Here we go again...

   We are very grateful that Ben could start chemotherapy again tonight after a delay of 3 weeks. His new regime is called "dose adjusted EPOCH" where EPOCH stands for the five drugs involved (along with antibiotics and other pills and potions to deal with bugs and side effects.) Today his doctor confirmed what we knew; that his spleen was cancerous. He also confirmed that the biopsy of the liver showed that it too was affected. This is not surprising but it is discouraging. So at this stage we hope that the new and more aggressive therapy will force the lymphoma into remission. Then after one or two rounds of monthly chemo followed by a month or so of recovery Ben should be ready for a bone marrow transplant.
   Meanwhile he has heard that his application to study medicine has not been initially successful although further offers will be made in the next month or so. You can imagine that this leaves Ben in a state of chaos and uncertainty.