Quote:
I may have made myself worse today by reading back through our old emails

Gee, ya think?????? We all do it sometimes, but the result is NEVER a good mood!

So sorry to hear about your brother's lymphoma. Here's one (rather convoluted) chain of thought for you, so bear with me:

- Remember how I suggested your son should be tested for celiac disease (gluten intolerance) because of the association (5%) with Type I diabetes?

Well - predisposition to autoimmune diseases, especially celiac disease, runs in families.

Celiac disease is also known to increase your risk of various lymphomas, including the type your brother has. One reference states 44% of lymphoma patients have one or more types of autoimmunity.

The obvious (though unproven) corollary here is, if someone with lymphoma has undiagnosed celiac disease, would a gluten-free diet improve their chances of recovery - or is it too late once the cancer has started? No one knows the answer.

If it were me, personally, here's what I would do:
- have brother get checked for celiac antibodies (FULL panel, including anti-gliadin IgG and IgA as well as anti-ttg and anti-emsa).
- AFTER blood tests are drawn, have brother start a gluten-free diet (and casein-free too, for good measure, as there is some secondary milk intolerance in many cases of celiac disease). (Even if antibodies are negative, there is some small chance of gluten sensitivity being overlooked, and the stakes are high).
- have yourself and your son checked for celiac antibodies as well.

- give this reference to his doctor who probably won't know anything about the celiac-disease-lymphoma connection:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query...l=pubmed_docsum

- for yourself, here's a recent review of follicular lymphoma:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query...l=pubmed_docsum

BTW, the drug he is on has been pretty revolutionary in the treatment of non-Hodgkins lymphomas, has really improved the outcomes.

Hugs.

As for H - what is there to say? His usual response to stress, tension, or anything distracting your attention from him, seems to be the same. I know it's hard, but perhaps make an extra effort to give him some quality time, and/or simply let him know what CONCRETE thing he could do to make you feel better ("H, I'm sad today about my brother, I could really use one of your extra-special hugs").

Ellie