of Medicine (one of the best peer reviewed journals), and of course more experienced dealing with "lots of patients".

As to whose smarter, that will have to be judged by factors outside of medicine . (Hey, your comment section doesn't have smileys!)
9:29 AM
Marc said…
You just have to know what code to use.

Click here for a list of WordPress default emoticons.
10:01 AM
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